MICRO_MUTEK
MUELLE BARON 2003
organization> MUTEK is an international organization, with its operational center in Montreal,dedicated to the development and diffusion of emerging forms of electronic music and digital urban culture. In 2003 the MUTEK team came to chile and a proposal was negotiated to realize both a micro_mutek event and subsequently the first Latin american edition of the festival in Valparaiso in 2004. Pol Taylor was appointed the director of MUTEK CHILE, and he undertook the development, design and production of the two events over an 18 month timeframe. The ambition was to take configure the MUTEK initiative to establish an international platform within Valparaiso for collaboration, investigation and experimentation into contemporary digital urban culture.
muelle baron> To situate the festival in its south_pacific context, ARQZE collaborated with MUTEK CHILE in the design of a festival environment on the baron pier, opening a new developmental axis for the city of valparaiso, anticipating emerging urban practices in this port city that has since been defined the cultural capital of chile.
micromutek 2003 > the micromutek event in january 2003 was configured around the installation of the 100m2 screen that integrated the functionality of the existing cranes into the articulation of a spectacular stage that resignified the pier as an event space for the 2700 public that enjoyed the 14 hour event.
shape> the cranes are rotated inversely and asymmetrically hoist the lightweight membrane into its modeled location, where its aerodynamic fuselage negotiates the 100km/hr coastal winds through a minimal deformation of its hyperparabolic surface. the final shape inflects a delicate negotiation between a shade and a screen.
information sky> the mutek screen was designed originally to receive the projection of particle animations, spatializing their appearance by provoking an acceleration across its varied frontality. the scale of the image is unprecedented, and the 7000 ANSI lumens projector cast an artificial information sky across the dance deck.
MUTEK CHILE FESTIVAL
MUELLE BARON_VALPARAISO_2004
mutek.cl 2004> In january 2004 ARQZE produced the spatial field on muelle baron for the 48 hour MUTEK.CL festival, complementing the crane stage screen with the shockwave tent configured as the kbar, and the Klab structure for the real time pavilion. During the afternoon the festival revealed the performance of the crane stage screen as a dynamic shading device, with the public taking advantage of the mobility of 120 red beanbags to displace themselves continuously across the deck in time with the shade.
mutek_dique> The inaugural event of the festival took place on a tug boat loaded with amplification equipment on which the canadian musician deadbeat was situated. The public for this event were located on a series of small tourist boats, and they followed the tug around the bay, entering in and out of the soundfield. The climax of the event took place beside the floating dry dock, whose 100m x 20m steel wall presented a perfect reflection screen for the sound waves. Deadbeat’s microdub was projected towards and delicately echoed back from the wall, crossing the public twice in a carefully planned intervention. The small boats were compressed slowly against the dique wall, the sound floated over the water and bounced back metallically, and for a suspended moment under the afternoon pacific light everyone languished in the complete improbability of the situation as it unfolded
synthetic city> The MUTEKNATION animation competition was projected simultaneously on the crane screen and inside the kbar, including live footage and playback of the afternoon performances, generating a complex system of interrelations in which the musical performance was situated. The spatial field conditions established a correlation with the intense quadraphonic sonic field without being subordinated, producing an integrated eventual situation [synthetic city] that redefined the festivals 48 hour habitational cycle in Valparaiso.
