Portland Winter Light Festival | Electric Boogaloo
For our second year participating in the Portland Winter Light Festival, Holst partnered with CymaSpace, a lighting technology developer, to create an exciting installation. The annual festival gathers local artists and designers to create public illuminated art installations.
Electric Boogaloo
Our team’s installation was in downtown Portland at the World Trade Center. Adjacent to Silent Disco, we created Electric Boogaloo, which visually responds to the music playing at Silent Disco by syncing up with the music from the DJ booth.
This made the sound-based event more accessible and inclusive to the deaf and hard of hearing, and also added an immersive, visual dimension to the event.
Concept
The team began working on the installation in October 2018, giving us four months to test ideas, fabricate the structure, and set up for the event. Electric Boogaloo is inspired by crystalline forms found in nature. Using the fiber optic quality of fluorescent acrylic, light travels through each horizontal plane of the structure and glows at the edges. The central structure, made of the material “Satin Ice,” has the opposite effect, diffusing the light to create an overall glow. A translucent fabric sleeve provides a final surface to capture light and project color on each facet. Vertical LED strips along the spine synthesize the music, with deeper and louder sounds appearing as warm reds and yellows, while higher and softer sounds are expressed as cooler blues and purples.
Creating an Interactive Installation
Our goal with Electric Boogaloo was to create an interactive experience, so we needed to create durable, accessible structures to create the installation.
Creation
Using Rhino modelling software, we determined the gradient spacing of the horizontal planes, then laid out the patterns in 2D for a CNC router to cut. Small tabs at the corners of each plane correlate with slots in the vertical structure, and each piece was numbered to fit a precise location. Once we fabricated the hard structure of the pillars, the team assembled and disassembled the installation several times to test the fabric sleeves and refine connection details at the base. The lighting technology developed by CymaSpace was the perfect complement to the installation, furthering attendee interaction by connecting our installation to the Silent Disco. Mike Erspamer from Lightly Vital helped us optimize the fabrication of each piece for easy assembly and adequate bracing.
The Festival
The 2019 Portland Winter Light Festival ran for three days at the beginning of February. Despite freezing temperatures, the Festival drew crowds throughout the weekend. Attendees enjoyed dancing and taking photos of Electric Boogaloo, which was made possible by the collaborative efforts of our team and the strong partnerships in our community.
Holst will reassemble the installation at our office for our open house during Design Week Portland. The installation will also be featured at Pickathon this summer, a local music event.
