The Portland Winter Light Festival celebrated its 10th anniversary with the theme "Into the Future." Held each winter, the citywide festival transforms Portland through a network of anchor venues and pop-up installations throughout the central city.

For the festival, DAO created Grand Projections, a light-based art installation that transformed the top floor of the historic Eastside Weatherly Building into a luminous beacon visible from across the city. Perched 12 stories above the street, the installation turned the building into a vessel of light, art, and storytelling. Located at the corner of SE Grand Avenue and Morrison Street, the Weatherly Building was developed in 1929 by a Portland ice cream magnate alongside the ornate Oriental Theater. Although the theater was demolished in 1970, its legacy and the stories it inspired live on. Drawing a connection between the site's cinematic past and its future, DAO projected a curated series of videos across the windows of the 12th floor, creating a dynamic composition of color, movement, light, and shadow.

Reimagining the movie-going experience for the public realm, Grand Projections extended storytelling beyond the confines of a theater. The installation could be experienced from multiple vantage points throughout the city, including the sidewalk below, neighboring buildings, nearby freeways and bridges, across the Willamette River, downtown Portland, and alongside other festival installations, inviting viewers to encounter the work in their own unique way.

Grand Projections was envisioned, curated, and installed by DAO with assistance from Ran Sheng.