Revelator Hosts Artist Ryan Padgett in New Studio

This weekend Revelator opens the doors of our new studio space to audio-visual artist Ryan Padgett, debuting his new immersive art installation “Trip.” This is weekend number two for Ryan’s installation at the annual East Austin Studio Tour, or EAST, hosted by Big Medium. Big Medium’s EAST is a free, annual, self-guided art event spanning two weekends in November. EAST provides opportunities for the public to meet the artists and artisans of Austin in their creative spaces.

This is Revelator’s fifth year to be an official participant in EAST, and bring directors, artists, and their work to Austin’s art community. We’re tremendously excited that this year we’re expanding into our new video and film production studio space to bring you Ryan Padgett’s unique installation. Our studio is usually a production studio and workspace facility. We have a green screen and/or white cyclorama studio space, with an attached modern office space located in the Canopy community of creative studios and offices. This weekend, we’ll remove the usual grip and production equipment, paint the cyc wall white, and bring back Ryan and his immersive installation.

Padgett uses projections and plays with light and sound to create “audiovisual performance-based art,” that’s interactive and invites the viewer to participate in the art. This particular project, in his own words, was developed from “ideas through my work doing live concert visuals and oil-based liquid visuals, and my work exploring analog synthesis and digital sound design”.

Our studio was transformed into a full art experience, with a waiting room that opens up to a personal, individual multi-sensory projection experience. The experience consists of a massive projection screen on our white cyc wall, headphones, a MIDI controller and a chaise lounge retrofitted with a tactile transducer subwoofer. The user is quickly transported into a wormhole in space with a cosmic controller to help navigate.

Using the MIDI controller, the user is able to create and layer musical compositions, while also simultaneously creating real-time controllable visuals. The combination of possibilities of sounds, colors, and textures are limitless and allow for a truly unique experience for every single user. This transformative installation is an experience unlike any other. Each person who steps in is transported to another dimension, altering your perception of space and time in an unexpected way. Since it’s designed for one person to experience at a time, each person is ushered in for a 6 minute time slot that transcends the clock.

Our first weekend was a huge success, time slots filled up incredibly quickly. People walked away with a range of emotions; some felt tranquil, some got unexpectedly emotional, but everyone felt that Trip was worth the wait, very cool, and well, trippy. Ryan will be guiding people through this voyage again for EAST weekend two, in our studio from 11AM – 6PM.

We feel extremely lucky to be located in the Canopy community with Big Mediuma and like-minded artists. Big Medium produces the East Austin Studio Tour (EAST), the West Austin Studio Tour (WEST), the Texas Biennial, the Tito’s Prize, and presents innovative exhibitions throughout the year in the Big Medium Gallery. They provide studio space to artists at Canopy and umbrella several artists and creative organizations through their Sponsored Projects program. Big Medium engages over 1,000 artists and 100,000 attendees in artistic experiences each year. Providing access to these experiences is their priority, so that they may continue to keep the programs free and open to the public and support artists in the community.

You can see the full map of EAST and the participating studios here. And we’re very excited that this year Big Medium is launching Creative Standard, a professional development program for artists, the goal being convening regularly, provide information, opportunities, and resources; Create and maintain standards of professionalism and integrity for the creative community to adhere to and uphold. Creative Standard offers monthly programming ranging from networking opportunities to workshops and panel discussions. All intended to help artists grow professionally at any stage of their career. Get more info at Big Medium’s site.

Don’t forget EAST is free and open to the public on November 17–18, from 11am–6pm. We’ll see ya this weekend!