By Graham K. Rogers

It used to be the nobility or royalty or even, in some cases (like Mozart), church leaders who were supporters of the Arts. Now, while there are some wealthy individual patrons, many corporations use their positions to sponsor environmental and artistic endeavours.

Epson corporation has long been a supporter of programs that benefit others. Examples include

• The protection of raptors in Croatia;

• An environmental photography exhibition on the shores of the Baltic;

• Involvement in the Batam Environmental Program (Indonesia); and

• Photo printing solutions for a student gallery at Bathhouse Studios with NYC SALT.

Epson has recently announced that it is joining with the Bremen Urbanscreen Artist group who are presenting their "320° Licht" installation at the "Der schöne Schein" (The Appearance of Beauty) which is being held at the Gasometer Oberhausen between 11 April and the end of the year.

The Urbanscreen exhibit is highly technical and requires the use of 21 projectors, which have been provided by Epson:

Epson's installation projectors will run for more than 230 days and for over eight hours a day at the Gasometer. Seven projector towers, each with three Epson EB-Z10005 10,000-lumen projectors, have been set up inside the Gasometer to illuminate the interior walls, which reach a height of over 100 metres.

In similar way to how the Roundhouse and the former Battersea Power Station have been transformed into centre-pieces for the Arts, the 117.5-meter Gasometer Oberhausen was operated from 1929, but became a cultural icon in 1994 after it was decommissioned (1988).

A video of the Urbanscreen Artists exhibit, powered by Epson projectors, is available on You Tube. If you cannot go to Der schöne Schein, at least run the video full-screen.

More information on the Urbanscreen Artist exhibit is available in the Press Release from Epson Global.

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand where he is also Assistant Dean. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs. He is now continuing that in the Bangkok Post supplement, Life.