Before the invention of photography, an inexpensive & popular alternative to the painted portrait was the "cut-out" Silhouette. The Silhouette Project invites attendees to experience this classic medium by sitting in our custom designed 'back-lit' photo booth that takes a silhouette portrait and adds it to an ever growing collection of participants displayed on a nearby screen.
As only the attendee's silhouette is used - the activity is family friendly and both adults & children can participate. Participants are given also given thermal printout with a copy of their silhouette.
This project is built upon the success of Hands-Across which collected full body portraits of over 3,500 participants at the 2008 & 2009 Ingenuity Festivals, Found-in-a-Crowd which collected over 1,200 emotive portraits at the 2007 Ingenuity Festival, and the ongoing Mandalas Project which has collected over 6,000 Mandalas at various festivals.
The project was previewed at the 2013 CWRU Blue Block Party with a world premiere at the 2014 Cleveland One World Festival.
There are currently 929 Silhouettes in the project