I’m not a big fan of the Omni Hotel, which I’ve called “booster kitsch”. My skepticism of these kinds of animated buildings dates to a Dallas Architecture Forum event a few years ago in which one of the speakers extolled the virtues of using building facades as new venues for advertising. It seems a logical, though repulsive, next step in the convergence of technology and consumerism: a world in which everything — including our homes or offices — is turned into an advertisement. Little can inspire quite like the sight of a Toyota logo scrolling across the face of the Dallas skyline.
On September 26, however, that changes — at least for a long weekend. That’s when the Omni’s digital skin will be taken over not by advertisements, but by video art, part of a kick-off event to this year’s Dallas Video Festival. The festival is calling the program “Expanded Cinema,” and on that day at 8:30 p.m. , the four curved walls of the Omni Hotel will become a digital “canvas” for fourteen artists. Sound for the installations will be simulcast on KXT 91.7, and the Video Fest promises to update their website with information about where to best view the program. In addition, “Expanded Cinema” will continue to play on the Omni from sundown to sunrise throughout the duration of the festival (which runs from September 27 through September 30). For more on that centerpiece event, as well as to see the festival’s full program, go here.
