Snowday {Builders Association: Marianne Weems, Jeff Morey and Dan Dobson} Snowday encourages us to take a moment from the urban environment and simply enjoy an elemental experience: snow, which is often absent from urban winters. Using the floor of Grand Central Terminal’s main concourse as a stage, Builders Association filmed people from an aerial vantage point crossing the Terminal from all directions. As light snowflakes fall upon the crowds, people gradually indulge in more whimsical winter activities such as ice-skating and cross-country skiing across the floor, all amidst pedestrian traffic. Finally, the screen dissolves into a sudden blizzard of heavy snow and the fleeting window to this winter fantasy closes. Magic Scarf {C404: Yoshi Sodeoka, Jason Mohr, Melissa Dallal, Matthew McGregor-Mento} Taking inspiration directly from Grand Central Station, a place through which myriads of people travel during the holiday season, The Magic Scarf is the story of one boy's journey. Subtle movements and simple, colorful, nostalgic, geometric shapes illustrate this fable in which a boy’s seclusion leads him to follow migrating birds in flight across the ceiling of the main concourse, and ultimately to join them in their tropical destination. This parable resolves the distance between loved ones as only the holidays are capable of doing and reflects on our own desires for travel, warmth, and friendship. Mumble Rumble {Mumbleboy} Using his signature colorful, high contrast, and action-packed imagery, in Mumble Rumble Mumbleboy animates a variety of holiday themed characters and their adventures as they journey through his extraordinary world. Mumbleboy’s creatures somersault through numerous scenes at break-neck speed, allowing viewers to delight in a range of Mumble Rumble’s outrageous and festive scenarios that speak to the holidays. Oculus {Melanie Crean and Jordan Parnass} As viewers gaze in wonderment at the magnificent teal Sky Ceiling, Crean and Parnass’ Oculus tempts our imaginations with a star that begins to pulse. It then arcs as if it were a shooting star to the Ceiling’s center and expands into a large oculus, filled with an idyllic, bright blue sky studded with white clouds. Like that of the Pantheon, the oculus transports viewers elsewhere—almost to a state of reverie—while giving us the rare opportunity to view the sky uninhibited by the City’s skyscrapers. Several doves appear from the concourse’s upper windows and search the ceiling for an escape until they find the oculus portal and fly away. This magical vision ends as Oculus contracts into a bright point of light and then gently fades away. Starduster {KDLAB, inc.: Joseph Kosinski + Dean Di Simone} In Starduster, a custodian sweeps the stars on the Sky Ceiling of Grand Central Terminal’s main concourse. Equipped with a push broom, the custodian begins at one corner of the hall sweeping up flurries of “stardust” from the ceiling’s golden constellations. Slowly, he traverses the barrel-vaulted ceiling, occasionally pausing to rest on the handle of his broom or to lie down for a celestial catnap. After a second custodian appears, both workers open virtual trap doors and exit into the astrological scape. KDLAB’s Starduster explores how digital media can interact with the physical world and makes both the stars and our imaginations come to life. Glowball {Leo Villareal} Taking inspiration from the stars and constellations painted on the ceiling of Grand Central Terminal, Glowball augments this magnificent space with a series of computer graphic animations. Using particle systems technology, Villareal has created a video that appears chaotic but is at the same time ordered by an underlying system derived from physics. Some of the animations have a natural and organic feeling that suggest snow, rain, or the swirling cosmos. Others have a more geometric aesthetic, appearing as luminous spheres that pulse as they fold into one another and evoking the spherical forms of snow flakes and other natural crystals.