THE STARS

 THE STARS / We Won’t Be Here Anymore

 

These times are uncertain for most of us

Most times are uncertain for at least some of us

and

No times are uncertain for none of us

 

Every point in space occurs once at each moment of time. And an event is the intersection of a location and a moment. How do we remain present in space? How do we remain present in time? How do we collectively grieve when we can’t come together as a community? How do we say goodbye? How will we remember?


THE EXPERIENCE*

The Stars is a completely dark space. Until it isn’t. Once you are inside a voice will guide you through a five to ten minute waiting process while your eyes adjust to an environment of zero visual input from the outside world. (“The effect is the result of the brain amplifying neural noise in order to look for the missing visual signals. The noise is interpreted in the higher visual cortex, and can give rise to hallucinations“.) 

 

You know that you are alone here, but you also might hear voices coming from the next room. In the distance a single point of light. Or is it a hallucination brought on by this visual deprivation and guidance? The single point grows brighter as a faint sound score seems to impossibly emanate from the point of light itself . The point of light now moves  freely around the center of the room. Perhaps the single point is joined by other points. Perhaps these points make their way to where you are standing and ask you to follow them through the space. 

 

As you walk toward the center of the room you are enveloped in a cocoon of stars. As you move through, the stars seem to form a thin layer around your body. You notice when you stop moving the stars fade away. It is only when you move that you can be seen. You can hide out in there and watch others enveloped in their own star cocoons (or is it just you in a mirror on the far side of the room, or star cocoons with no physical beings inside – the experience relies and plays on the borders of human perception). Each point of light seems to whisper to you, almost inaudibly. The sea of star whispers being born and fading reminds you of a soft ocean tide in the distance.

 

Little celestial bodies – galaxies – move and discover each other through audience interaction all while being tracked live and provided with a reactive sound score using High Order Ambisonics (here is a dated, but actually incredibly useful explanation) and Wave Field Synthesis (an explanation from my sound collaborator Bobby McElver – we hand fabricated one of only a few working models in the world – which lives at my studio in Gowanus, NYC). 

 

As you continue to explore moving through this galaxy, you notice that the individual whispers are becoming more distinct – you are able to pick out one from another. Eventually you realize you can visit just one point of light and one whisper at a time. You can spend time with these individuals – hear the story of thousands of individuals interviewed for the project. The stories of their loved ones who are now no longer with us – and more often than not, the voices of the loved ones themselves provided by their friends and families.

 

At the experience’s climax, the celestial bodies retrace the paths of their inhabitants and explode into the equivalent of the big bang. Lasting only moments, the big bang reverses to a big crunch and we are left again with a single point of light that gradually dims. And again, nothingness.

 

(*this is just one of a series of experiences I am authoring using this newly created tool.)

 

THE TECHNOLOGY

Much of the technology used in The Stars is custom-built software and hardware systems I have been developing through the making of live experiences over the past ten years. The Stars uses the latest in Ultra Wide Band Microposition Tracking, High Order Ambisonics, Wave Field Synthesis, and 100,000* individually controllable, pixel-mapped, hand-soldered LED “stars” (or points of light) to provide a single individual at a time a journey in which they “become” elements in the early formation of the universe – gliding, colliding, spinning, glowing, and dimming. (* the next phase of the prototype is 1,680 individual points of light)

(the first “napkin sketch” of the volumetric display concept, Andrew Schneider)

 

(3D Vectorworks Rendering for installation at Brown University, Andrew Schneider)

Volumetric 3d displays are fairly new, proprietary, and rare. Even rarer is a volumetric 3d display which you can walk through. I’ve developed my own software for this project using the graphical programming interface “Max”. All of the LEDs are individually controlled using the DMX protocol (the industry standard for theatrical applications) but without a traditional lighting console. The interactivity and 3d animation is all rendered live rather than creating static content. For those familiar with the concept, this installation relies on live pixel-mapping rather than pre-rendered pixel-mapping. This allows me to do things like plug a camera directly into the system for real-time results. Additionally, any video can be imported and played live in the system. These industry-standard platforms are what allow this work to be incredibly and virtually endlessly scalable – as well as deployed in a relatively quick installation process.

 

I started fabrication on Prototype I of this project in late March of 2020 – at the start of the global pandemic and  just after my new choreographic work for Berlin dance company Sasha Waltz & Guests premiered and closed (on the same night) due to the increasing restrictions on public gatherings. With an ever-increasing call for performance work to transition online in the beginning of this year, I chose to double-down on “liveness” – focusing on ways we can pay close attention to the moment and movement we are presently in – in both time and space. I chose to challenge myself to keep curating meaningful experiences in-person rather than on-line.  How can we continue to provide a safe in-person experience? How can we commune? How can we grieve. How can we remember? And how can we say goodbye?

 

NEXT STEPS

 

Prototype I consists of 840 individually controlled points of light (LEDs) in a roughly 22’(l) x 24’(w) x 9’(h) configuration (7 x 5 x 12 LEDs spaced 2’ apart). It is large enough to be able to experience the most important part of an eventual scaled-up version – the ability to walk through and visit with each point of light. Many volumetric displays exist in the world, but very few a person can walk through, and, as far as I know, this is the only one to do what it does.

 

Prototype II expands this footprint, pixel volume, and interactive capability 2 times (literally 2 x all components and space) for a total of 1,680 points of light in a volume roughly 60’(l) x 22’(w) x 9’(h). Prototype II will also attain critical spatial mass to be able to provide ticketed (sliding scale and free) experiences to the public in November of 2021. 

 

I am interested in partnering with organizations to fund, partially fund, or provide in-kind support to any phase of the project along the way. The project is always scalable with an eventual goal of 100,000 individual points of lights and 100,000 individual stories. There are many steps along the way, and each can be shared with a series of in-person public-facing experiences bespoke for one person at a time.

(Fabricating one 32 channel box of the 14 box prototype. Andrew Schneider)

 

Concept, programming, fabrication, sound: Andrew Schneider

Sound programming consultant: Bobby McElver

Programming / Animation consultant: Oren Shoham

Vocal Composer: TBD

 

All inquiries: hello@andrewjs.com

 

ANDREW SCHNEIDER is an OBIE award-winning, Drama Desk nominated performer, writer, and interactive- electronics artist creating original works for theater, dance, sound, video, and installation since 2003. Based in Brooklyn, New York, Schneider creates and performs original performance works, builds interactive electronic art works and installations, and was a Wooster Group company member from 2007-2014. In March of 2020 Andrew premiered the choreographic work »remains« commissioned by the Sasha Waltz & Guests company at Radialsystem in Berlin, Germany. Andrew’s original performance work in NYC includes NERVOUS/SYSTEM (2018 – BAM Next Wave Festival) AFTER (2018 – Under the Radar Festival,The PublicTheater) YOUARENOWHERE (2015 OBIE award – The Invisible Dog,

2016 Drama Desk nom – 3LD); DANCE/FIELD (2014 – Dance Roulette), TIDAL (2013 – River to River festival); and WOW+FLUTTER (2010 – The Chocolate Factory Theater) among others. He is a recipient of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists award (2020) and a fellowship (Junge Akademie) at the Akademie Der Kunst in Berlin (2022).

 

Short Sharable description:

Every point in space occurs once at each moment of time. “The Stars” makes that literal. Moving beyond a self-guided gallery experience, The Stars’ unseen narrator guides each experiencer through their own individual journey of the precisely programmed installation – and the cosmos of themselves. 10,000 individually reactive points of light and a 132-channel sound system envelop each audience member (the current prototype has about 1,000 points of light). Drawing on inspirations as broad as seeing our own Milky Way for the first time, Yayoi Kusama’s incredible Infinity Mirror Room, and Random International’s Rain Room, The Stars invites viewers to become active experiencers – as they explore the traces of themselves in light, the universe, and those who have been here before us.