Lightning in a Bottle: Mindshare Lounge & SmArt Workshops Debut

Lightning in a Bottle Art & Music Festival is a mind expanding weekend, and this year, the expansion continues with the LIB debut of workshops from Mindshare LA and SmArt Art Projects.

Mindshare LA is an organization that creates monthly events for and by creatives of all kinds. Back in 2006, Mindshare Co-Founder Doug Campbell had a vision of combining art, music, performance, technology and social awareness into fun and socially–conscious monthly events, and he’s been producing them ever since. Their meetings are typically in Downtown LA, and feature workshops, artistic presentations, salons and screenings. This week, Mindshare takes their show on the road to Lake Skinner in Temecula, California for the annual Lightning in a Bottle Art & Music Festival.

The Mindshare Lounge will showcase the intersection where “Science Meets Art,” bringing new technologies and techniques into a world way beyond traditional art forms, with how-to and hands-on seminars and lectures including “Electricity and E-Textiles,” “Soldering for El Wire Art,” and “Programming LEDs,” among others. The SmArt Art Projects will push the boundaries of art into new genres, including projection mapping, computer-generated digital paintbrushes, programmable remote displays, and the most eye-popping graphics imaginable.

Mike Russek, the Founder and CEO of 1028 Designs, has collaborated with artists Gabriel Pulecio and Todd Moyer, with sound design by Sam Pool (aka SPL) to create The Fractoid, an interactive projection-mapped sound sculpture. This unique kinetic sculpture is controlled by viewers from a remote console, and features original motion graphics, music and a “personality” that will entertain you for hours.

For the most unusual photo of yourself ever taken, (really!) make sure you experience  Harmonic Lights, whose collection of light-emitting toys include lasers, swords, wands,  and star projectors. These LED tools are all computer –controlled to create long-exposure photos projected onto a nearby screen. The photos appear as if taken with a virtual digital paintbrush, creating ethereal and ghostly images, streaks, streaming lights, halo effects, and general psychedelic mayhem creating truly trippy photographs.

Hexcaliber is a hanging hexagonal sculpture featuring projection mapped images, and synchronized “visual music” with integrated dance performance. Unique projected visuals create a futuristic dizzying spectacle of light and sound, spinning itself and you into a euphoric state of mind.

These are just a few of the techno-treats being served up by our hosts at the Mindshare Lounge. These seminars and art installations will be found within and adjacent to the Lounge, located midway between the Bamboo Stage and the Marketplace. Note that seminars are an extra cost of between $30 – $70 depending upon materials supplied.

Top image: Courtesy of Harmonic Lights