Off-The-Grid

The following is a descriptive list according to our experience in Albuquerque and the surrounding mountain towns:

• Abundant Nature

• Mountainous

• Endless Sky

• Funky- think music… not scent

• Colorful

• Art-Filled

• Mystical

• Cozy

• Enlivening

• Dessert-Laiden 

• Quaint

• Awe-Inspiring

• Inviting

We landed in Albuquerque on a crisp, sunny morning after traveling through the night from Austin, TX. Though we were exhausted from the trip, elation quickly replaced our fatigue as we soaked up the sun and 360 degree mountain views. Since check-in for our lodging was after 4pm, we enjoyed a light hike followed by a brief tour of the outskirts of Albuquerque. We can safely say that in the state of New Mexico, beauty and majesty abounds. 

For our stay in the Albuquerque area, just as we had done in many cities along our journey, we arranged a barter deal with an eager Airbnb host. We meandered through the winding and rocky roads of the Sandia's, arriving to a bodacious off-the-grid home nestled in the mountains and complete with breath-taking views. 

(Side Note- if you are planning a trip to Albuquerque, you should absolutely stay in Bryan and Olivia's Cozy One Bedroom Apartment) 

As artists, we are frequently inspired by our immediate surroundings. Since the mountains were in sight at every turn, we knew with unwavering certainty that the mountain-scape was our next lighting subject. We decided on two light installations- one would take place after sunset, while the second would occur before sunrise- something we had never tried before. 

For our first light work, we traveled to the town of Jemez Springs in the Jemez Mountains. We chose a a popular mountain-scape site with a waterfall and cavernous rock formations. The location was easily viewable from the highway and featured an area to pull off the road.

Within minutes of setting up, cars begin to pull off the road. One by one they filed along the parking lane. At one point, there were so many cars lined up with lights on that we were unable to even take photos of the installation. In the case of some, curiosity led them to walk down into the caverns and sit amongst the installation. This was unexpected, though certainly welcomed. Eric, Dakota, and Emma- thank you for your adventurous spirit!

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As we already mentioned earlier, our second installation in the Albuquerque area tilted closer toward experimental. For the first time, we set up our light installation slightly before sunrise rather than after sundown. We decided to compose it inside of an old fire house situated on a peak in the Sandia Mountains. 

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The simultaneously subtle yet surreal qualities of working with the sunrise were a point of intrigue- something certainly to explore further!

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For those that have been following this lighting voyage, you know that Albuquerque is our second to last stop, thus the Kickstarter project will soon come to a close. Although Denver is our final destination and the last official light installation for "Traveling at the Speed of Light," we believe that people want to see more… we would LOVE to keep going all the way to the West Coast. Will you help us continue to make art open and available to anyone in the public who happens upon it?? We are accepting donations in exchange for prints, art books, posters, post cards, and calendars. If you thoroughly enjoy the work we make, THEN PLEASE DONATE TODAY! We will also be launching a Patreon page for any supporters who would like to become long-term Patrons. Our Parteon page will be introduced in our final blog post for the Denver light installation. Stay tuned… and … as always… thank you for your corroboration. 

Something Never Before Seen

On Saturday February 8th at around 7:30pm, we arrived in Yellow Springs, OH (Interesting note- this is the long time home of the very awesome Dave Chappell).

In many instances, we get to a city knowing the exact site we want to work with. Sometimes, however, we give ourselves a few options and then decide once we are in the city. In the case of Yellow Springs, we had two options. Our first option was the Glen Helen Nature Preserve- many people had asked us to light this area and we were quite fond of it as well (lots of great walks were had here). Our second option was not so notable. It was an old, abandoned covered bridge tucked away in the woods. We decided to first scope out this bridge. 

The bridge seemed like the perfect subject for a light installation, except for one thing… the weird late 90s SUV parked on the side of the road. We thought at first that the vehicle was deserted- then- we saw a lighter spark up. Someone was sitting stealthy in the vehicle. With great reluctance, we got out of our van, stared right at the man sitting in the sketchy SUV, and took the short hike in to inspect the bridge. It was pitch black, so we each brought a Light Drop to illuminate the way. We kept thinking, what is this guy doing here?? We arrived to find the bridge riddled with graffiti. The light shining on the graffiti admittedly was pretty rad. The sign on the bridge read 'Old Cemetery Road.' We shined our lights back towards the road to see if the SUV was still there. It was. What was this guy doing here? 

You know that part in a horror film when a group of people make a really bad decision and end up getting hacked up by a serial killer and audience all gasps and proclaims, "why didn't they get out of there?" Well… we didn't want to be THOSE people! So… we left and headed back towards the Glen Helen Nature Preserve. We made it out alive!

We were very familiar with the preserve and thought that a simple nature scene was in order.

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We got right to work in a creep-free environment. The preserve is nestled right in the heart of Yellow Springs across the road from Antioch College. Ultimately, we knew this was a better site- not only because it was safe, but also because it was truly more pubic. Thus, we got the opportunity to commune and meet some wonderful new people. One lovely lady was particularly enthusiastic about our work.

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Nikki Saadat made her way from across the street and greeted us. We talked for a while and promised that we would mention our conversation and her name. She told us that she was a student at Antioch studying political economy. She also worked for Glen Helen. When asked what her thoughts were on the project, Nikki exclaimed, "I have worked for the Glen Helen Nature Preserve for the last three years. This is unreal… awesome… something I have never seen before!" 

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With Bells On

Last week, we traveled to Savannah, GA in search a light-worthy site. Since we were unable to do our planned light installation in Southern Pines (security asked us to leave our designated site), we decided to do two separate light works in Savannah. We came to this charming southern river town thinking that we would do a light installation in the Bonaventure Cemetery. Instead, we were drawn to bells. 

The first installation was at the Old City Exchange Bell, one of three historic Bay St. Memorials. Believed to be the oldest bell in Georgia, it was imported from Amsterdam in 1802. For close to 100 years, the bell served as a fire alarm, was often used in celebrations and tributes for fallen heroes, and signaled the closing time for stores. Once an important contributor to the hustle and bustle of 19th century Savannah, the bell now stood dormant… only a reminder of what once was. 

Upon seeing this bell, we felt a strong connection to it's current state of neglect. Once the lights came on, people who had never noticed it before suddenly flocked to it. They stopped to read about it's history. One gentleman, who lived in Savannah, stopped and asked, "has that bell always been there?"

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Some people didn't even know that it existed!

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Our second stop was a one octave set of percussion bells at Forsyth Park, another gem of historic Savannah. Chalked full of lofty trees laced with spanish moss, gushing fountains, and still more memorials, Forsyth park is a main hub for social engagement in Savannah. 

Although the bells were installed with public interaction in mind, it seemed that they were more of a sculpture than an instrument. Our interest in this set of chimes was two fold. First of all, we wanted to use the lights as a catalyst for public engagement with these lonely bells . Secondly, we sought to explore the concept of synaesthesia, the color organ, and visual music.

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The idea of light and sound as a collaborative pair is a popular trend in both contemporary visual art and music. However, this is not a new notion. Engineers, artists, and inventors from as far back as the 16th century have been intrigued by the idea of music and light intertwining to create a synaesthetic experience. In the mid-1700s French monk Louis Bertrand Castel created one of the first ocular organs- an instrument with 60 colored glass panels, each with a curtain that opened upon the striking of a corresponding key. In the 1800s, Bainbridge Bishop patented his first color organ, an amazing specimen which projected colored light onto a screen as music was played through the organ. Many others, including Alexander Scriabin, who wrote a synaesthetic symphony titled Prometheus: The Poem of Fire, investigated the connection between light and sound throughout the 19th and 20th century. Today, we explore this notion of synaesthesia to an extreme degree thanks to an abundance of modern visual and audio technology.

Our work, while it did explore light and sound in combination, was not so concerned with the light responding in accordance to sound. Rather, we wanted to investigate the impact of light on people's desire to play the instrument.      

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Interestingly enough, one passer by stopped and exclaimed, "I want to hear what the color blue sounds like!" We assigned cyan to the note G and dark blue to the note A. Still, others approached the bells, excited to play. They claimed that the lights drew them to the bells and made them want to play- something they said they did not experience previously. WE even felt more inclined to play these public bells once they were painted with light! So, we did...

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Our time in Savannah was brief, but bountiful. Not only is Savannah a city with an abundance of history, but it is also a fertile ground for creating and experiencing art. Savannah, light was here! Now… on to the Florida Pan Handle.

We are Arbors

The human brain is fascinating, extraordinarily complex, and mysterious. Imagine if you will a vast system of tiny stems connecting neurons- allowing you to move, to create memories, to think, to feel. 

We recently read an article in the New York Times about a scientist named Sebastian Seung whose quest is to map the connectome, or in other words, diagram the 100 trillion connections between the neurons of the brain. Seung discusses the ins and outs of the project, but he also shares his struggles as a cartographer of the brain. Mapping the brain to such an extreme degree is meant with much resistance from fellow peers in the neuroscience community. Funding is hard to come by and at the end of the day, Seung admits that mapping even a fruit fly's brain is still ten years away. Still, Seung persists on continuing his project asserting that success is never achieved in just one generation. He strives to live his life in the presence of mystery. (This sounds like a lot of artists we know, including ourselves).

These thoughts of a pioneering scientist made us want to dig further into the visual components of brain maps. We must say, the animated computer imagery is quite stunning. Viewing image after image of the brain's stems and branches made us think about the extensive system of a tree's branches. Now this massive and mysterious thing of nature looked more and more human. The barren winter branches appeared strikingly similar to the extensive system of stems and branches that connect the neurons of the brain. Suddenly, we felt like arbors with the gift of mobility.  

Our first official installation was saturday night at Lake Williams in York, PA. In reflection of the brain and it's aesthetic similarities to a tree's branch system, we chose to light this tree near the lake's edge. 

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Although the focus of this installation was focused on the aesthetics of the brain in relationship to the naked branches of the tree, we also couldn't help documenting the stunning landscape created by lighting this pack of trees near the lake's edge. We were fascinated by the inorganic nature of our lights paired with the atmosphere's organic lighting. This appeared to be a landscape of many brains!

Stay tuned- we are in Woodbury, CT and will be heading out to the famous Hogpen Hills Sculpture Farm for our next light installation. Cheers!!