Client: The Village Stamford

Overview

A Collaborative, Digital and Handcrafted Art Installation created for The Village, in Stamford, CT. Inspired by The Village’s mission to become a new creative hub for connection, community and collaboration, “Moonbase” expresses this core message by bringing together three Stamford-based artists to create a one-of-a-kind collaborative art installation for their lobby. The form combines natural and digital elements that blend sculpture, video projection-mapping and sound design. Handcrafted materials made up of wood and steel display an elegant network of rings and lines. The design is inspired by the living network among trees in a forest, similar to the connections we have with one another. Throughout the day the sculpture is awaked with video projections which illuminate the sculpture with scenes from the surrounding local environment and will continue to evolve through the year and changing seasons. The music tells the story of the network communicating and growing together, expressing the power of collaboration to create something greater than ourselves.

Goals

Our goal was to create a piece of art for the Village's lobby that expressed their mission. The Village is a new creative hub for connection, community and collaboration. As artists, we had been friends for several years, but this was a first time collaboration between the three of us that would not have happened if it weren't for this commission. This collaboration enabled us to create something larger than we could have created on our own. Pushing the boundaries between the physical and the digital, blending traditional handcraft techniques with projection mapping, video and sound, we are very excited to bring these worlds together.

Process

Moonbase was created by three good friends, between two art studios down the hall from each other. The video and music was developed in the Danger Gallery, an immersive video art space, and the sculpture was constructed in Studio Andreas, a kinetic sculpture studio and wood shop. The sculpture was made up of several layered wood rings that were steam bended and connected with metal cables. The sound design was developed prior to the animation as a call and response between each of the sculpture's rings and cables. Animations were created in After Effects and synchronized to the music into a 5 minute looping video. Using a 6000 lumen laser projector and a pocket VJ, we projection mapped the video precisely onto the sculpture and illuminated each individual piece. As individual artists we come from very different creative backgrounds with very different skillsets, and would never have been able to create this piece without the powerful combination of all three of us.