We’re looking to exhibit the VIXToscopes “I – Gateway” and “II – Infinite Recursion” at two different events this year (and hopefully, with more to come, like SeaCompression in October). The big focus, of course, is Burning Man 2024, but we’ve also been invited to exhibit at APOG — “Any Patch of Grass” — held the weekend of July 5th through July 7th in Darrington WA. This is a very cool, chill and friendly Pacific NW festival that features EDM, art, and community.
I am absolutely thrilled to have these opportunities to bring my art out into the public so that hundreds (and hopefully thousands at Burning Man) of people can experience them. Videos and pictures of the ‘scopes don’t do them justice — the physical reality of giant mirrors forming a kaleidoscope so big you can stick your head in, with the very trippy video and audio all morphing in realtime as you twist knobs is pretty overwhelming, and cannot be translated into the limits of a video.
I’m so psyched that Evan from APOG reached out a few weeks ago to see if we could bring VIXToscope I – Gateway to APOG, having seen one of my very few social media posts on Reddit. He was excited to hear about the new ‘scope as well, and it looks like we’ll be able to have both of them at APOG. I’d originally estimated the power draw to be <10A, but after last weekend’s calculations showed that it was more like 25-30A at full blast, I had some doubts about being able to fit into their hard constraint of 15A max for an art piece. The work on the LED power budget convinced me (and hopefully Evan) that we can fit within the power budget by running sparser and somewhat dimmer patterns.
I submitted my application to Burning Man Arts Support Services (ASS, yah) last week but hadn’t heard anything back about them accepting VIXToscope II – Infinite Recursion. No surprise, they’re swamped close to the submission deadline which is May 22. I emailed them today, and Brody was nice enough to give it a once-over and say he saw no problems with them accepting it once they clear the backlog, and said no worries about laying down the big bucks to buy all the material. He actually thanked me for getting the submission in a couple of weeks prior to the deadline; apparently, they get something like half of the applications on the last day, so I’m way ahead in the queue to get my art liaison assigned. For Burning Man, I’ll be powering with a generator, and given the power budget numbers, will get a 3kW gen (Honda eu3000is) so can run a bit hotter than at APOG. That will be very appropriate for the very over the top, very well lit BM experience!
I haven’t received “official” notices of “yes, you’re in, here’s your listing” from either [Update: accepted at APOG, thanks Evan!], but it looks like a very solid “GO!” for both, so that’s what all planning is focused on now.
For Burning Man, Gateway will be in our camp Airstreameri & Whatnot, usually around 4:00/G. It doesn’t have an official art listing, because its just a camp thing. The official ASS listing for Infinite Recursion is:
From afar, the 11′ tall triangular prism covered in subtle fractal patterns draws in the unsuspecting. Entering the structure yields cool shade and a view into a large round luminous oculus looking into a giant kaleidoscope. Placing one’s face into the oculus — actually inside the kaleidoscope — makes reality drop away: infinitely reflected morphing video images synced to an ever changing soundscape, all controlled and played by an inscrutable set of glowing knobs. Mind blown. Strange sounds and alien music hypnotically pulse to dripping, melting, glowing images, leading deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole. Lose track of time and space, emerge into the night to see the outside of the prism lit by thousands of dancing, pulsing LEDs.
For APOG, Gateway and Infinite Recursion will both be listed:
A gateway to a higher dimension: stick your head in the giant kaleidoscope, melt your face. Twist those knobs, twist reality. Why are all those cats looking at me?
A giant prism with 15,000 dancing, pulsing LEDs. Infinite kaleidoscopic reflections go down the rabbit hole. Strange sounds and alien music hypnotically pulse to dripping, melting images – mind blown. Remember what the dormouse said.
It’s a blessing to have APOG in July. It’s only seven weeks away, and we’re going to be RACING to the finish line to get things done, but its a great forcing function to actually get things done. The playa at Burning Man is much, much harder to deal with, so having a “shakedown cruise” in Darrington will really help us get things solid. Gateway’s video and music will be exactly what we had at Burning Man last year, but I’m absolutely positive that APOG will not have final music, video and LED patterns for Infinite Recursion — just preliminary versions of each, which will be cool but not as refined as at BM. The focus is to have all major systems at least functioning so people can enjoy the piece, which will give us important real-world feedback about things that aren’t quite right with enough time to fix and refine them before going into the desert.
I hope some of you reading this will get a chance to see these things in real life, and maybe even connect with me in person!
