To all of you, we at Alt Ethos have been working hard to innovate solutions for this changing time. Communities and organizations around the world are at a high level of confusion, overwhelm, and disconnection. Like you, we had our times of frustration as we navigated the rough waters of the unknown. We also saw it as an opportunity.
Our communities are starting to come out of stay at home orders around the globe. How shall we experience community spaces and not end up on national news like the Memorial Day waterpark parties? Watching these gatherings can make you feel unhinged and afraid to engage. In this desire to re-open and reconnect with our constituents, we intend on providing flexible solutions that retain ROI if and when another wave of shutdown orders occurs.
That is why Alt Ethos has been doing research and design since the closing of the first major international event in the United States, SXSW.
During this crisis, that feeling of isolation can make everyone feel disconnected. If municipalities and corporations can’t find a way to safely connect with their constituents, they miss the chance to provide support and a sense of well-being.
Now is the time to step up and activate your communities and create the future of placemaking, entertainment, and advertising. A culture that is resilient, fun, and provides an opportunity for connection. It is our destiny as humans to create new solutions, visions, and activations to reinvigorate the next steps in social healing. It is the responsibility of our cities, our libraries, our public art, and our local businesses to reconnect with our communities.
Your contribution to the recovery of this crisis is going to be massive. You are creating the future of community building and entertainment. We know we are a small percentage of the population that imagines the future even in the time of a world crisis. We are looking for you to create, to connect, and to activate new solutions.
Get started by downloading our new Experiential Design Playbook. First, to get an idea of what is possible and mutable in uncertain times. Second, to increase the support your constituents feel connecting a greater bond to your city or your brand. Create activations that make your message easier to hear, simultaneously inspiring engagement and making a contribution to your community.
Learn all about our COVID re-entry experiential design solutions:
Alt Ethos, an experiential design company in Denver, was invited by Wade Troxell, Mayor of the City of Fort Collins, to proclaim October 15, 2019 as Empowerment Through Creative Technology Day. This proclamation has recently been enacted by the Mayor as a means to encourage citizens to explore the creative arts through technological applications and renew a sense of pride for the cultural diversity found within the community. The reasons for this proclamation and celebration of creative technology are many. Alt Ethos, a company at the forefront of a movement to bring creative technology applications to the mainstream, is supported by many fellow private and public organizations. The proclamation is in line with the Fort Collins Downtown Development Authority’s dedication to economic development through technology and creative arts. The Downtown Development Authority recently put its Downtown Alley Master Plan into place, which encourages the conversion of local alleys into interactive art and technologically-driven displays. These public arts not only offer free public access to an immersive, child- and pet-friendly experience, but encourages new storefronts due to greater economic activity in otherwise low-traffic areas. The Downtown Development Authority worked with Alt Ethos in 2018 to complete the first of many interactive wall murals in accordance with the Downtown Alley Master Plan. The murals, painted by local artist Peeta, were transformed by Alt Ethos into an animated visual display. Using projection mapping technology, passersby can control the movement of the mural through simple movements. The project, titled “Illuminous,” is free for pedestrians to experience and enjoy in historic Old Town. In light of the proclamation for Empowerment Through Creative Technology Day, Alt Ethos founder, Ethan Bach, is excited to advance several new projects for the company. They have recently entered and won a Young Industry Professionals Award for a similar public arts project, and in the past spring partnered with Anythink Libraries to openly construct an interactive sculpture, combining elements of sound, light, and motion to encourage young minds to explore the opportunities in design and creative technology.
Alt Ethos is currently accepting invitations for new interactive community and commercial design projects, aimed at connecting crowds to their surroundings in novel and powerful mediums. To learn more about Alt Ethos, visit their website at www.altethos.com or call their Denver office at 303-800-4243.
Denver experiential design studio takes home YIP award in experiential motion design for Greeley, Colorado Musical Hopscotch installation.
Denver, Colorado, November 5, 2019 On October 2nd, 2019, Denver Does Design hosted its inaugural Young Industry Professionals (YIP) Awards. The YIP Awards celebrate the achievements of young professionals in creative design fields. All award nominees and teams have less than 10 years of industry exposure, but are making great strides in innovation surrounding the Denver area. One such nominee and award winner, Alt Ethos, is proud to announce their recognition in the Motion category for an interactive public art display.
Alt Ethos is one of 13 YIP Award winners celebrated at the event this year. The interactive design company, founded by Ethan Bach, is made of several young designers who helped create their winning entry. Their Greeley Hopscotch project, which combined elements of motion and sound to provide an interactive hopscotch experience for Greeley-area residents, won the Alt Ethos team the award.
The Greeley Hopscotch project was nominated in the Motion category for Experience Awards at YIP. The Experience Awards were given to projects which offered interactive experiences to participants using creative design and technology elements. Other categories at the Awards included Everyday Use, Storytelling, Montage, and others based on projects’ creative and social impact and merit.
This Awards event not only spurred creative innovation from the local Denver young professionals community, but preceded a recent proclamation by the Fort Collins Mayor, Wade Troxell, to celebrate October 15th as Empowerment Through Creative Technology Day. Many of the projects presented at the YIP Awards featured creative and artistic design elements that further Denver and Fort Collins’ mission to be a hub of modern art and tech innovation.
Alt Ethos is one of many Denver-area organizations that celebrates empowerment and innovation through creative technology on a daily basis. Alt Ethos’ many community projects follow guiding principles to be inclusive, interactive, and novel in the ways they engage audiences through light, sound, and motion. As the YIP Award and other recognition of tech-centered industry growth emerge, the community goal to enhance the professional opportunity for creative arts and design will be met and exceeded.
Developing communities are a true artist’s dream. They are a blank canvas upon which creativity can be carved from nothing. The essence of public art especially fosters creativity in ways other art forms do not. Digital design, sculpture, and architecture can all create the groundwork for a community thriving in culture. However, planning and investment of creative resources must be utilized carefully to create public art that has meaning and impact.
What is Public Art?
Public art, simply put, is architecture, murals, sculpture, or digital designs that are created in the public domain. They are accessible to all and are used to create beauty and culture within an otherwise purely pragmatic space. Public art has been an important part of community development since the early 20th century. It can encourage collaboration and community involvement that provides a sense of pride to area residents.
Public art can include city sculpture, architecture, wall art, and other mediums accessible by the public. Traditionally, public art has included sculpture, murals, ecological design, and occasionally digital displays. However, in the digital age we are seeing an influx of interactive public art designed for user interaction, or experiential design. This trend is slowly but surely gaining traction in areas where community development takes on an innovative approach.
The Problem with Public Art as a Part of Community Development
Public art can contribute to culture and residential satisfaction, however in most community development projects, it is taken very lightly. Oftentimes the limited budget for public art is taken from the same budget that provides for affordable housing or roadway improvements. When residents see an eyesore art piece coupled with potholes and underdeveloped residential areas, public art can quickly turn into the lowest priority for community members.
Developing communities have the opportunity to make public art more than an afterthought.
Many developers don’t pay attention to the inclusion of public art, but it can make an impact on community areas if done correctly. An art piece that has cultural meaning, modern relevance, and interactive elements will be cherished by residents and worth the time and investment.
How to Make Public Art Valuable to the Community at Large
Instead of going the traditional route, many developers are leaning towards digital, interactive public art to include in their community projects. Experiential designs and digital media displays are modern, unique, and engage community members to give them experiences, not just stagnant aesthetics.
Creations of installation art, interactive architecture, interactive film, and interactive storytelling through digital landscapes all offer communities more to experience and enjoy. An interactive public art piece where residents can make memories, tell their own stories, and unleash creativity adds exponentially more value than a static piece commissioned by one local artist. With experiential design, community members become the creators. When this happens, public art matters.
These digital interactive pieces can transform an area into a more modern community. It attracts community members to otherwise declining economic areas, offering a springboard of inspiration to make more out of a community development project.
For examples of experiential design in community development projects and other public spaces, check out some of AltEthos’ current and past projects.
AltEthos works with community developers, landscape designers, and local artists to bring visions into interactive experience landscapes that can transform communities. Change the way people see, feel, and live in your community by adding real value in the form of public art. The change starts now with AltEthos.
Please join us on First Friday, November 2nd for our next open house! We are so excited to show you what we have been working on and celebrate fall with food, drinks, and community. Come see what we have in store for this event and also check out what our creative neighbors have on display.
Throughout the evening, we will be showcasing some of our latest and in-development works, as well as Virtual Reality Painting and Buzz Wire Game! You can also view the work of over 50 other artists and creative businesses. Meet the creators, learn about their behind the scenes processes and see their creative spaces in person.
There is no admission fee and plenty of accessible parking so that you can easily enjoy the best of the Denver creative community all under one roof. Music, libations (hot cocoa, anyone?), and interactive art – what could be better?
The open house will be held on Friday, November 2nd, 2018 from 5:30pm to 9:30pm at Prism Workspaces 999 Vallejo Street, Denver Colorado. Alt Ethos is located through entrance 2 at space #30. Don’t miss it!
For decades, murals have been an essential form of creative placemaking in urban spaces that are designed to brighten local communities through art. Alt Ethos is transforming the impact and nature of murals through augmenting them with projection mapping and real-time motion graphics. This synthesis of old and new combines visual artistry with state of the art technology to explore a new creative medium designed for public engagement.
Projection mapping casts pixels on a surface in a way that is similar to how a painter casts paint onto a blank canvas. Both techniques create beauty and evoke emotions, but the former offers its viewers the opportunity to imagine themselves within the canvas and experience visual content that is dynamic.
How Projection Mapping Works
If you’ve ever been to a movie theatre or watched a powerpoint presentation, you probably understand basic projection. On that most basic level, light is displayed onto a flat surface to produce an image or video. In projection mapping, the same concept is applied to 3D objects, creating visual content with an emphasis on 3D form.
Projection mapping offers the ability to turn a mural into a dynamic piece of video art during the night time hours. The murals can be as simplistic or intricate as desired and the visuals can be tied to a variety of interactions that connect the audience and surrounding environment with the placemaking activation.
This transformative creative technology opens immense possibilities to engage audiences and embrace the creative placemaking that has propelled many murals into the urban landscape. Now both a daytime and nighttime engagement are a reality.
At night, the piece transforms based on the motion of viewers as they pass – encouraging audiences to impact their visual experience through motion and the passage of time. This creates a “community first” dynamic, drawing audiences of all ages into an environment where they collaborate to transform a piece of architecture.
Alt Ethos Mural Project
This approach has been at the heart of Alt Ethos’ latest project, a nighttime interactive mural in collaboration with world renowned Italian artist Peeta. Peeta was the perfect partner for the first iteration of this new technology as his conic twisting forms, starting from a digital model, create a playground for visual content opportunities.
If you are interested in exploring the social and economic benefit of this new creative technology, please drop us a line at hello@altethos.com
