by Maria Gotay
The Creator’s Project was an arts, music and cultural one-day festival took place In DUMBO last Saturday. There were a dozen or so interactive art installations, and a high-profile music component featuring headliners Justice, Florence + The Machine, Four Tet, Atlas Sound and more.
Art installations featured a stunning geometric light cube (the focal point of the festival’s public space installation) by the United Artists as well as beautiful and intricate light bending reflective sculptures from SOFTlab called “r&Dazzle.” Video projects were galore, including a David Bowie-Mick Rock-Barney Clay film, “Life on Mars Revisited,” and collaborative video work from Animal Collective and Black Dice called “Jumbletron.” Interactive pieces included “MED ITATION” by Minha Yan, a reactive light installation that observers could control through movement and “A PHYSICAL MANIFESTATION OF LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WE ARE FLOATING IN SPACE,” (by Jonathan Glazer + J. Spaceman) sound and light room created for the purpose of hearing different elements of sound as specific to pools of light.
The Music portion of the fest surpassed the art segment as far as big names and prestige went. The festival featured three different stages and some really incredible headliners- from digital geniuses Justice to pop superstar Florence + The Machine, subdued and intricate Four Tet, and my personal favorite one-man sound factory Bradford Cox aka Atlas Sound. Also featured were John Maus, Girl Unit, Teen Daze, Yuksek and Queen Sea Big Shark. Justice’s DJ Set (that I considered an actual performance as they were sampling their own work) was mind-blowing, taking place in an old Tobacco Factory, an outdoor brickyard that was overflowing with fans. Too bad the NYPD cut the show in half, demanding the show be shut down due to noise complaints.
Of course, the biggest event of the whole festival is the buzzed-about Stop The Virgens psych-opera written by Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs at St. Ann’s Warehouse. I got to go to the dress rehearsal of the show and adored the music, costumes, and stage presence of the entire cast. The show still has a few dates, feel free to check out more info on the show here.