Friday, March 14, 2014

Fierce Acts of Innovation: Interactive Projects at spark! Mesa's Festival of Creativity


It's a tiny leap from being a passive observer to being part of the art-making at this year's spark! Mesa's Festival of Creativity. Festival-goers will quickly go from observing to participating in these interactive projects that blend art and technology.

Visit the south lawn of Mesa Arts Center each day of spark! to see Wonder Dome. An interactive performance platform created by Dan Fine takes traditional storytelling and turns it into an explorative mixture of hand puppets, digital puppets, live actors, movies, video games, with responsive visuals, lights and sound. Within the immersive space of Leo the GEO-desic-Dome, audiences of all ages can be a part of the story.

Then stop by the Amyloid Project at the Wells Fargo Stage Area. For this, urbanSTEW took inspiration from research done by ASU Physics Professor Dr. Sara Vaiana. This research focuses on Intrinsically Disordered Proteins (IDPs) which help us better understand amyloid diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and diabetes. To bring awareness and understanding, the group constructed a large steel sculpture modeled after these proteins. The piece is an interactive sculpture by day, and on Friday and Saturday night at spark! After Dark this figure will turn into a multimedia performance including light projection, sound and original dance.


spark! After Dark will continue to bend your pre-determined ideas of light, sound and how we can interact with technology. As you walk through the campus at Mesa Arts Center, an interactive projection will be displayed upon the theater windows. These projections create the image of a crowd of people observing something that is unknown to the bystander, you. These projections will then respond to you in a number of ways. It’s You, as the project is titled, is by Karolina Sobecka, and it explores public behavior and social actions.

For more interactive lights and sounds, the Alliance Stage will be featuring DJ David Last with visuals by Glowing Pictures. Glowing Pictures is a company pioneering in visual performance who have collaborated with Kanye West, Paul Oakenfold and Outkast in their concert performances. A customized experience is created by an immersive, interactive, and responsive atmosphere full of lights. Three installations will take place to light up Mesa Arts Center; Dance Lighthouse, Geo Dome Projections and Digital Light Painting.


Fractured Future is an interactive VJ experience at spark! After Dark by Moheeb Zara. As you step into a console, you pilot a digital ship and create a visceral soundscape. Digital imagery and moving visuals that you control are viewed on a projection map.

All of these installations, along with many others at spark! will envelope you in a new, visually stunning world where digital art and culture come to life. Don’t miss all of the excitement and much more!