Consisting of 3 elements: The Panoctagon with 8 walls & 16 projections around a centered 4 screen Video Soapbox, at site 1, where the inital performance occurs. A dancing Parade with costumes and roving sound system leading to site 2, the Festival Henge, with 8 free-standing see-through LED Video Frames where the performance becomes a dance party into the night.
1. The Panoctagon
The Panoctagon with 8 walls & 16 projections around a centered Video Soapbox. Runs as an installation before and after the performance, from 5pm to 11pm.
8 films on the inside of the octagon depict the NYC OccupyWall Street protests from 2011/2012, accompanied by 8 speakers playing their soundtracks, comprised of the protest chants, noise making and the sounds of police interventions
8 films on the outside of the octagon depict other NYC protests from 2012 to 2021, including the Not My President, Climate Strike, March for our Lives and Black Lives Matter protests, also accompanied by 8 speakers playing their soundtracks. All 16 speakers playing simultaneously create a spatial cacophony, filling the space with the sounds of the protests and inviting the audience to get up close to any individual screen to hone in on its specific sounds.
At the center of the octagon, sits the 4 sided Video Soap Box, with 4 screens below a platform, and speakers above each screen. 4 versions of the artist (see Fractured Selves project) narrate parts of their life stories simultaneously, competing with each other and with the 16 speakers of the video projections surrounding them, forming a cacophony of words and noises, centered on the individual and widening out to the community. Simiilarly the video content is individual in the center and community in the surrounds.
During the performance, the artist stands atop the Video Soap Box to orate.
The Performance. The space is activated by performance when the artist, pulling a sound system cart playing dance music, enters the space with 8 people in festive costumes. The artist stands on the video soapbox and address the audience standing around the space (in the area surrounding the octagon and the mezzanie overlooking it). The 8 accompanying characters take their places by the milk creates that house the interior video projectors on the floor.
The artist says short sentences or parts of sentences, that are then repeated by the others, creating a "human megaphone" as developed at Occupy Wall Street NYC. Eventyually the artist replaces this modality with an actual megaphone
After finishing the spoken word element, the artist invites everyone, including the audience, to accompany them, forming a dancing Parade, to the second site where the Festival Henge is located.
2. The Parade
They lead the group, pulling the sound system cart and dancing, out of the room.
The artist and performing group and audience parade through the corridors and to the building housing the Festival Henge, dancing to the music from the sound system cart.
As they approach the Festival Henge the 16 channel sound system there takes over and it turns from installation to dance party venue.
3. The Festival Henge
Festival Henge: 8 free-standing, see-through, hand-made, two-sided Video Frames. Set up in an octagon, a spatial negative of the panoctagon, with each frame in the position of the gaps in the panoctagon indicating their connection and that together they are complete.
Featuring video and audio works submitted by the MIT community in an open call for artists to participate. Each frame has 2 speakers at its base forming a hexadecaphonic spatial sound system.
Different video content plays on the inside of the space to the outside and all the speakers point inwards.
Inside the frames, the audience experience the immersive sound and a disco-like flickering light environment. That close to the screens, they cannot make out imagery, just moving lights. They have to step back quite far to be able to read the moving images as video: an illusion that draws them in and dissolves as they approach, alluding to the idea that community is clearly visible from outside but from within gets lost in the unique individuals: you might feel immersed and surrounded and part of, but only by stepping back and being outside can you see the big picture
The Performance. After the Parade arrives, the performers and audience enter the Festival Henge and dance the night away to live DJ mixes provided by community DJs and the screens are live mixed by community VJs
This is the culmination element of the piece From Panoctagon to Festival Henge. Archaeologists have discovered in Ireland various relationships between Neolithic constructions like henges, barrows and burial tombs, some with passages between them, delineated by standing stones connecting them across the landscape. One theory is that some are the spaces for serious events, such as the burying of tribal leaders and others, connected, for festive events such as celebrating the harvest or the end of Winter. This piece borrows that notion, with The Panoctagon being the place for politics, a public forum, a community space that is a reflection of the voice of the people and The Festival Henge, connected by The Parade, being the place to celebrate community, to put aside politics and debate and be free to indulge in each other and celebrate togetherness.
Above interactive video work by Supretha Krishnan. Below, an audio/video work by Nelly Kate
Below are some projects that are featured in the Panoctagon set of 16 wall projections
Protest - BLM - NYC 2020 - video featuring the George Floyd BLM protest in NYC during CoVid19 lockdown: 5-30/20
6 minutes
Protest - BLM - street intervention, NYC 6/19/2020 - Juneteenth - during CoVid19 lockdown
6 minutes
Protest - Queer Liberation March For Black Lives & Against Police Brutality - video featuring the NYC protest - 6/28/2020
15 minutes
"Protest - Queer Liberation March For Black Lives & Against Police Brutality, 6/28/2020"
