An art/technology festival to centralise culture of the online reflected world into the physical, initating the great attractor and the means for it’s expansion.
<aside> 💡 It asks the question: If the internet is speaking to us. What is it trying to say?
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The build up to the event will be as important as the event itself, a recognition of the growth and decay cycles of nature. Enabling the event itself to be a reflection of the great turn in it’s dismantling of paradigmns, rising to ultimate experience, integration of learnings and letting go back into preperation for the next year.
Installations of light and colour, combined with experiments in video feedback and projection will be designed to make us question perception and reality through our interactions with immersive technology and art. The design of the space will be modular allowing for players to explore different areas to experience the culmination of the curated internet in the physical world.
Think Burning Man meets Sonar meets an interconnected rebel base of house parties.
A new focus - A festival hackathon of concepts brought into reality. The focus being on creating the ideal collaborative environment leading up to the event where people can create room installations envisioned. Music as a key part but more
Being visual and tech oriented a large amount of the festival will be recorded to be displayed through livestreaming, re-editing towards promotional videos or to to be accessed after by the tribe that attends. This video and marketing focus is designed to build intense interest and intrigue around the festival as well as help market the work and people involved.
Co-Created - We will be testing out our equity model for all those that contribute to the festival and recording how it helps with commitment and creation. This area will be lead up by led by Ricky who will be using the system he's developed to fairly distribute any future returns from the festival.
Re-purposed location - The festival will take place inside a building. Although this does cause its own concerns in terms of health and safety, facilities and capacity this gives the festival the ability to utilise technology in every area without concerns of weather. It also support the modular set up and gives a home for the creators to work in leading up to the festival.
Communal sleeping - No tents. no mud. The sleeping arrangements will be basic and privacy will be minimal (think large area filled with comfy mattresses and cushions) unless you want to upgrade your stay by donating to those that set up more private areas nearby. This does give the opportunity of creating a more community feel by having large communal sleeping areas.
No money - Apart from the ticket price the aim will be to create a community of giving within the festival. This takes inspiration from Burning Man and the principles the collective has adopted from it. There may be the odd element that may need to fall into the transactional environment but if this rule is kept the effect on community and contribution is likely to be profoundly more beneficial overall.
Once a location has been established the area will be modelled in 3D and each area will be broken up.
This will then be available for designers to put forward their ideas on how each area could be utilised. Designers do NOT need to be involved in the collective itself. The collective will be running and facilitating the festival but contribution is open to all. However involvement and strong contribution is likely to result with invitation to join ONCE. The opportunity can be posted in many online forums and websites to build interest and spur contribution. Sketches and designs will be added to facebook workplace where people can discuss the potential of each. They will be voted on by the involved community and those that are most appealing will be supported for their creation.
A core team will be chosen to lead up all the organisation and management of the festival. Roles will be assigned within this team and areas of the festival will be broken up for each producer. There will be a hierarchy of decision making within this team chosen by those involved based on experience and competence.
The team will organise the designers and contributors leading up to the event as well all other necessary preparations.
Following the pandemic, community and closeness is valued even more and festivals following it have the potential for highly synchronised connection and transcendent experience.
The online world during this time has also seen massive shifts in how we communicate across physicalities, and has opened up opportunities in the creator economy,
Sandbox is poised to integrate the physical and digital into a convergent space.
By building up to the festival through the submission and curation of media, ideas and spacial concepts, and creating an integrated experience across borders and digital boundaries it allows for people to live the festival in a multitude of ways (see
The Peak of History During the festival, players will be creating a philosophical journey through history to appreciate the fact that we are at the cusp of cultural change, defining it in every action we take.
To feel the weight of the moment we are all experiencing together and understand that there is nobody who is coming to save us but ourselves.
The idea here is to provide a kind of attention and focus towards the individual experience, from the surroundings that are presented there. A multi-sensory experience that brings a sense of awe, reverence and significance into the time, people and place. The individual is to be presented by the environment close to that as a saviour, suggesting the ripple affects of their existence, with all the responsibility and weight that comes with that role. Powerfully held within the shared experience of others attuned to that same significance, recognising their internal compass and call to action for the times they live in.
The lens as a portal This explores our relationship to media and capturing devices. Cameras are a portal to another person, to another time or the internet. Yourself in the future, others you may not know, or those in other countries watching live.
Experimentation could take place around how we witness, interact and experience the effects of our actions having influence across and outside the festival. It would allow for those online to experience the festival in a far more richer way and even allow them to have input for those physically there. (eg changing the lights or content shown in a specific space based on the conversations they hear people have) Creating a synergy between the online and offline space. Continued below
It plays with the idea of privacy and access. The fact that everyone is visible to each-other (though perhaps distorted, in a live sense gives the potential to feel comfortable being seen. Becoming aware of your presence in the world and relaxing into the feeling of being the audience and the subject.
Video Redirection - There will be experimentation of giving these lenses some kind of persona or integrating them within the festival in a way that isn't obtrusive. Playing with adding to the technology more natural properties that could allow us to question how we perceive, interact or approach them. People could peek into other rooms, interact through technology in a variety of ways. Allowing everyone to let go of the fact that everyone can see them, everyone should see them and that they don't need to care.
VR - would be strongly explored. Being a future orientated and visual festival animators could be welcomed to collaborate together leading up to the event. Experiments with the potential of VR and AR in more social situations would be tested at the festival. Though some of the experiences may be directed towards the individual there would be collective demonstrations of visuals with physical cues and shared auditory experience.
Physiology Pairing - This would be exploring how the human mind and body reacts to certain internal and external triggers. The aim here will be to try to sync people in the festival together in some way. Either through regulating or suggesting the timing of their consumption of alcohol or otherwise, playing music, doing exercises or rituals. The ideas of this will be shown to the contributors and voted on to decide which ones will be chosen.
Gifting - The culture will be the same as burning man when it comes to exchange of services and elements within the festival. Nothing will be for sale bar a few exceptions. There is not necessarily a ruling out of commercial endeavours or partnerships despite an avoidance of this being a first approach. We are attempting to look at our society from the outside in so there may be a unique direction with this to distort any commodification to disrupt its meaning through art.
Integrated Digital to Physical
The space would be a physical manifestation of the ‣. People would be given stickers that they could brand parts of the building they connect with. That would allow those that created the art to connect with the people that loved it and also potentially reward those that provided most to experience (the more scans of a room/dj/art piece the more recognition and promotion you would receive after). However it can't be experienced as an exchange or expectation. People would be able to scan the QR codes to connect with those they meet quickly, learn more, control their environment and document it.
After the festival people could re-live it through the content and explore the virtual building to re-discover what they experienced. They could live other perspectives or track where they've been.
Collaboration Techniques
☯️ The festival is the celebratory release from the work and build up to the event. The collaboration side of the festival leading up to the date is just as important as the event itself. The experimentation in this area can then be used to better understand how collaboration work and feeds into ‣ design and ‣.
All will be documented, livestreamed, timelapsed, and shared leading up to the event.
Likely to be 40 min outside of Berlin or in the city. Potential dates in 2023-24.