The Big Money Round has Ended!  

The GOOD NEWS is we received 33 proposals for mind-blowing art!!  The BAD NEWS is we had requests for almost 6 times the amount of money we had to give out and had to make 26 people really, really sad.

2015 has seen an unprecedented number of grant applications.  We want to say thank you for spending the time to submit an application and that we’re sorry we can’t approve them all!  We hope to have even more money to give as grants next year, so keep those ideas coming!

Big Money Round Summary

Results: (In alphabetical order)

Descriptions of Projects

These are all the short descriptions and URLs from the applications. 

• Colossal Head – The ‘Colossal Head’ project is an interactive art installation piece that can be enjoyed by any and all people. It utilizes a live video camera feed and projection mapping onto a giant facade of a blank face. Participants approach an area in front of the Colossal Head and stand, finding the correct spot that suits their head size and shape, and their face is projected onto the Colossal Head. The image of the face will be processed, using video hardware and software to create a live, enhanced, real-time show of the participants face. Participants will be encouraged to make faces and ‘face dance’ to enhance the viewing experience. Since the participants will have a clear view of the head, which will be positioned in front of them, they will enjoy interacting with the piece.

>>See https://vimeo.com/user26003251/videos for more information.

• Synchrotensegrity – Synchrotensegrity is a 15 ft tall, 15ft diameter interactive effigy consisting of three pillars arching to a common central point at the top. The pillars are tensegrity structures meaning they are composed of wood compression struts and stranded steel tension cables where none of the compression struts touch each other and appear to float. This is a stable structure that appears to defy the laws of gravity. The wood struts will be hand-spun on a wood lathe from 2x2x4ft material. Each of the struts will have a unique shape.  With respect to this year’s theme, Synchronicity, the philosophy of this piece is to illustrate the chance connections brought about in this world of a mind-numbing amount of variables and events that shape our lives. Each of the three pillars will be wrapped in strands of addressable rgb leds. Individual leds will be illuminated in short bursts in a random pattern representing random events in the world. There will be a sensor at the base of each pillar and when a participant stands near it the random led pattern will coalesce into a more tangible form which will begin to flow toward the top of the pillar. When this form from two or three of the pillars reaches the top at the same time, a tesla coil at the top will discharge an arc of high-voltage electricity between the pillars representing a synchronistic event.

>>See http://goo.gl/68FYFu for more information.

• Syzygy: The Library Angel (THE EFFIGY) – A common experience many people have of synchronicity is known as a Library Angel. The Library Angel represents that moment of awareness when an answer to a question or the discovery of otherwise illusive information becomes known to a person, almost as if by fate. The effigy represents this experience of synchronicity and invites the viewer to reflect on their beliefs about the nature of discovery and knowing. Is the library angel a kind and helpful spirit here to bring about joy in knowledge, or a trickster demon laying clues that guide us down devilish paths? Do moments of synchronicity appear as challenges in one moment, but saving graces later in life? Perhaps they come as conflicting evidence that points to the same conclusion. Participants are asked to share their stories of synchronicity at the foot of the Library Angel in her giant journal, which will be burned at the end of the event making space for new discoveries in the hearts and minds of all Apogaeans.  Along with sharing stories in the giant journal, Apogaeans are invited to climb atop of the Library Angel’s giant stack of books and await their own moment of chance discovery while taking in the view of the festival and surrounding scenery. In a return to the roots of the definition of an effigy, a figure representing the Library Angel is burned along with the Angel’s journals. Depending on the weather circumstances, the angel and journals can be burned along with her base of books, or somehow placed with the temple and burned together. The base of books can then be donated as a stage for another purpose within the community, or gifted to an organization in Denver to be used as installation art.  The effigy is a beautifully detailed two sided figure representing both the light and the shadow, sitting on top of a large base of books that appear to be real aside from their giant size. An 8 foot journal (or possibly two) stands open at the base of the effigy with turnable pages to contain the stories of synchronicity shared by participants. At night, colored lights and projected images/book titles add to the drama and allure of the books and figure.

>>See http://goo.gl/OJfKxB for more information.

• The Guild – The Guild is infamous throughout Texas for bringing the best sound, aerial artists and hilarious performance art. We know you guys have the whole big sound camp thing covered but we want to bring our special flavor of party up to you. All the rumors are true, yes we are a cult.

>>See https://www.facebook.com/TheGuildDFW for more information.

• THE KINDLING PROJECT – Kindling, is defined by Google as: noun / 1. easily combustible small sticks or twigs used for starting a fire. 2. (in neurology) a process by which a seizure or other brain event is both initiated and its recurrence made more likely. (Imagine a warmly illuminated, bottomless pit, shooting into the ground at a 60 degree angle. Imagine this pit being lined with thousands of tiny sticks, like a never-ending, hollow stack of firewood (see Radiant Example.jpg, and Firewood.jpg). When “infinite mirror” concepts are done right, they create bewilderment, curiosity, and wonder. *THE KINDLING PROJECT WILL NOT CAUSE ACTUAL SEIZURES.

>>See https://www.facebook.com/thekindlingproject for more information.

• The THING – The THING is a fully articulated skeletal robotic hand, about 7’ long, crafted from clear polycarbonate and aluminum using our new Shopbot! The sculpture will be mounted on a 36” square six wheel robot chassis and easily have the ability to pull a cart or “chariot” with one or two drivers. This project is being designed and built by members of the Boulder High robotics team, with a senior design student lead for independent study credit. The students will be mentored on the mechanics/construction by Janet Tsai from the CU Dept of Engineering, (and myself) and on the control system by programming guru Bill Coon.  The THING will use an android tablet for both tele-operated and autonomous control, and will have a menu of pre-programed functions. The most basic will be to create the illusion of it crawling along at the blistering speed of about 7′ per minute.

>>Information coming soon.

• Unified Flying Object series (UFOs) – Galactic ships hover like giant jewel seeds.  The Unified Flying Object series is a collection of inflatable geometric soft sculptures.  They are constructed with fabric, inflated with a fan, and illuminated with color changing LED lights.  Suspended in the air the UFOs act as navigational stars as well as safety beacons. They beckon from a far and when approached are mesmerizing (we’ve witnessed people laying beneath them for hours occasionally murmuring “Whoa… What? How???” etc before suddenly running off to get a friend and show them). Due to their appeal to varying walks of life the ground beneath them becomes a space where interaction and coexistence occur naturally.  Three of the four UFOs currently in our fleet are adorned with hand drawn mandala patterns. Optical illusions alternate in a multi centered system, transmitting information among them. Highly symmetrical hexagonal networks express molecular, biological and interstellar coherence. The beautiful triangular tiling design offers a unified map of atomic, gravitational and temporal fields. The patterns are drawn with sharpie and filled with rainbow neon paints that react with the LEDs creating a low-tech yet high impact animated art installation.

>>See https://www.youtube.com/user/ImberDesign for more information.