Beyond the surface
East Coasters typically don't talk or think about Burning Man except in stereotypes, myself included. Until a project fell in my lap and I had an excuse to try something crazy. Beyond the Surface is an art installation that made its way to the 9:00 plaza in Black Rock City in 2017.
Beyond the Surface was conceived, designed, fundraised, built, installed and deinstalled in the span of 4 or 5 months. It's the brainchild of fellow Penn IPD student Zac Bensing and a collab with Phillip Chang. We handcrafted 150 individually-addressable LED-filled infinity mirrors and a 15 x 15 ft steel disassemble-able frame in Reno, NV. Then we hauled it to festival location in the desert. One part code, 3 parts fabrication, 10 parts crazy. Beyond the Surface is an art installation built out of the fury and imagination of a wild idea that fell on a rocketship. Would I do it again? Of course! but now I'm all the wiser.
Collaborators:
Beyond the Surface spurred the creation of PXL Lab, our creative lab space to work on this and other passion and side projects in hopes to find some new pathways into art/tech/design worlds.