For city planners and councils, constantly finding new ways to Improve a community’s economic and social growth is not an easy task. The best way to get people out of their homes and into the streets to interact with their neighbors and spend money at local businesses is to provide a unique experience that engages people of all ages. That is why communities are turning to experiential design events that use the new forms of art to attract hundreds of visitors and provide a major boost to the local economy. At Alt Ethos, we can help you make this type of event possible through the latest in modern entertainment and light art festivals. Learn more about this cutting-edge community experience and how to plan your own event:
If you have never heard of light art, or luminism, it is an art form where light is emitted from a sculpture to create a specific visual effect. Several light sources can also be used to create art on a surface. These techniques are often used in combination with local architecture for a highly visible final product. This type of art is creative, engaging, and a real crowd-pleaser.
While light art festivals aren’t yet commonplace, they are increasing in popularity as cities work to find new ways to attract visitors and engage residents. Hosting a light art festival in your city provides people a fun and interactive experience. It also puts your city “on the map” as destination for an extra-ordinary festival.
Tips for planning your festival:
Determine a best location – Because light art is often created by projecting light onto walls and other outdoor “canvases”, you need to choose a location with an ideal architectural landscape to accommodate a variety of light sculptures.The Sydney Opera House is one example of a unique building that provides the perfect venue for light art and while also challenging artists. Not every city is home to such an architectural icon, so keep in mind that plain white buildings will also provide plenty of space and can be used for light sculptures of all kinds.
You also want to take other logistical factors into consideration. Be sure to choose a place where road closures won’t cause too much inconvenience and visitors will have plenty of space to safely walk and shop vendors.
Create an application process – For your festival to be a success, you must invite a variety of light artists as well as other street vendors. Your artists are the backbone of the event while food trucks, charity organizations, and other vendors provide festival goers a variety of entertainment during their visit. Stick to an easy, clear application process that will streamline the organizational process of the festival.
Direct your proceeds – Most festivals include a vendor or artist fee to join, which is an easy way to raise money and eventually sell sponsorships for your event as it grows in popularity. You can use these funds to improve your community, fund other festivals, purchase light projections, or support the arts in your area.
Pick reliable partners – The more you are able to assemble a cohesive team, the better chances you have for success. Choosing partners for your website, event organization, PR, and other services will make the process easier and will ensure your festival continues to grow each year.
Provide your own immersive experiences for guests – Artists and vendors will make your event unique, but as the event planner or sponsor you can add your own immersive experiences. Experiences like LED sculptures and digital domes are popular in light art festivals, and will keep guests passively entertained while they view and experience the art and other activities at your event. You may also consider taking projection mapping to the next level and consider placing interactive projection mapping over existing murals to increase engagement.
Alt Ethos is a leader in creating immersive light sculptures and experiential designs you can use to light up your city for an interactive light festival. These sorts of events are novel, exciting and sure to boost your city’s overall economy if well executed. We can help provide the infrastructure for your event with light displays, stage designs, and more. Contact us today to learn more and get started planning your event.
Creating a high engagement museum exhibit with the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery
Background
The Fort Collins Museum of Discovery was looking to activate an old exhibit space into an engaging experience, so they turned to Alt Ethos to create a lighting instrument. The previous exhibit displayed a looped video about the music scene in Fort Collins with a set of couches for visitors to sit to watch the video. The exhibit was passive; they wanted an environment that captured visitors’ attention and pushed deeper engagement.
Fort Collins Museum of Discovery
Objectives
1.Create a unique instrument playable by multiple people at the same time.
2. Turn the space into an active experience that engages people of all ages.
Solution
Step 1: User Experience Research
The team began the journey with user experience research to better understand the community that enjoys the museum and the relationship between the vision of the organization, personas of the users, dynamics of the space, and interactions that connect people to the space and vision.
Step 2: Design
Paul and Ethan take a meeting to learn about the museum’s needs.
The design phase highlighted that the tucked away location of the piece was a unique opportunity to engage “sweater holder” parents as well that don’t often interact with the exhibits choosing instead to watch their children and sit off to the side.
The ideal interaction time was approximated around five minutes to ensure adequate flow throughout the other exhibits. The team moved forward with wireless sensing technology located overhead in the room to maximize the life of the exhibit by basing the interaction dynamics off of the position of audience members in the space.
Step 3: Development and Testing
A child dances among the lights, activating new sounds in the space.
The development and testing of the exhibit occurred in a series of sprints. The major benefit of the sprints was iterative testing of the sound curation because in generative sound environments it can be easy to be swept into a cacophony of sound.
Tuning the parameters to limit key aspects of the sound design along with smoothing sensor data was a major breakthrough in the design that pushed the aesthetic of the installation.
Step 4: Implementation and Delivery
Alt Ethos installed the installation over the course of two weeks ensuring that any major physical changes to the environment took place on the Mondays when the museum was closed.
An essential factor in a smooth delivery was remote access to the computers allowing for the team to make changes and improve the software while not onsite. This allowed for a faster delivery time and for changes to take effect rapidly during the installation phase.
Step 5: Evaluation
What formerly was a passive exhibit is now an active space for all ages.
The use of wireless sensing technology also meant that as soon as a person enters the space, they became part of the musical composition. After the implementation and delivery, this dynamic was identified as a key variable in converting passive adults to active participants in the museum experience.
Doing so created an environment ripe for more connections to the space that involved the whole family thus driving more memberships, donations, and buy in from the adults in the local community.
As a growing creative startup, finding a place to work and build in a rapidly growing city can be a challenge often overlooked. After working out of our home for over two years at The Commons on Champa we were ready for some growth into a space where we could work and build.
We still love The Commons and visit, hold events, or work there often. Searching for something at the scale we needed for the price we could afford was proving to be difficult. After scouring the market for a couple months our good friends at TVL Creative let us in on their secret.
They rented a space in an artist, maker, and creative workspace called Prism Workspaces. This conglomeration of a couple buildings sits on the outskirts of downtown just south of Mile High Stadium in an industrial park just a gust of wind away smells of greenhouses full of Colorado’s cash crop. The unassuming warehouse style buildings contain a labyrinth of workspaces for some of the most phenomenal creatives in Denver.
Outside of Prism workspace.
We moved into Prism in October of 2017 into a 1300 sq. foot unit for a fraction of the price of other spaces we had been looking at. Apart from the size, location, and price what has really excited me was the community and the passion people had for the work they did.
Day in and day out the noises from people building, and making things fills the air at Prism reminding us of the creative energy flowing heavily through the space.
This place is special.
In the social and political climate since the Ghost Ship fire, creative spaces have been uprooted in many places around the country. Makers, creatives, inventors, artists, and musicians have been reeling to find places to live and work since their displacement. The tragedy rocked the community and has touched many of our lives so very deeply.
Preventing something like that happening again is certainly important however the implementation of the enforcement has caused a lot of discomfort and even suffering among people in our community. Although Prism doesn’t solve any of the housing issues, the feeling of the DIY community workspace seems to thrive, while also maintaining a healthy relationship with the City.
The synthesis of professionalism and creativity shouldn’t be feared, and the feeling of the community can still flourish.
Our office inside of Prism.
After almost 8 months, we have really found a home at Prism. Our office and studio space allows for us to work together in a space we can be proud of. With ample space for desks and individual workspaces paired with a great meeting area and a large fabrication and build space, we have a natural and efficient flow to get a good volume of quality work built and designed. We have ample space to build out installations for testing or prototyping before we deploy final products.
Welcome to the Alt Ethos interactive installation factory.
Coming up 7 months after our first open house not long after we moved in, the Prism Community is hosting another open house. We are so excited to show you what we have been working on the past half of the year.
Please come by and see what we have in store for this event and also check out what our neighbors will have to show. The theme of this open house is Ultraviolet, so expect a lot of purple!
Come celebrate with us at the Prism Workplaces facility-wide open house to take in the work of talented artists, designers, and creatives. We are grateful to be a part of this community as we continue to expand our organizations into new possibilities.
The open house will be held on Friday, June 1st, 2018 from 5:30pm to 11:30pm at Prism Workplaces 999 Vallejo Street, Denver Colorado. Alt Ethos is located through entrance 2 at space #30.
