When you think of an artist, the common perception is often that of a lone individual working in a studio. That may be true in some cases. But in others, artists are part of collectives, such as FuzzPop Workshop in Milwaukee, which creates “interactive environments, large-scale sculptures and public artwork for things like music festivals and botanic gardens,” according to founder and artistic director Daniel Murray.
FuzzPop is just one of the many participants contributing artwork for the Lumenaura Festival in downtown Aurora — the name is a portmanteau of “lumen” and “Aurora” — which runs through Oct. 26 and features interactive temporary installations that light up in the dark.
“There’s a growing interest and demand for this kind of public art,” says Murray, “and there’s a lot of cool and exciting work that can be made with new technologies. Because there’s an appetite for that, it’s pushed us to create experiences that are immersive and that you can only experience if you’re there, not just passively looking at a screen.”
The FuzzPop installation is called “Threshold,” and it is a 3,500 square foot snake-like inflatable labyrinth-tube that winds and coils around in on itself, carving out barriers where none existed previously, which creates “these little spaces that you can move through and explore,” says Murray. “It’s the idea of transitional spaces — thresholds — and playing around with interiors and exteriors; are you inside this thing, are you outside of it?”
The piece was originally created for an event called ArtBlaze on the Beach in Milwaukee, in collaboration with architecture and urban design students at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. It’s made of a heavy-duty ripstop nylon (hand-painted, graffiti-style, by John Kowalczyk) and powered by air blowers. An interior lighting system makes it appear to glow at night.
“Because we knew it was going to be outdoors, we wanted something massive that takes up space,” Murray says. “And maybe more philosophically, we wanted to bring a sense of wonder and humility towards these technological and ecological changes that are happening all around us, so we created a large-scale piece that is meant to dwarf the viewer.”
“Threshold” uses the same fundamental principle as a bounce house to achieve its shape, but note: It isn’t intended to be used that way. At ArtBlaze, “people did sit on it,” Murray says, “but I wouldn’t want to encourage that. Sitting or bouncing on it can affect how it looks and moves in strange ways and it won’t stand in its proper mode.” That said, “It’s durable. We knew this might happen and we stress-tested to make sure it could handle that.”
It’s a delicate balance between wanting the artwork to exist as intended without turning off visitors who are being playful with it.
“We don’t want to scold kids for interacting with art. Kids want to bounce and jump on it, and we want the art to be accessible.”
The festival features multiple installations from artists across the globe who have incorporated technology such as interactive video walls, lasers and LED lights. A cylindrical pavilion-like installation called “Emergence,” by Loop, an artistic partnership between Harriet Lumby and Alan Hayes, is adorned with 75 mirrors that are lit up by a border of lights. It is meant to explore chaos and order because it reflects back not only the viewer but a version of the environment it is in, creating new ways of perceiving previously familiar sights (an effect perhaps not unlike that conjured by “Cloud Gate,” aka The Bean, in Millennium Park).
“Up-Next” is a sculpture by Oliver Lewis using recycled plastic to create the look of an old school television set that allows viewers to manipulate a kaleidoscopic light. “Echoes of Connection” by Dan Eller also plays around with a different totem of nostalgia, the payphone, which allows people to listen to, or leave, messages.
And for people living outside Aurora who plan to use Metra, a train car on the BSNF line will include its own interactive light sculpture suspended from the ceiling called “Lux Arcana” by Crystal Wagner and Logan Luckey, which uses “shifting color and illumination to create a dynamic sense of life and movement.”
The festival’s curator is Iryna Kanishcheva and her company, Monochronicle, puts together bespoke events like this for municipalities and other organizations that may not have the wherewithal (or desire) to organize them on their own.
As for the Metra piece, “This a very unique collaboration,” she says, “because trains don’t usually do artworks like this. It reacts and responds to people’s movements, so you can ‘activate’ it and play with it. You won’t be able to touch it, but if you raise your hands, the light will change and there will be a reaction to the movement.” Decorative lights outside the train car will make it obvious which one has the installation inside.
At the Aurora location itself, “Enchanted Oasis” by Jeff Cason and Brenda Pokorny projects nature imagery on the ground, with matching nature sounds as an accompaniment, as if it were a digital pop-up garden.
“We want people to feel like it’s a little island in the middle of the city,” says Kanishcheva.
Another installation by VisualPower is called “Bonfire,” with tubes that are “individually programmed LEDs that simulate the look of a bonfire,” Kanishcheva says. The illusion also includes a haze machine and another that pumps out a campfire smell.
“Our intention was to create the same sense of community that once existed when people sat around the fire together and shared stories.”
There’s some irony here; we live in a moment when people are pushing back on technology and looking for “real” experiences. So why not build an actual bonfire instead of a digitally simulated one?
“I love this question,” Kanishcheva says. “First of all, safety reasons.
“But also, it fits in with the festival’s theme of convergence. We want to connect the past, present and future — so that’s why we have pay phones, an analog TV and this idea of the bonfire, but done in a contemporary way. We want to show that what’s important is the connection, and the way these things used to bring people together, and can still bring people together, through this artwork.”
The Lumenaura Festival runs through Oct. 26 in downtown Aurora, centered on Water Street Mall, 13 Water St., Aurora. The installations will be open to the public every day from 6-10 p.m., no tickets needed. For more information, go to experiencelumenaura.com/festival.