Coney Island Scan-A-Rama Launched on Kickstarter!

For Immediate Release
Media Contact: Fred Kahl | https://thegreatfredini.com/contact/
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fredini/coney-island-scan-a-rama

Artist to 3D Print Turn of the Century Coney Island… With YOU in It!

Brooklyn, NY. July 8, 2013 – Getting your portrait made at an amusement park has entered the 21st century with Coney Island Scan-A-Rama, the world’s first affordable 3D portrait studio. With the miracle of 3D scanning and printing, you can now get scanned and have your very own 3D Mini Me. The project is the latest brainchild of Coney Island sideshow veteran, Brooklyn based artist and impresario Fred Kahl, a.k.a. the Great Fredini. Kahl’s goal is to design and 3D print a replica of Coney Island’s famed Luna Park, as it stood a hundred years ago, and populate it with portraits from the studio.

“Coney Island has always been the place where cutting edge technology is presented as entertainment. Inventions like the elevator, electric light bulb, hot dogs and the rollercoaster found their first audiences here,” says Kahl. “I wanted to update the art of amusement park portraiture for the 21st century. In the past you would have had a caricature drawn, silhouette cut or a photo taken. Well, that technology has barely changed in 100 years… Until now!”

A graduate of New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, Kahl is the Creative Director of Interactivity and Gaming at powerhouse New York design studio Funny Garbage. Over the last few years, Kahl has been obsessed with 3D printing. He has created his own custom hardware and a workflow for creating perfect full body 3D scans using an Xbox Kinect game controller to capture the 3D image of his subjects. He is now ready to bring that technology to the public and is mounting a Kickstarter campaign to raise the $15,000 he needs to build a “bot farm” in support of his new venture.

The project is the latest in non-profit art center Coney Island USA’s Artist Incubator program. The Scan-A-Rama portrait studio will culminate with a 2014 exhibition of portraits in the miniature reconstruction of 2014 Luna Park. “Fred Kahl is a legend of sorts, with a legacy of bringing mind blowing and innovative projects to Coney Island, from Burlesque at the Beach to America’s Favorite Burlesque Gameshow – This or That!,” said Dick Zigun, the “Mayor” of Coney Island and the founder of Coney Island USA. “His latest undertaking will immortalize the actual fabric of our beloved Coney Island, and I urge everyone to support this fantastic project.”

For more information or to back the project on Kickstarter, visit: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fredini/coney-island-scan-a-rama

About Coney Island USA: Coney Island USA is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation based in the amusement park area of the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. In existence since 1980, Coney Island USA has developed and produces a number of different programs including some of New York City’s best-loved summer programming, such as the Mermaid Parade, the Coney Island Circus Sideshow, the Coney Island Museum, Burlesque at the Beach and the Coney Island Film Festival.