London may be bracing itself for the excitement of the 2012 Olympic Games in two years time, but right now in Vancouver, Canada, the 2010 Winter Olympics are taking place. The Winter Olympic Games aren’t just about competitiveness, they’re also about installation art, water displays and projected images.

LiveCity Yaletown is a festival being held at the same time as the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and as a tribute to the Olympics a special Olympic themed show will take place each night during the games. LiveCity Yaletown will see many musical acts perform for the public, free of charge, but once the musical performances have ended at the end of each night, the Olympic Games will take centre stage and form part of a unique installation art experience.

The experience will consist of a fireworks and water display, using light and video projection. The fireworks will be set off every night as a video projection screen made of water is fired up into the air. The moving projection screen will then see video and images from the Olympic Games recorded that day projected onto it, as the screen waves and bends with the power of the water jets. The water powered projector screen will be 140 ft wide and 65 ft high and will be fired into the air by Falls Creek.

Scott Givens, the creative director of LiveCity, enthused about the video projector display:

You'll see some cool stuff happening around the Games.

The water itself comes from the pumping station, which is in place to guard against earthquakes. Givens talked about the projected images:

I get to have a hand in it. But a lot of it will have to do with what is really spectacular, what folks think is a great moment and what works on the water screens.

With such a public display of projected images, you can be sure that plenty of spare projector bulbs will be required to ensure that nobody goes home disappointed.