Transcriber: Vanessa Le Reviewer: Hiroko Kawano
Hi, my name is Raven Fox, and I'm a immersive, visual artist.
I see things differently.
When I decided to become an artist, it was no ordinary artist I had in mind.
Light is my paint.
Video projectors and LED lights are my brushes.
The world is my canvas.
So, what if we look at the St. Louis planetarium
in a new and reimagined way,
as a reinterpretation of it as an art piece,
as a colourful beacon of light and pride?
What if we looked at the Cinderella Building
in the Cherokee Street Arts District of St. Louis
as a crown jewel of the community?
Architecture that can be transformed with light
into a centerpiece of urban revitalization,
one that has the potential to illuminate our past, present and future.
What if we looked at the Eleven Gates -
an installation that I did for the new World's Fair in Forest Park
to pay homage.
My hometown is New York,
and this is inspired by the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude.
My vision was to create an opportunity to unite.
What I believe to be one community
became a gateway for social interaction
and a lot of fun.
It inspired.
What if we look closer at the buildings, landmarks and public art pieces
in our cities and neighborhoods?
Honor them?
Ask more of them by allowing them to tell their stories in a whole new light?
The projected image is ephemeral.
When the lights come up or the sun rises,
it's gone, right?
Its photons are both wave and particle.
For nearly a century,
it's been constrained to rectangular shapes and cinema screens
to watch unchanging works, like movies.
At nightclubs, it began to beat to the music.
Mirror balls and laser beams kept people dancing.
In museums,
it became generative and interactive
for both education and entertainment,
something that I call "edutainment."
Or have you ever heard of the word "edumacation?"
(Laughter)
In theme parks,
it brought imaginary stories to life using holograms and directed light,
and you know,
going through rollercoasters and seeing stuff come at you.
I mean, it's just amazing how far we've come with technology.
With video projection mapping technology,
it started to stretch over shapes and angles
and provided a stage for big world-class events
like the Olympic Games and the Super Bowl.
It is now time to plug the video projector into the mind
as an amplifier of the imagination.
I am a projectionist of the 21st century.
I transmute bits and bytes into new visions.
I paint on weathered textures,
on the living and breathing surfaces of our environment.
Images unfold in the moment,
arising spontaneously from the depths of the shadows,
augmenting all the nightly realities.
Walls come to life.
Buildings become transparent with vivid images and illusions.
I'm a live cinematographer,
a painter of animation,
a musician of light.
Through this immersive visual art,
mediums collide.
Among me, there are directors, storytellers, singers and poets,
DJs and dancers.
I project hip hop, rock and roll, and house music.
I joined forces with a lot of other creative and artistic mediums.
The most powerful light shows are created for celebrated artists and performers.
My work becomes their center stage;
their work relies on my light.
I mix and remix art, music and technology
in the anticipation of awe and excitement.
When we reinterpret, reimagine and rewrite through art,
things that we have become so used to seeing in the world -
billboards lighting up and all those things -
our world changes.
It becomes expansive,
and our perceptions - they rise up together.
Both inspired and continually inspiring.
To illuminate not just our environment
but also each other.
(Applause)
Oh,
and there's something else.
(Video) But the Raven still beguiling all my fancy into smiling,
Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird, and bust and door;
Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore -
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt and ominous bird of yore
Meant in croaking "Nevermore."
(Music)
This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing
To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core;
This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining
On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated o'er,
But whose velvet-violet lining with the lamp-light gloated o'er,
She shall press, ah, nevermore!
Then me thought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer
Swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.
"Wretch," I cried, "thy God hath lent thee -
by these angels he hath sent thee -
Respite - respite and nepenthe, from thy memories of Lenore!;
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!"
Quoth the Raven "Nevermore."
(Raven's caw)
"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil - prophet still, if bird or devil!
Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted -
On this home by Horror haunted - tell me truly, I implore -
Is there - is there balm in Gilead? - tell me - tell me, I implore!"
Quoth the Raven "Nevermore."
"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil - prophet still, if bird or devil!
By that Heaven that bends above us - by that God we both adore -
Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore -
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore."
Quoth the Raven "Nevermore."
(Raven's caw)
"Be that word our sign in parting, bird or fiend," I shrieked, upstarting -
"Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!
Leave my loneliness unbroken! - quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!"
Quoth the Raven "Nevermore."
And the Raven, never flitting still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted - nevermore!
(Applause)