Spectacle Society

There are few things better in this world than getting to make art with people you enjoy hanging out with. In 2023 and again in 2024, I got the chance to do two immersive and interactive art shows with this crew.

In September 2023, we transformed the back deck and surrounding lot around Torn Label Brewing Co. into an immersive art experience. For this show I created an interactive music creation piece called FRENS (Frequency Resonators Emitting Noteworthy Sounds). You can learn more about how I made it here

Projected onto the side of a truck trailer were spherical creatures that emit tones when they bounce. Visitors could change their speed and bounciness as well as set the chords that they play together.

In September of 2024, we did an entire gallery takeover in the Crossroads. The entire space was just barely 20’ x 40’, yet we managed to create three distinct worlds in the space.

For this show, I created a mirror that contained a friendly creature named Miragia who would appear from time to time and chat with guests. I did the fabrication, tech integration, design and software development for the piece.

We had hundreds of people visit the exhibit and it was SO FUN watching people explore all the surprises hidden around the space. Here’s a video tour of the work.

Here’s an early test of Miragia, (before she was able to say much). The piece is based around the simple idea that you can put a display behind a two-way mirror and if you do it right, only the brightest elements on screen show through, making it appear as though the screen content is floating on the surface of the mirror.

This is probably the most fun a 22“ LG commercial signage display ever had!

I would never call myself a real woodworker, but I really do enjoy it.

This is the entire gallery on the day we started loading in the show. It was a crazy amount of work, but it was absolutely worth it.

And here is Miragia at her home on the living room wall. I kept it simple and used a Raspberry Pi for video playback.