Kevin Harris is the punctual, detail-oriented sort and so he doesn’t want to guess wrongly about the time that Octarrarium became a plan. In checking his cell phone, he can pin the birth to right about June of 2014. It was then that he and frequent collaborator Chad Eivens began to think about taking their large-scale video projections to another level, no easy feat considering some of the sharp work they’ve done together to date.
“We were always trying to to find new way to configure the screen,” says Harris. “With one long, flat plane, images can run side-to-side. But when you create with other geometries, the imagery can seem more three-dimensional. We were talking over possibilities and the ultimate would be doing a whole, 360-degree projection, where the visuals would be all around you. We finished our event, and a few days later I had the idea in my head of how it could be done. I drew it up in AutoCAD and modeled it into 3D. But it was pretty expensive and I don’t have any money…”
In came Rich O’Donnell, the famed percussionist and ringleader of the HEARding Cats Collective. What began as an idea was quickly gaining form.
“Rich is usually game to produce projects like this,” Harris says. “I told him I’d send him a series of drawings and documents and he was super-excited. ‘Let’s do this, let’s do it.’ We started looking for space for it, and this was quite a while ago. It doesn’t take a lot of planning; most of the work’s in the execution and building of the thing. We just needed to find a room that would be big enough, one that could accommodate performances, events and a permanent gallery installation. And that was almost impossible to find.”
As it turned out, the gallery at the Regional Arts Commission was the one place that wasn’t booked out three years in advance and could handle a full build-out of the eight-sided Octarrarium, each panel a 9-by-12 foot canvas for video art. Added into the mix, too, was a rich group of performers on both acoustic and electronic instruments, as well as spoken word and, yes, food. (Full list at the bottom of this entry.)
“So what’s really exciting for me—and the way that I look at these things—is that you’re designing a system,” Harris says. “You’re putting all these different people together and it’s a unified thing, but it’s also open. It wouldn’t exist without all these other people working with it. It’s definitely taking this to the end of this sort of system, a completely controlled environment. We’ll control the walls, control the light. It’s definitely a different-type of gallery situation. You don’t have to work with anyone else’s intentions, what they were designing into the gallery.”
In this environment during non-event hours (but open gallery) hours, viewers will, in many respects, change the installation, as the site’s multiple cameras will pick up on their motions and will, by extension, change the projections themselves. This will happen over and again, as people move and speak; while an audio track will not likely accompany the non-event hours, sounds will impact the projections.
“There will be cameras all around, feeding back into the video synthesizer,” Harris says, going deeper into the technical components than we’ll offer here. “Microphones will influence the video. Your movements and your sounds… whatever you’re doing in there will influence what’s happening."
For the performances, meanwhile, he says that no standing pieces will be involved, with all work improvised to the space’s visuals.
“With these performances, these evening ones, we’ll have three sets of duos, with one acoustic and one electronic performer each night,” Harris says. “We’ve talked about this with everyone, that these are not stand-alone pieces, but a symbiotic relationship between themselves and the video and construction.”
Harris figures that he and Eivens will log some all-nighters once the opening night draws near, as nothing will be brought into the space whole. Instead, all the electronics, all the wood, all the screens, all the rest will come in through the front door piecemeal, put together in the style of Harris’ hyper-detailed schematics and advanced drawings.
“That’s kind of the strange thing,” Harris figures. “I’ve thought about this so much, and it hasn’t even been built. With the projectors crossing each other, we don’t even know what it’s going to look like. It’s super-exciting in that way, not knowing what something will be. It’s real installation work. It’s nothing you’ve created beforehand and it’s site-specific. That’s why it’s so cool to me. You go into the space and build the environment. That’s what it is: a built environment. (Chad and I) have always rushed around for these one-night things and you’ve got to get projectors aligned; there’s never enough time to fine-tune. There’s not a chance to sit there and soak it up. They’ll give us a key to the place for this project and I imagine us sitting there all night, fine-tuning.”
Octarrarium opens March 11 with a reception from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Live performances take place March 25, 6–9 p.m. (Kevin Harris – Electronics, Alex Cunningham, Solo Violin); April 16, 10:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m. (Alternate Reality Pancake Brunch, with Rob Severson as Pancake Master); April 22 from 6–9 p.m. (Dr Mabuse, Electronics, Dave Stone, Solo Saxophone); and April 29, 6–9 p.m. (Chad Eivins, Electronics, Rich O’Donnell, Solo Percussion). Octararrium runs through April 30. The closing event, "Anna Lum’s Favorite Things," happens noon–3 p.m., and will feature a poetry reading, homemade sushi with black rice, and pineapple drink. The Regional Arts Commission is located at 6128 Delmar. For more information, visit the HEARDing Cats website, RAC's website, and the Facebook event page.
