Since 2004, I have designed projection experiences for theater, dance, and live music\u2014work that spans traditional screen-based setups, floor projections, and complex projection mapping onto custom-built surfaces. My approach ranges from precise cue-to-cue synchronization, where every visual shift aligns with a lighting cue or musical phrase, to real-time video jockeying that responds to performers in the moment using live camera feeds and generative imagery. Each mode demands a different kind of listening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I began this practice at Denison University with “The Death of Ivan Ilych,” a three-screen projection setup unusual for a small black-box theater in 2004. That production established a core principle: projection in live performance is fundamentally collaborative. The technology serves the director’s vision, the performers’ presence, and the audience’s experience. Over two decades, this approach has guided projects as varied as “CONTAINED,” a robotic four-screen installation that toured internationally to Dartington College, England; “Dreaming in Colours,” an eight-movement multimedia chamber work with composer HyeKyung Lee premiered at the Columbus Museum of Art; and the multimedia staging of Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” with members of the Columbus Symphony, where I created animated visual scores synchronized to each movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My work extends to professional companies including Terpsicorps Theatre of Dance, where I designed a three-screen projection environment for the world premiere of “Cleopatra” at the Wortham Center for the Performing Arts in Asheville. The production required digital scenography that transformed the stage into multiple ancient-Egypt environments, developed through techniques ranging from traditional compositing to generative AI approaches designed to echo painterly theatrical backdrops. This project exemplifies my commitment to designing projection systems that function as architecture rather than decoration\u2014immersive visual worlds scaled to professional touring venues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Recent collaborations with theater director James Dennen have expanded this work into mixed realities. “Like Leaves. Like Carrots.” at the Wexner Center for the Arts combined life-sized marionettes, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence in response to Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot.” In that production, projection became not scenery but a dramaturgical layer, shaping the logic of the world alongside puppetry, robotics, and spoken word. The question driving that work\u2014whether human creativity still matters at the edge of technological innovation\u2014continues to inform every collaboration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My contributions have been recognized with Columbus Alive’s “Best Stage Design” award and multiple Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Awards. As Director of Collaborative Technologies for the Fine Arts at Denison University since 2001, I maintain a practice grounded in experimentation and partnership across artistic disciplines, working with both emerging artists and established professional companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whether designing digital scenography for a touring ballet company or projecting generative visuals behind a string quartet, my aim remains consistent: to create images that breathe with the performance rather than overpower it. The projector is an instrument. The performance is the music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Contemporary Sounds Concert<\/strong> (Feb 4) Featuring guest artist Timothy Hagen, flute and electronics, and accompanied by visuals created by Chris Faur, director of collaborative technologies for the fine arts, Denison\u2019s annual Contemporary Sounds concert series explores the art of storytelling through music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n https:\/\/denison.edu\/events\/event\/159768<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Mareas\/Tides (Nov 5)<\/strong> Interdisciplinary performance combining dance, storytelling, singing, live music, visual imagery, and improvisation\u2014tracing island cosmologies and diasporic sea geographies (Caribbean\/Atlantic\/Pacific) through the gravitational pull of the moon. Projections function as a narrative layer alongside the live score and performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n https:\/\/wexarts.org\/performing-arts\/marion-ramirez-and-ojeya-cruz-banks Like Leaves. Like Carrots (Jan 12, 13) Interdisciplinary performance responding to Beckett\u2019s Waiting for Godot in \u201cmixed realities\u201d (virtual + actual), with \u201cinterference from artificial intelligence.\u201d The piece uses puppetry, robotics, spoken-word storytelling, VR, choreography, and machine intelligence\u2014positioning projections\/virtual scenography as a core dramaturgical layer rather than \u201cbackground.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n https:\/\/wexarts.org\/performing-arts\/james-dennen-christian-faur-brianna-rhodes-michael-blakk-sun-powell-and-ethel<\/a> I Exist Project (Feb 2) Contemporary Sounds concert collaboration combining live performance with your visuals in Sharon Martin Hall (Eisner Center), built as an integrated music-and-image event rather than accompaniment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n https:\/\/denison.edu\/academics\/music\/wh\/152736<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Critical Theory 1 (May 8, 2023\u2013Jun 30, 2024) Virtual theater documentation\/loop exploring real-time collaboration in VR through interdisciplinary improvisation; uses theory-focused prose (Pierre Bourdieu) as stimulus for embodied performance in a virtual environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n https:\/\/wexarts.org\/performing-arts\/james-dennen-and-molly-shanahan<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Unheard-of\/\/Ensemble \u2013 Ohio Tour (Nov 8) Concert of new works from the Ohio Multimedia Call for Works (Johnstone Fund for New Music), pairing contemporary chamber performance with integrated video art as part of the program\u2019s commissioned multimedia framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n https:\/\/calendar.ohio.edu\/event\/unheard-ofensemble<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Cleopatra (Jul 27, 28, 29) World premiere contemporary ballet staged at the Wortham Center (Asheville). Five-screen projection system served as digital scenography, transforming the stage into multiple ancient-Egypt environments; visuals developed through a range of techniques including generative AI approaches designed to echo painterly set backdrops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n https:\/\/www.worthamarts.org\/events\/cleopatra\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n HERE US (Feb 23\u201325) Main-stage multimedia production at Denison\u2019s Eisner Center (Sharon Martin Hall): original student-created performance work across spoken word, movement, music, and media\u2014built as a hybrid stage language (live + cinematic + projected).<\/p>\n\n\n\n https:\/\/denison.edu\/events\/event\/146831<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Like Leaves. Like Carrots. \u2014 work in progress (Jun 2, 3) Early live development showing of the VR-supported response to Waiting for Godot, staged in mixed realities and shaped by AI as part of the Wex residency pipeline that later led to the 2024 main performances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n https:\/\/wexarts.org\/performing-arts\/james-dennen-and-molly-shanahan<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n HERE US (Mar 4) Student-written multimedia performance foregrounding joy, vitality, and complexity through spoken word, music, dance, and digital visual art. Credited role includes video projection design and editorial integration for performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anti-gravity Donuts: Performance and Mixed Realities (Jan 18\u2013Jun 30)<\/strong> Wexner Center-supported virtual exploration focused on improvised live performance in tension with virtual reality\/digital life onscreen. Credited roles include technology design, Unity programming, and editing\u2014building the virtual performance container and shaping the final media form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n https:\/\/wexarts.org\/talks-more\/james-dennen-anti<\/a> Anti-gravity Donuts (Apr 10) VR performance moment referenced in project documentation, emerging from pandemic-era constraints and pivoting toward embodied presence and shared-space \u201crisk\u201d through virtual staging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n https:\/\/wexarts.org\/sites\/default\/files\/anti-gravity_donuts_transcript.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Vivaldi \u2013 The Four Seasons (Sep 22)<\/strong> Multimedia chamber concert with live VJ visuals and poetry. You created 12 custom photo-montage visual movements (one per musical movement), pacing visuals to tempo\/structure and aligning imagery to the seasonal arc and spoken text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n https:\/\/www.christianfaur.com\/NewSite\/2019\/09\/21\/a-new-twist-on-vivaldis-ubiquitous-four-seasons\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n I Become We (Nov 8\u201310)<\/strong> Denison Dance Fall Events pairing two works across two spaces: In This Together (Mulberry Gallery, 5:00\u20138:00 PM) and 4 = 1\u03a9 (Doane Dance Performance Space, 8:00 PM). Your contribution provided technical expertise supporting the productions\u2019 multimedia\/production needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n https:\/\/denison.edu\/academics\/dance\/wh\/128949<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dreaming in Colours (Feb 15) Eight-movement multimedia chamber work blending acoustic instruments, electro-acoustic elements, colored lighting, and video projection; includes a title movement featuring computer-generated music and an original animated film by Faur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n https:\/\/www.owu.edu\/news-media\/details\/ohio-wesleyan-music-department-presents-dreaming-in-colours-feb-15<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dreaming in Colours (Oct 12) World premiere of the commissioned multimedia chamber work at the Columbus Museum of Art (3:00 PM), followed by a talkback with the artists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n https:\/\/news.wosu.org\/classical-101\/2014-10-09\/free-world-premiere-of-multimedia-musical-work-sunday-in-columbus<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n [Stop Sign] language (Mar 18\u201327)
Sharon Martin Hall, Eisner Center
Christian Faur (visuals), Timothy Hagen, flute (performers)<\/p>\n\n\n\n2025<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Marion Ramirez, Ojeya Cruz Banks, Pete Mills, Christian Faur<\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/denison.edu\/events\/event\/159474<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n2024<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>James Dennen, Christian Faur, Brianna Rhodes, Michael \u201cBlakk Sun\u201d Powell, ETHEL<\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/denison.edu\/academics\/theatre\/feature\/152498<\/a>
https:\/\/wexarts.org\/press-release\/wexner-center-arts-announces-its-2023-24-performing-arts-seaso<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>Christian Faur (visuals), Denison University Department of Music (performers)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>James Dennen, Molly Shanahan, Christian Faur<\/p>\n\n\n\n2023<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>Unheard-of\/\/Ensemble, HyeKyung Lee (composer), Christian Faur (video artist)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>Heather Maloy, Terpsicorps Theatre of Dance, Christian Faur<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>Christian Faur, Thomas Mauney, Rebecca Baygents Turk<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>James Dennen, Christian Faur, Molly Shanahan, Michael \u201cBlakk Sun\u201d Powell<\/p>\n\n\n\n2022<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>Denison Theatre (students and facilitators), Christian Faur<\/p>\n\n\n\n
James Dennen, Christian Faur<\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/wexarts.org\/explore\/james-dennen<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n2021<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>James Dennen, Christian Faur<\/p>\n\n\n\n2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Sunday at Central, Jennifer Hambrick (poetry), Members of the Columbus Symphony (performers), Christian Faur (VJ\/visuals)<\/p>\n\n\n\n2018<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Michael J. Morris, Momar K. Ndiaye, Matthew Dixon, Christian Faur<\/p>\n\n\n\n2015<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>HyeKyung Lee (composer), Christian Faur (visual artist), The Canaletto Ensemble<\/p>\n\n\n\n2014<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>HyeKyung Lee (composer), Christian Faur (visual artist), The Canaletto Ensemble<\/p>\n\n\n\n2010<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>Eleni Papaleonardos, John Dranschak, Jeanine Thompson, Christian Faur
One-woman performance about communication systems, symbol literacy, and dyslexia\u2014using projection art as an integral theatrical language layer (not an add-on).
Award: Best Stage Design (Available Light Theater, 2010)<\/p>\n\n\n\n