If Robert Moog's signature Moog synthesizers put Asheville, N.C., on the map, then the recently concluded Moogfest (April 23-27) certainly helped the city solidify its reputation as a center of culture, technology and art.
After taking 2013 off, the electronic music festival made a return as a citywide festival, selling about 7,000 tickets and attracting another 25,000 fans for the event that has an annual $3-million budget. And for the first time in the event’s history, Moogfest presented a collection of art and architecture installations in partnership with the Media Arts Project, Aloft Hotels and the Clemson School of Architecture.
In October, festival organizers made a call out to artists, asking design teams to propose freestanding, rapidly deployable temporary structures or installations that embodied Moog’s interdisciplinary philosophy. The idea was to solicit designs that would enhance a user’s experience by engaging them with multimedia experiences using sound, structure, light and form to emphasize the festival’s message about the intersection of art and technology.
“These wonderful collaborations between musicians and artists take laser light shows to the next level," said Emmy Parker, Brand Director for Moogfest and Moog Music Inc. "We feature performers who have these jaw-dropping visuals happening during their shows, but then during the daytime we also had panel discussions about visuals.”
The installations were located along the festival’s downtown footprint, transforming the street into an interactive art playground that was free and open to the public from April 23-27.
“It’s been a real shot in the arm for Asheville and is the kind of event we have always envisioned for the city,” said David Gantt, chairman of the Buncombe County Commissioners. Last year, Gantt’s group approved $90,000 in funding for the event — the city of Asheville matched the financing with $40,000 in funding and $50,000 in in-kind services.
“We don’t look at this simply as an event that brings people to Asheville — we see this as a recruiting tool for some of the top tech firms and entrepreneurs,” he said. "Asheville is an affordable enclave for high tech companies and this programming is designed to create a rich cultural experience for everyone."
Senior architecture students from Clemson helped design the space, which created a relaxing environment with cell charging stations, shipping containers converted into office space, and a pixilated shade canopy over the whole area.
They enhanced a festival that featured music from electronic pioneers Kraftwerk, as well as the Pet Shop Boys, M.I.A., Flying Lotus, Chic featuring Nile Rodgers, Giorgio Moroder and Janelle Monae.
“You never know how someone is going to be inspired,” said Parker. “Music is extremely accessible to people, but not everyone has the opportunity to be exposed to new media and interactive art and multimedia and digital art in the downtown area of their little town.” It was important to Parker and the Moogfest team to present ideas that would challenge visitors while providing a platform for new media artists in Western North Carolina to have an international stage to show their work.
And while Parker wasn’t sure that the installations necessarily drew more visitors, she estimated that roughly 25,000 people passed by the exhibits over three days on their way to attend shows on the free public stage. “Rather than using them to attract more people, we used them as an opportunity to enhance people’s experiences,” she said.
One of the keys to the first-year success was the sponsorship from Aloft Hotels, which powered all eight interactive public pieces on the street. “We only wanted sponsors who were interested in providing valuable content for the event,” said Parker. “Not in just hanging up banners, but about really providing some resources for an experience and we were happy that they understood that and were willing to take a chance on a sponsorship that was outside the box.” While Parker declined to provide specific figures, she said the Aloft investment was in the “significant” five figure range.
One of her favorite items was the SandNoise Device from a group of CalArts students. The interactive sandbox used a Microsoft Kinect interface to generate music when users moved their hands through the sand. “It was extremely sensory,” she said. “As a kid everyone played in a sandbox, but to turn something as mundane as dirt into this very complex interface to create music was very inspired.”
Among the other pieces included ChipCodes – two custom-built rigs that played 8-bit video-game music surrounded by vintage TV sets playing graphics from 1980s-style video games. Users could manipulate the sound to trigger Easter-egg-style rewards. Another exhibit called Geothermophone utilized a translucent globe that showed the changing temperature over a 50-year period (1960-2010) along with audio that helped you see and hear our changing climate.
Students from Clemson had one of the most innovative installations. Patch was inspired by Moog’s creative method of patching together sound waves within a synthesizer. Clemson students built a space aimed at creating connection between Asheville locals and festival goers. The project featured five 20-by-30-foot suspended clouds that seemed to float over a 16,000-square-foot area. The clouds were anchored to nine ministorage containers, with five charging stations and interactive visual games underneath that allowed festivalgoers to upload Instagram images to try to win tickets to an exclusive Moog concert.
Contacted for this story: Emmy Parker, (828) 251-0090; David Gantt, (828) 252-2852
