Illuminate Us
Vanessa Till Hooper 00:06
And it was mesmerizing, every single person who went in there walked out of that space with their face lit up.
Jason Crigler 00:16
You know, you're walking through the streets, but it really does make you look at the city in a different way.
Emily Castro
It's beautiful casting of lights and shadows all along the tunnel for people to see and experience, there was a line around the block for people, you know, waiting to get into this alleyway and see this amazing dancer, you know, casting all these shapes. Just a solid sea of people, every head turned up in this sort of nothing street on the backside of something that,
Vanessa Till Hooper 00:44
You know, people pass by every day, it was electrifying. They will never experience that little, you know, slice of the city of Boston again.
Ryan Edwards 00:54
And I think it's just one of those moments like we're like, this is our city, our city is this school right now. Our city is alive in this way that Barcelona and Montreal and it's here now in our city. That's transformative.
Joel Krieger 01:15
Welcome to outside it. I'm Joel. And I'm Pavani. Each episode will discover design in unexpected places. So these creators may not always call themselves designers, they actually go by many different labels. But they all have one thing in common. They create moments that have the power to change us. We are going to talk about something we haven't talked about in a long time, we're going to talk about being in large crowds of people experiencing beautiful art together, we're going to be talking about celebration, we're going to explore the experience design of a festival, you know, what's it like to make something epic and beautiful together with your community.
Pavani Yalla 02:00
It's about a nighttime Arts Festival that's out of the ordinary. It's art that you probably haven't experienced before.
Joel Krieger 02:11
Imagine your city block. And it's at night, and you walk outside. And everything about it is different. There's hundreds of 1000s of people everywhere. There's projection map buildings, there's performance art, there's interactive installations, everywhere you turn, and you're almost in another dimension, like how did this happen? This is our neighborhood. I mean, that's what Illuminus is. So who are we going to be talking with today who tell us about our guests,
Pavani Yalla 02:39
We're talking to Jeff grants, who is the founder and executive director for the festival, and, you know, clearly a driving force for it. And I don't think that the festival would exist without him. I always love it when we have these conversations. And I think it's going to be about something and then I come out of the conversation. And it's about something else, right, or there's this new layer that was unlocked for me. And I feel like this was one of those conversations where I went into it, assuming like, Hey, this is about a festival, it's going to be fun, we're going to learn about how people were moved or transformed during the festival, which we definitely talk about. But there is this whole other layer to transformation that we talked about, which is the folks who are actually contributing to this festival, and the experience that they go through and the impact that that has on them. And in turn the community and in turn, you know, really the larger, I guess, city, in turn all of us because there's a larger impact story that we hear. So let's get into it. We're going
Joel Krieger 03:44
To begin this interview with Jeff describing in his own words, what Illuminus is,
Jeff Grantz 03:49
The idea was to really transform the city as much as possible. And I think that that's, that's really what people experience if they've walked down a certain street or down a block, or they think they know a neighborhood. And then all of a sudden, the lights go off and the projectors turn on, you know, kind of rogue group of artists takes over the entire neighborhood with sound and projection and performance and light based art and sculpture. A much more vivid or vibrant potential for what the city could be is painted for them and it probably shifts the way that they forever think about that street block. Because you can't kind of can't erase it from that point forward. You know, we've even done abandoned parking lots with, you know, dumpsters in the corner and piles of trash and so forth. And you wouldn't have any idea when you walk out there at nighttime because the light and what you see in Project kind of prevails over any kind of daytime reality. So you really have this opportunity to completely transform a physical space. in its entirety. So it's a pretty powerful medium in that sense.
Joel Krieger 05:03
Yeah. So describe some of these moments. I mean, what are you seeing? I know projection mapping is probably a big part of this. But give me a few glimpses of what might someone see as they walk down a block?
Jeff Grantz 05:15
Sure. I mean, if you can imagine, you know, 15, 20 storey building, becoming an animated Canvas for an artist, and then being able to completely transform it with sound, with light, projected image animation. And often that spills beyond the confines of even the walls and onto ground scapes and landscapes around and foliage and so forth. And then a completely immersive soundscape with that. So, I mean, there's just you're completely transported. And around every corner, we really try to program. You know, curiosity plays a big part of the festival. So there's a lot of people creeping around corners, and just never sure what they're going to see around every corner. And the hope is that we can fulfill those kinds of curiosities. And when they, in fact, peek behind an alleyway because they saw a flint of light or something going on that there's some incredible bespoke thing going on in the corner with a crowd of, you know, 1000 people just packed around trying to see it and, and experience it, you know, those, those are the kind of great little moments that you see. So, I mean, it's fun because the city becomes a playground to a large extent, and kind of a magical little Wonderland for a night or two. And people are inclined to go and explore it, and in a very different way. So. And I also I think what is powerful is that there's this reverence, I think that people bring to the experience and you, you really feel and sense that when you walk into the space, I think, in the almost 10 years that we've been throwing festivals between New York and Boston, we've only had one instance in which someone you know, came out of a bar and affiliated perhaps with the festival and tripped over the street curb and aside from that, we have never had an incidence of violence or, or have any kind of kind of disruption in any way, shape or form. It's almost as if the same sort of reverence you would bring into a library into a church or to a museum is now that it's turned inside out and the entirety of an urban streetscape is turned into that type of reverential experience. It's pretty interesting.
Joel Krieger 07:40
Oh, wow, that's really that is really interesting. Because in my mind's eye, I kind of imagined a bit more of a party atmosphere to a sense, but it's not it's it sounds like it's, you're, you're exploring, you're wandering around.
Jeff Grantz 07:54
I mean, it's very, it depends. I mean, there's definitely moments of high energy. Yeah. I mean, in 2015, we did a piece in particular called Waking the monster and you had a percussionists, a dancer and performance kind of choreographer and a visual artist. They proposed a piece, which was actually nine different musical segments, all of which were taking advantage of the backside of Fenway Park, which has a really complicated architectural structure of beams and steel girders, and such. And we climbed up into those steel girders, and we mapped every sound that every steel beam would make when you hit it with various sticks and pipes. And we mapped out the whole thing, and actually created a sample sheet of music and sounds that were then provided to the community at large and Boston of composers and people from Berkeley to compose six musical scores based on the musical notes and what was available, sonically that the the green monster could support as a musical instrument. And then these nine, six different composers, nine different pieces were played out. And if you can imagine the energy of we had an ample hyper amplified 3d projection mapped you know, 300, some odd foot surface that when you strike it with a mallet, it was coordinated to not only register and project accordingly, so the steel girders would light up in the area that was hit. And the whole thing was sound responsive. But also the entire thing was amplified. So we had contact microphones strung throughout the entire backside of the green monster. And they had these huge percussion performances. That when amplified, I mean, you felt like you were going to war. The best way I can think to describe it, I mean, the energy level, there was one in particular where they just had a crescendo. I don't remember the musical term. It's not actually crescendo and volume, but I think that's called Andante. When it continues to get faster and faster and faster. And so imagine we had, we had something like 50 or 60,000 people in the street standing remotely like this walking down behind Fenway Park, even to the extent that the people who run Fenway came out and said, we had never, not even since the Red Sox won the World Series have we seen this many people packed onto the street. And, and the energy level started, they just did the dumb to do to do, and it just got faster at the top, and it just built faster and faster. And you had 50,000 people on the street that were like, by the time it reached, its kind of like climax speed, everyone was just the whole street was bouncing, and everyone's just about to jump out of their skin. But then it ended with thank God, I think there was a violin. violin Actually, yeah, bring it back down, before everyone started, like climbing the buildings and stuff, but it was tremendous. And, and again, it was such a spectacle. I mean, like, it just people had no idea what to expect. Again, around every corner, the parking garage was transformed into, you know, an immersive gallery space, we had like 15 different art installations in there, some of which you could go in and touch and feel and others which you could walk through. And some you could explore somewhere just in intended to be to be seen and, and viewed as a group. So it was really just a really mixed bag. So that was a fun experience.
Pavani Yalla 11:37
That piece at Fenway Park, it sounds amazing. And obviously very site specific. Right? Like you can't recreate that somewhere else. So I'm curious about the different art works and how you select them. And agent, what does that process look like? What are you looking for when you're curating the program?
Jeff Grantz 12:00
So we have a curatorial team who have tremendous insights, and they have their pulse on, you know, the cultures and the ethnicities and the different groups and neighborhoods and the artists that exist within them. And if the festival is intending to be an appropriate cross section, and representation of what the city has to offer, we really want to also in turn, make sure that the curators and those who are, you know, working equally as hard to bring attention to the artists working in their communities, provide them an opportunity to bring those artists to our attention. So every year we have a team of curators, sometimes it's as many as eight. It's been interesting, it's always kind of a research and development. It's a work in progress, if you will. And we're trying to remain open and flexible to both opportunities and spaces and artists and curators and different ways of thinking about how the festival can evolve over time. I don't I don't want anyone to figure it out. That's the thing, if you figured it out, it gets boring real quick. Every year, there's like, Oh, you know, sometimes and it's sometimes people complain about it. Other times people are like, Oh my God, this was incredible, you know, but whatever, as long as they can never quite figure it out. You know,
Pavani Yalla 13:25
Earlier when you were talking about eliciting curiosity, the designer in me was like, wanting to hear more around some of these decisions that are more intentional, cuz you're working with artists, you know, there's art, but then you're also very strategically placing things in certain places or orchestrating crowds. So can you talk a little bit more about some of those intentional decisions that you're making? And, and why? As you're thinking about, you know, envisioning a night
Jeff Grantz 13:53
Sure, I mean, our goal is to really immerse the guests and to think about them as not just individuals, but as groups moving through this urban space. And think about density. And then think about, you know, expanse, kind of an expansion and contraction of people moving through a space and having both intimate opportunities to, to witness and see, you know, works of art. And then in other instances, to watch spectacles as a large group and excitement that happens when you hear music. So we try to take responsibility for all of it, both the choreography of people moving through the space, the curation of art and its relationship, both to the people that are viewing it, the context of the work next to it, and the site specificity and whatever relationship is derived there. Each of the artists is usually only thinking about their own specific piece. And then the larger role of the curatorial team and our production team is to think about the context in which these pieces exist as an overarching kind of experience. And we want there to be a certain level of continuity, but we're certainly not looking for someone to be like, Oh, you know, you move from one and the theme is just so you know, aligned, that you see this common thread through everything, because it's just not the way the city is. And it's boring. So we don't want people to ever really figure it out. But we also want the works to be relevant to each other as you move from one to the other. You know, it's hard to answer because every year, it's so different. I mean, it really is, I found that the right ingredients are kind of as I was describing before, that the festival has these expansion and contraction. You know, a lot of times people are saying, Well, why don't we spread it further away, and, you know, cover more of the city. And, you know, people can just kind of peruse around here. And that, for me, doesn't work, there has to be these instances in which 10 or 20,000 people gather in an area, because there's an energy and synergy amongst people and, and an awareness of the context of those individuals and their community. And in the city, there's a connectedness that you just can't replace, and it's very seldom, if ever, it's one thing to like, gather along the Esplanade and watch the fire, fireworks go off, or maybe even to like gather along a parade route, you know, if the foot sports team wins, but this is one of the few, if only opportunities where you're like gathering in an urban street space, you know, 20 3040, you know, we've had as many as 60 plus 1000 people in the streets, there to witness art, and to be a part of, of something like that. So I think the density is really a critical aspect to it, for the connectedness that it creates, in the sense of a shared kind of community experience. And then, you know, beacons are really important things that visually and sonically kind of pull you and help you to navigate through. So it's a lot of the same things that an urban planner would consider in terms of like, you have a sight line here, can we give a glimpse of something that brings you around the corner, so you know how to navigate this, because people arrive, they don't, we provide them a map, and it's available on their iPhone as well. And now we have an overlay of a virtual gallery in which you can navigate stuff and things like that. But, you know, largely, you can leave all that stuff behind, and you can just both follow the crowds. And you can see these beacons that lure you to different areas. I think that programming is I was saying earlier, the redundancy of using once you invest in supporting an area as an experiential zone, a lot of times the same infrastructure, you have a sound infrastructure, you have a light and a visual infrastructure, and you have potentially performance infrastructure, staging, and rigging and things that could support those things to happen. Once you have that in place, I think you want to take advantage of adapting it to as many different installations as you can, because it also is incredibly compelling for people to take a walk around the block. And then 20 minutes later to circle back on itself. And they're like, what happened like this, it's literally not even the same environment. All of a sudden, the projectors that were, in one instance facing this way are now hitting this and the trees are now the canvas. And now all of a sudden, the stage is turned off. But the whole thing is this, you know, immersive soundscape. And there's DJs walking around with roving DJ kids and like what is going on here? Like you just never let them figure it out. They're constantly trying to situate themselves in the experience. And so I find that these 15 to 20 minute intervals, even though a lot of the times the artists want their works to be, you know, 40 and 45 minute, unfortunately, the attention spans, especially in large crowds, are very short. So we work with the artists in the groups to help them to understand that we've seen successes and failures. And we've seen things where people just dwindle, you lose interest. You know you've seen it, you felt that you've heard it and so you just kind of Milan and then you come back to it 20 minutes later, and it's the same thing, you know, so, again, with trying to maximize the resources that we have, which are often the largest expense to throwing these festivals, try and capitalize on that infrastructure as much as possible and make sure that the programming is constantly changing and keeps people on their toes. So that works really well.
Pavani Yalla 19:58
Clearly, this festival is, you know, both the curation and the orchestration of it are highly designed. But I'm imagining that you've honed these skills over the years. What was your one? Like? Can you take us back to that first year
Jeff Grantz 20:18
2014 no one knew who we were and what it was. And it was still an amazing, I think we had 20 something 1000 people in attendance, there were kids from all over every neighborhood, every color, you know, parents with their kids and strollers that, you know, 11 o'clock at night and, you know, push just in all of what they were walking into, and had no idea. And the common thing that you heard over and over again, that year, which I loved was I can't believe this is Boston. So that's the point, this, this, in fact, is Boston, you just didn't have the opportunity to show it. I mean, we didn't have the platform to kind of demonstrate it in that way. And so you know, because normally those experiences are sequestered to little bars, a little music clubs, or little theaters and things like that they're not experienced at that magnitude. And in a way, where you have the community at large kind of side by side, shoulder to shoulder as a huge gathering of people. There's no way to kind of replace that energy and that dynamic that comes when you have 30 40,000 people sharing the same experience at the same time. And that experience is art, you know, in a public space like that, it's tremendous. First year, we had when I say we bootstrapped it. I mean, like 90% of that festival went on a credit card. And, and your and we Yeah, unfortunately. But it's all an investment, you know, like, I knew that it would pay off in the long term, whether commercially or or, you know, or otherwise, it just needed to happen. I mean, it absolutely needed to happen. So at that point, once myself, and a core group of people decided for me to happen, it was just going to happen, like come hell or high water and, you know, books and, like, whatever it took, it didn't matter. You know, we'll figure that out later. It's like, Yeah, what was the catalyst you said, you know, you decided it needed to happen. Um, we had, I helped to produce a festival called flashlight. And then, in New York, under the umbrella of Nui blush, New York, which was started by another group of artists, Ethan Vogt was one of the directors there, and he's local now in Massachusetts was a former roommate of mine going back, I don't know, 15 years or something. And so he had invited me back in New York, to come down and help participate as an artist. So I didn't, that was my first 3d projection mapping piece. But in the role of, you know, helping to do this one piece on the outside of a cathedral at old St. Patrick's Cathedral, which is a projection mapping installation we had done, I also realized that, you know, that, that the festival was probably 300 $400,000, short of manifesting, you know, to existing, I mean, it needed a lot of financial help. And so I was working with a lot of executive teams and luxury brands and stuff and kind of, you know, saw the opportunity that could exist, because I think that the great brands, they, see the relevance in investing in these types of undertakings. And when I presented the opportunity, hey, we were going to do an urban takeover of Soho, you know, we're going to take over basically from Broadway all the way to housden. And from I think we did from Prince street all the way up to Helston and we're taking over the new museum and, you know, old St. Patrick's Cathedral and empty parking garages and alleyways and building facades, and what do you say you want to chip in a couple 100 grand and help make this amazing thing happen. And, we also develop some luxury kind of tangential events that they were doing and inviting their kind of their clientele to, and then they got to walk out in the streets and see, you know, this, this experience that they had played a huge part in helping to make happen financially. So that was in 2011, I think, maybe 2012. And then I just kept driving back and forth between Boston and New York, living in Boston, but driving to New York to make interesting things happen. And then at some point, I'm like, Why do I keep going down to New York, when I'm surrounded by MIT Media Lab and Harvard GSD. And I have, you know, you know, mass art here and these amazing, talented people that I'm interfacing with in the Boston community and they have no outlet like this. They have no platform to enable them. To go and showcase their work at this magnitude, and so then my focus became, you know, how do we make that happen. And so, as is always the case, it's really kind of like, make something out of nothing kind of mentality, you know, Manifest Destiny, if you will, and just saying this is going to happen, you know, and telling everyone in the room, this is going to happen, yep, we're gonna throw a festival next year, like, we're going to take over, you know, foursquare city blocks is going to be, you know, maybe 30 40,000 people there, and we're going to, we're going to do this thing. And I showed them pictures of work we had done in the past, so it didn't seem impossible.
Pavani Yalla 25:37
How did you go from thinking it or saying it to making it actually happen?
Jeff Grantz 25:43
Sure. I mean, we had an open call to artists, designers, musicians, performers, creatives in the greater Boston area who were interested in making a contemporary expression of Boston, by way of an arts festival. That was really all the, the, the invitation really described. And so we showed up at this place called the innovation district in Boston, and they, you know, provided a space for free. Every wall was this giant whiteboard. And so we had this interactive charrette in which I presented to them, what festivals have looked like in the past. And kind of just pose the question like if we were to have this opportunity, and we were to do something, as a statement, you know, a Boston expression of us and all the things that we think are important and a demonstration of our capabilities collectively as a creative community in Boston, what would we want to look like, what we want its name to be and what would its mission statement be. And then I put that out to the group, and had them break up into 10 teams. So we had 15 people per team. And each of which were acting as a little branding group or, you know, they were doing their own little creative charrette. Internally, they came up with a name, and they came up with a mission statement. And, and then we had each of the 10 or so teams present back to the group at large what the name was, and what the mission statement was. And then everyone, we said, the idea was to vote with your feet. So everyone had drawn this word and written the statement on a wall. And so the whole group, after all presentations were done, would navigate towards the name and the mission statement that resonated most with them. And the problem was, that we had an even number of people, and we quite literally had 50% of the room. During this voting, you know, thing, which we thought was going to work out perfectly, we had 50%, on one side of the room and 50% on the other side of the room, and two completely different names, we had to illuminate. And we had momentous, so momentous and illuminate two different creative factions on the opposite sides of the room. And arguing and pitching to each other across the room is like no, come to us, you know, so we can tip the scales towards momentous No no, no illuminate. And there, you know. And eventually, we were able to negotiate a treaty between the two factions, and Illuminous was born. So it became a hybrid of momentous and illuminating. And the mission statements between both sides were kind of merged. You know, when it when it was important, that the city and the artists in it, were really looking for an opportunity to create a contemporary expression of Boston, and albeit all the historical underpinnings of the amazing cultural, you know, historical context and everything that they were looking for a way to present, you know, and help people to envision the city as they see it, and to use various disciplines, performing arts, visual arts, musical, sound, spoken word, dance, I mean, we had it all during the first festival. And so it was, it was a fun year. It's been fun every year. So I gotta
Joel Krieger 29:07
Say, that's one of the very few times I feel like a compromise ends up in a better option. frankensteining choice A and choice B,
Jeff Grantz 29:16
Not to mention, not to mention a, you know, a compromise between 100 plus artists, which doesn't seem doesn't seem possible. But uh, but but it was, and it was great because there was that vested interest in, in this undertaking as well. So the whole thing was, wasn't really intended to, you know, engage the community to empower them to get them excited about it. And then once we had that, those advocates and ambassadors from the creative side, and we began to identify curators who, you know, these are people who already work and exist and do tremendous stuff in the city. And again, stronger combined them we were separate, we kind of forged this thing. together and leveraged as well, our connections and network with the city. And permitting had always been a huge, huge hurdle, both from a cost perspective and just logistically trying to negotiate with permitting who didn't understand artists, and they were, you know, at first very apprehensive about Yeah, we're gonna do a takeover. And we're Yeah, by the way, we need to turn all the streets light street lights out. And for four blocks, we're going to shut down the entire city. And, you know, yeah, it took some convincing the first festival, but then when they saw it, and they got there, it, it was like smooth sailing from that point forward, because they immediately got it. I mean, the fire marshal and the and the police chief and the, you know, the Chief of Staff for the mayor's office, and everyone came out in full regalia. You know, the, the fire chief had the full, you know, medals and badges and everything is walking through. And they were so proud of that thing, because they had extended a tremendous amount of flexibility. And I think trust in something they didn't know or understand at first, but when they saw it, and they felt that they got it right away.
Joel Krieger 31:09
I kind of want to dig into this a bit, you know, when I think about the, the word co creation, and as I imagine what an unwieldy endeavor, it must be to try to orchestrate all these people, because I was reading on the website, it says, it's, it's designed by and for the community of Boston. And, you know, this, there's no easy feat to to create a sense of ownership across such a large, diverse group of people. But I have to imagine that pulling something like this off, that sense of ownership and participation is, is paramount to making this successful. I mean, what's that? What's that process like as a as an orchestrator of all these different pieces,
Jeff Grantz 31:56
We try to make it as interactive as possible. Because if we, if it's just a matter of like us, as an organization, kind of negotiating with artists and like, you're going to do the site specific thing, and then the festival happens and they walk away, it's a huge opportunity lost, the real meat of it is, and I think the benefit to the community, to the artists and to all those who are involved is the process through which these works are conceived and ultimately even produced and the amount of collaboration that can happen as a result of that. And the most successful pieces have always come from this process in which we do our initial walkthrough. So we first have an open call. We have, you know, 100 or so other artists who come and they join, and we walk through the city, and we talk about opportunities that we see there spatially and on buildings and alleyways. And here's an empty court and like, look at this amazing, you know, public fountain that's been shut down for 10 years. And here's a vacant parking lot. And you know, wouldn't that be, and we just walked through, and everyone's looking around. And you never think of the city like that, you know, you just walk through an abandoned parking lot. But when all of a sudden you present the opportunity to a group of artists and designers like this isn't an open parking lot. This is a stage, this is a platform, this is a canvas, this is an immersive environment. Imagine if we put a screen over the top or we you know, create a ceiling of lasers across the entire you know, streetscape and Nelson, they're like, we can do that. And like, yeah, we can do that. And so we kind of feed them some possibilities. And then they go off, and they come back and submit their concepts. And that's, that's fun in itself. Part of that curatorial process is actually, you know, trying to identify when there's really interesting aspects to someone's proposal, but it's maybe not quite there. Because it's, you know, they've only been working on it for two weeks, or three weeks, and maybe a month at most. And so we'll call them up and we'll, you know, we're not going to dismiss and be like, well, that's not polished enough, or whatever, we'll call them up. And we'll say, like, we saw, or we felt some really interesting things in your work. And we'd like to bring you back and talk about it, or really fun thing is that we saw some really interesting things in your work. But we also have work that was presented, for example, your visual artists, and you suggested this, you know, huge 3d projection mapping installation and this tunnel or whatever. But here we have a performance artist or a DJ ensemble, and they have no visual, you know, aspect to their work. We're not going to impose anything, but why don't we orchestrate a conversation and see what comes of it? Maybe it's two things. So we try to make those introductions happen. And I mean, you usually if not always, everyone's you know, just the synergies going back and forth. And that would be amazing. And you have the people collaborating and and it's in that in energy that I, I think, like, the real point of the festival, for me and for a lot of the artists is that process of developing those works, the site specificity of them trying to contextualize them. And also taking advantage of the opportunity to collaborate with other disciplines and other you know creatives, because you have to anyway, because a lot of the pieces start to overlap and merge. And once you have no one's on the coattails of the other, and quite literally, you can hear something in your right ear and walk over and experience something in the opposite direction. And so there's always, you know, which part of the curatorial process is the moving from one work to the other?
Joel Krieger 35:46
Well, I love the notion that, you know, it's like you think about a festival, being put on for a community, and most people think about that instead of experiencing it. But what I heard you just talk through, makes me value so much more the act of putting this on as a community builder. And I mean, would you say that the local creative community became stronger and changed somehow as a result of this process? And is it a lasting change? Big time,
Jeff Grantz 36:19
huge, huge galvanizing moment, I think for the creatives. And yes, I mean, there were alliances formed, there were creative groups established, they were companies that were, you know, spun out of this. And then there were smaller entities who knew no one knew, and who you would see just a few years later, who were, you know, creative directors of this or brought on board because they, they now had, you know, a demonstration of their capacity when, when they had a team and production and some resources behind them, they could, they could produce something incredible. We've seen people go into art school and change their career paths, because of it. And, also, we've seen a lot of artists working in traditional mediums, who, when they were challenged, to work, and to digitize their work often, not that it always has to be digital. But you know, we had an artist, several artists who previously only worked to do murals or paintings, or were small sculptures, and then all of a sudden, we would challenge them with a piece, like your paintings are amazing, what if they were, you know, 275 feet wide and 89 feet tall and stretched across the entirety of this, you know, architectural facade, and we put a team of stop frame animators behind you and After Effects designers and, and you could help to creatively direct and create the assets that they could then use and manipulate. And from that point forward, you know, the majority of their work now is animated, and with layers, and you know, it's a completely different direction for them. And I think, one that they're usually excited to continue to explore.
Pavani Yalla 38:08
So empowering. I'm just thinking about how this podcast is about the moments that changes are the moments of transformers, and I think like Joel was getting at, I think we're expecting that the people who are attending your event are leaving somewhat transformed. And of course, there's that aspect, but you're unpacking this whole other element to me that's, so these artists are probably realizing and empowered by the potential right of their work, not only for themselves, but also for the city. So that just sounds so
Jeff Grantz 38:40
We already feel the artists have this stature. But I would say that the community at large, doesn't understand the capacity that artists have to transform cities around them. And, you know, politicians can speak to it, and poets can write about it, and everyone else can, you know, give lip service to like, what's possible and, and try and paint pictures with words, but an artist group, and in a platform like this can quite literally go out and create a visual, physical, experiential demonstration of what is possible, and what a city could actually be. And, you know, that's a rare, a rare talent that really only artists and creatives come to the table with, and that's why I think that it would serve cities better companies better, you know, the world at large better is to bring artists and designers and creatives to the table in that capacity to be part of designing cities and thinking about creative uses and programs and ways to activate public space and to engage communities and provide them you know, opportunities to interact with each other in, you know, in the most optimal way possible. And I think that the most profound or important aspect to these festivals are the instances in which we are able to actually interact with the community as well. And so the artist becomes the one who gets to interpret, I'll give you an example. Boston's very siloed, incredibly siloed, very segregated, racially, you know, economically, I mean, there's just anyone who lives in the city knows it, you can, you can see the divide, I mean, it's palpable, walking from one neighborhood to the other. The disconnect, culturally, that exists here, on a positive note, I think everyone wants to have these cultural interactions with others, with other neighborhoods and with other ways of thinking and cultures and ethnicities and stuff. But when, when you bring these people from various neighborhoods, various different backgrounds, into a room, and with an artist, you know, in front of them, and the conversations around, you know, like you as a community, we need you to tell us and to provide us the sources of inspiration from which a soundtrack or a musical composition is going to be created for the city. And so we need it to appropriately represent the different cultural backgrounds and the different viewpoints, and maybe even some of the struggles and challenges that we as a city have, but also, you know, resolve itself perhaps in it musically, in expressing, you know, our potential in the positive sense. So imagine what posing that kind of question to a group of people from a community, what opportunities it could provide in a very constructive way, almost like a therapeutic session, you know, that people can talk about, you know, some of the challenges that they see in the city, they can identify those things for what they are, but they can talk about them in the context of being focused on a celebratory expression of the city, and have really constructive conversations, you know, not, not this that we see in the world through social media, and, you know, direct frontal attack and like, it's this path where you can focus their attention on something that is good and positive, and celebratory and such, but all the while, have some really deep and meaningful conversations that are perhaps transformative to anyone who's involved with them. And, you know, it serves as inspiration for an artist to develop a musical soundtrack and a score that would be heard as you move them through the festival. So take that example of a community engagement and how the artists can serve as a catalyst to pose incredibly deep and meaningful questions. So community and use art as a way to work through some of those things, and then to express them and then to paint a vision for the future positive one, potentially, and multiply that times 30 or 40 different artists, and then have an opportunity for which that community can come back and can see an experience and know that they were a part of painting that scene.
Joel Krieger 43:21
So for those two nights, the silos come down. So there's exposure and conversations that are happening that wouldn't have happened before. And is there a longevity to that? Is there any sort of, I don't know, like cracking the wall of this siloed nature that emerges as a result of this mixing.
Jeff Grantz 43:44
Definitely for that weekend, for sure. I think the thing that we're hoping to do, and every year I say the same thing, I want this to be every night. You know, I don't want this to be a once a weekend, year thing that people look forward to celebrating their city, their communities, the artists seeing the full potential, I want it to be every frickin weekend. Like, why wouldn't it be? So, you know, my new and Illuminous’ goal is, I think the future lies in making a kit of parts. We have learned a lot in terms of the logistics of supporting funding, producing these kinds of festivals. And what what we're going to begin to apply is all the tricks that we've we've learned in making it more cost effective, leveraging a system of production system with light projection, sound stages, rigging and stuff that can be much more cost effectively deployed and is intended to be wildly adapted to different site specific conditions in an urban context. What we're working towards is a much more modular, streamlined, almost like a kit of parts that can roll out of a truck. In a lot of cases, we're looking now to even make it solar powered and rely on power that's entirely off the grid. So it's gonna be battery operated. So we've developed a system that can support large scale projectors for the better part of five or six hours, which is long enough to support the festival. And basically roll out these things in waterproof enclosures, projection in them, sound already built to them, content delivery management systems that are, you know, you almost just push to push a button, and we can auto calibrate onto the exterior of buildings and walls and such, and cut out all these tremendous production costs that otherwise are. They're great because they keep people you know, working in the production world, but they're, it's a huge hindrance, because we really, that's what we every year struggle to afford, is the production costs behind this. And the other thing is scanning public space. So we're looking to digitize public space, and literally go in and scan them with high definition LIDAR scanners and drones, and be able to provide the artists with a really versatile digital Canvas in which they can create in whatever mode or medium that they work in, we can give them paper templates extracted from those 3d models, we can give them really detailed OBJ files, or they can bring it into a gaming engine, or they can bring it into you know, after effects or 3d Studio Max, whatever platform they work in. And they can generate site specific works of art that we can then project back into that physical environment and know, we'll be perfectly aligned basically.
Joel Krieger 46:42
Wow. It sounds like a well oiled operation at that point. And not yet what Yeah, well, once you have this, but you have to speak to it as if it is and then it will be someday. It's a great vision.
Pavani Yalla 46:56
Could you tell us more about some of your favorite moments from the festival? I mean, you've mentioned a few I feel like already, but the more we hear about this, the more I just want to transport myself to one of those moments. I think,
Jeff Grantz 47:11
For me the most magical moments, though, ironically, say one. One is the obvious. It's the big spectacles, where we just create this incredible, finely tuned, highly well produced, projection mapping spectacle that completely alters someone's, you know, perception of a building or of an environment and it's just dialed in so well, and the sound is so perfect. And I mean, because you really can change the materiality of anything and everything around you, because the projected light and the content prevails over everything. And from certain vantage points, you can make things look like they've turned into water evaporated, or falling apart or disappearing altogether. And so you can build a completely different reality. That's amazing. But I think the more magical moments for me are these little intimate instances where you, you're like, What's going on over there, and you go over, and you see this group of people huddled around this little tent or this little installation, or sometimes you see a line 3000 people deep, waiting to get into nothing but an eight foot by 10 foot shipping container, and you're just like, what is in there. And so you wait in line 3000 people deep to, you know, to get to walk in and have this super unique, independent little intimate experience. I was remembering one installation that was done by the Boston Academy of Arts and it's a local high school. And it was done in conjunction with another nonprofit organization that goes into the community and provides these creative outlets for kids. Unfortunately, the name is escaping me right now. But what they had done was an interactive map. And it was basically construction paper and dayglo paint, and a big craft table, and a somewhat 3d dimensionalized map of the city of Boston and all the different neighborhoods that existed in it. And the kids were drawing with their dayglow markers, and they're cutting out and you know, cutting out what looked like their houses or their apartment complex or wherever they lived. And then they would bend a flap on the back so that their house would stand straight up. Whether it was to scale or not didn't matter. And then they would find themselves on this giant map and they would plant their house there and you would see the building over the course of a you know, five hour period or the the map over five hour period the city was built and a representation of you know, the accent I was saying before a real cross section of the city in the different neighborhoods. And you know, you could see the little miniature representations of the architecture and You know, whether someone lived in a single home with a giant tenement building or, or so forth. So that was really powerful to me just to see these kids interacting in that way with this, you know, it wasn't anything digitally kind of sophisticated about it whatsoever. But it was highly interactive. It was a community building experience. And it was something that was shared that I think everyone got on a much deeper level.
Pavani Yalla 50:27
So I keep tearing up. And I'm realizing I think it has a lot to do with the fact that we're in the middle of a pandemic right now. And, you know, we aren't having as many of these shared moments, publicly at least. And so I'm curious about how COVID has affected the festival? I think you didn't do one in 2020? What are your plans for, you know, 2021? And do you feel like there's going to be an effect, either lingering or, you know, transformation, because of what we've all gone through?
Jeff Grantz 51:01
I tear up too. I definitely think there's gonna be an undercurrent of pent up energy needs, and want for these types of things to happen. And my hope is that the city recognizes, and the artists honestly recognize the rare opportunity, we're actually going to have coming out of COVID of doing something tremendous, because if the city appropriately and when I say city, I mean at large, the organizations, nonprofits, corporations that have the money and the wherewithal to help fund and who are asking the questions like, how do we bring people back into the city? How do we reactivate our urban, you know, downtown areas? How do we reinvigorate our streets and our economies and so forth? This is the answer. artists and this type of programming and these types of opportunities. A, it's a tremendous opportunity for artists to rise to the occasion and to be seen as, as they are, as an incredible resource to, again, painting. It sounds cheesy, but a much brighter future, and to represent things that don't currently exist, representing them in a way that can be shared and experienced. And all the while also engaging in really meaningful conversations and dialogues with the community in a constructive way. Can't wait. Yes, post COVID is going to be very, very interesting. time though, but you know, think about it, like, we're not going to be spilling into movie theaters, we're certainly not going to be gathering in a small gallery environments, I mean, this, we're actually very well, and very uniquely positioned to support a very, you know, needed thing, I think, in the city, because we can do it safely, we can do it with distance between us, we can do it in a way that's, you know, allows us to have a community experience where we have people gathering, but in a, in a safer way than in a closed environment. So again, we're going to be working to resolve this kit of parts, I think that's going to help us to sustain in the years ahead, and in doing so we're going to be able to take it on the road, we're going to be able to go to other cities throughout New England. Other areas that I think would hugely benefit from that opportunity to celebrate themselves, to celebrate their artists to paint a vision for the future for the future, especially coming out of COVID. Because we need it, we miss it, you know, yeah, it's really simple. At the end of the day, you know, we enjoy sitting around and sharing experiences with each other and know that we belong to something bigger than ourselves. And, we're also lonely. I mean, as you know, society, we're all incredibly lonely right now. And we missed that.
Pavani Yalla 54:06
I think it's also really interesting that right now, when we're all working virtually, right, we don't, our relationship to our city has changed as well. We're not commuting, we're not seeing the same places. And so even now, when I do venture out on the weekends, typically, and we're going somewhere, things feel different. And my relationship to the city, I think, has changed through this. So it'll be really interesting to see how, again, a festival like this might. It's not only needed, but I'd be interested to see how people react just because of their relationship because you said it was all about how they see the city. Right and like what they envision for the city. And that's already changed for many people.
Jeff Grantz 54:47
Yeah, I think so. And it's an interesting opportunity. I mean, to put a positive spin on all of it is like, we may not that we've forgotten but it's an opportunity to create a new, you know, relationship. With the city and how we interact with each other in it, and so, you know, I think it's a really important time that we not just go back to the same old thing like, No, we can, we maybe have different priorities now than we ever did before. And I think we would be well served to, to, to listen to that, and to try and find those ways to connect people in more meaningful ways with the city and with each other, and to realize the importance of community and, and, and other people around you. So yeah, I'm hopeful. Yeah,
Joel Krieger 55:49
we need a time of renewal. And that's for sure. Fingers crossed, fingers crossed, fingers crossed. Let's break down this experience, shall we? Let's do it. I think it's helpful to think about transformation here on a couple different levels. The first is the creative community that put the festival together. And then there's the people who came out to experience it. So maybe we'll talk about the creators. First, it seems like there was a lasting cohesion for the arts community, because of Illuminus. That wasn't there before. So Jeff listed all sorts of examples of, you know, people found new creative partners, they changed their careers, they started companies together. So there are so many synergies that were created as a result of this festival. So in many ways, this is really a story of regenerative culture design, with the creative community of Boston at its core. You know, Jeff, clearly understands how to weave the threads of community together. And so it's interesting to think about, okay, what are the things that he did? How did he do this? I think the first is, he embraced co creation, which is, I think, a word that gets tossed around a lot. Like, I know you, and I've heard it a lot. And it's not an easy thing to do. I mean, I think that if you really want to involve a community, you have to let go of what you thought it could be. And you got to let what wants to happen happen, you gotta let this emergent process take shape, it's a pretty cool thing to witness. I mean, collective intelligence is a very real thing. And it's not easy to get going. But when you do it is totally worth it. We both have experienced this before. And when I first tried to stretch myself to think about creativity in this way, it was often very frustrating. For me personally, you know, part of the creative process is holding a vision in your mind. And you have to love that vision. And you have to feel some sense of ownership over that vision, in order to follow through to make it real. And I think for a lot of creative practitioners, it can sometimes be difficult to let go. And to accept the fact that when you do with people you trust, and you allow this thing to evolve, by the contributions of all the people around you, that it becomes something so much more beautiful and amazing than it ever could have been by you clinging to your original vision of what it could be. And for me, that was a hard bridge to cross. Yeah. And once I got there, it was like, Oh, my God, I can never go back. This is so much better. And it's more fun.
Pavani Yalla 58:45
Yeah. Well, once you get there, like you said, you know that it's better, and you want to do it over and over again. But I think what Jeff and team do is that they help people get there, right? So they're facilitating their nudging. So he mentioned they do the walkthrough together. And then maybe artists come back with their proposals. And they'll throw people together and be like, what if you did this with this person, and they won't force it, but they'll just kind of put a nudge, and it's enough to kind of get things going. And I'm sure that that process has got to be painful the first time for artists who aren't used to collaborating with each other. But it actually reminds me of when I was talking to Ryan Edwards, who did the piece wicking the monster. So we, you know, later talked to him to learn more about it. And he mentioned that it helped their crew get close really quickly, because they had to be vulnerable with each other and, and really work through some stuff. So I think when you go into it, yeah, you kind of it's not fun, perhaps, but once you come out of it, the other end and you see the result, then you kind of I would hope get addicted to it.
Joel Krieger 59:52
Yeah, I could see how it could become addictive. It seems like co-creation worked here. Because everyone had this vested interest in seeing this project come to life. So I think an interesting question for all of us to live into is, well, if we're taking on a complex project like this, how do we align the people in our community around a shared interest?
Pavani Yalla 1:00:16
Yeah, you just acknowledge that there's two different types of transformations that are occurring here. The first one being the creators, which I honestly, for me, was a surprising one, I had just imagined, hey, we're going to be talking to Jeff who's created these amazing festivals. And it's transformative to people who are attending, I hadn't really thought about that. The creators themselves are going through a transformation. So for me, that was kind of an illumination through the conversation. But then going back to the, I guess, more obvious transformation, folks who are attending, what are they going through.
Joel Krieger 1:00:55
The first thing that comes to mind around the participants is, obviously, the city changes. So there's this clear physical transformation of the city itself, you got projection mapping everywhere, it's like a total Wonderland. But that physical transformation only last for a couple of nights. But in the mind, this transformation is forever. experiences like this, have a way of creating openings for people. And you can almost see it happen, people start to see possibility for their community where there was none before. They heard people say, Wow, I can't believe this is Boston. And it's because they're seeing this place that they know, as a siloed, segregated, you know, city in a totally new light. And it expands the spectrum of what they thought possible. And it makes you realize that our default reality does not have to be this way. It's not locked in. And I think that's a really powerful realization to have. I kept thinking about Jeff said, I don't want anyone to figure it out, never let them figure it out. And so that creates this situation where you can never quite find your footing. People are constantly trying to orient themselves within the experience. And so there's this disorientation. Just when you think you know where you are, and what you think is going on, it changes. And I feel like there's something about that, that further helps to shake people loose from their reality. Yeah,
Pavani Yalla 1:02:25
I actually think that's the secret sauce to everything that he's doing here on the hole, which is the science behind surprise. When you encounter something that completely shatters your expectations, it surprises you, which makes your brain light up in a very specific way, it actually releases dopamine, which feels good if it's a good surprise, but it also wakes you up out of autopilot and kind of gets you to tune in and kicks you into a curiosity loop. Where you're trying to figure out what it is that I'm looking at right here, you're trying to make sense of it. And that surprise, and curiosity then lead to that openness, that you're talking about an openness to new ideas or a new understanding of what you're looking at. So you kind of go through a mini shift in state from Whoa, that's not possible to How is that possible to Okay, clearly, that's possible. And I guess there are many other things that I didn't think possible before that could be right. So you're going from, again, surprised to curious to open. And the research actually backs that emotional arc up in terms of surprise, being known to build new neural pathways in which your brain starts to think more flexibly and more creatively. If you're curious about this, I suggest reading a book called surprise, embrace the unpredictable and engineer the unexpected, by Tanya Luna, and Leon renninger. It's really interesting, I'll lend it to some analysts. And in it, they kind of like make the case for the fact that surprise leads to transformation. And therefore we should all engineer more unexpected things in our lives. Wow. I love that. Which is exactly what I think Jeff is doing here. Right, both that are like micro level, and then also kind of at a more meta level.
Joel Krieger 1:04:20
Yeah, it's almost like predictability is like the enemy of creativity or something.
Pavani Yalla 1:04:26
Yeah, it actually applies to the other audience that we were talking about at the beginning to the creators themselves, right? Because they don't necessarily know that they can make the thing that they're imagining. And when they actually go through the process of collaborating and making the thing and then see it, it. It's transformational for them too, because there's a sense of possibility. Oh, I didn't know I could do that. Oh, I can do that. Yeah, you know, and it also reminds me a little bit of our conversation with Shelli in episode one. She talks about, you know, vulnerability leading to courage to confidence to possibility at the end. So this is a very similar arc where people are doing something really difficult, they're doing it with others, and then they come out of the other end feeling more confident and empowered. And, and feeling like, you know, anything's possible. And I think that's what leads to folks then continuing to collaborate a creative business, you know, all the things that Jeff mentioned, that they then go off to do as a result.
Joel Krieger 1:05:36
Yeah, the other thing that stood out to me, which actually was a very surprising design decision, was the intentional structure of having things dense. And what that does, is create, it creates a critical mass of very high energy in the crowd. And it was just interesting to hear him talk about how they were designing for expansion and contraction of groups, not individuals moving through space. You know, back to your observation around surprise. And, you know, how does that collective energy that you can feel it's palpable, you know, you're used to feeling that, you know, maybe at a sporting event, or at a concert, but out in the street of your neighborhood, that's kind of an unusual place to experience that high level of energy. Yeah,
Pavani Yalla 1:06:25
I think the fact that it's your streets to make a difference here, like the whole experience is 100% accessible, right? Anybody can walk out and experience this. And so from the get go, you feel welcome. In a way that you probably wouldn't, if this was a gallery. It's just it's a different premise to the whole thing. Yeah,
Joel Krieger 1:06:49
It's your home. Yeah. And it's totally different. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I mean, the one thing I'll say about Jeff, and I think this is something that we heard in pretty much all of the supplementary interviews we did, is that there's a lot of respect and gratitude for essentially him willing this thing into existence. And when you think about the scale and complexity, just the orders of magnitude of putting on a festival like Illuminus, in at one point in time, before they had done the first one, this is just an idea in his head, and the fortitude it takes to be able to hold that vision and will it into existence, and you hear him talk about it several times. It's like we're just going to accept that this is going to happen. It's going to happen and you just do everything you can to make sure come hell or high water. So that's an uncommon trait, the ability to have a vision, hold it, and to usher it into the world. Yeah, it's not easy. But it's pretty amazing. That's it for today. As always, if you like what you hear, please consider supporting us by following the show, or leave a rating and review wherever you listen to your podcast. To learn more about Jeff Illuminus. Or to dive into the insights from our conversation today. You can visit our show notes at outside end podcast.org.
Pavani Yalla 1:08:14
And we'd be remiss not to take a moment to celebrate the community it takes to co create such an epic festival. Jeff wanted to ensure we take a moment to celebrate the incredible curators and over 300 Regional artists who are the real reason behind the ongoing success of Illuminus.
Joel Krieger 1:08:30
Some key team members who played major roles in helping to organize, manage and produce these festivals over the last seven years include Jane Long, Vanessa Till Hooper, Lyn Burke, Emily Castro, Bianca Mauro, Ethan Vogt, James Arthur, Shawn Faherty, Mac Pierce, Teresita Cochran, Benjii Simmersbach, Paméla Hersch, and Dan Sternof-Beyer.
Pavani Yalla 1:08:58
And special thanks to Jason Crigler. Vanessa Till Hooper, Emily Castro and Ryan Edwards, the amazing artists that we got to speak to in prep for this episode. Each of them shared their own experience with Illuminus. And through that, we also got to learn more about Jeff. One thing that we heard loud and clear was that they all felt a lot of gratitude for him. Without Jeff, the festival would not exist. We thought it would be a nice way to close this episode by sharing a few of their words.
Vanessa Till Hooper 1:09:30
Jeff is an incredible visionary. And he has an ability to express that vision in a way where people see it and want to be part of it before it's happened. And you know, that kind of you know, ability to paint a picture with excitement and enthusiasm and get people on board is a huge part of the reason why Illuminus was even able to happen the first year. His drive and enthusiasm is certainly what has made it possible. But he's also always approached it with this attitude of not doing it alone. And really doing it for the community and with the community.
Jason Crigler 1:10:18
Jeff Grantz is an amazing collaborator. You know, he's definitely pushed me in the right way as I feel like, you know, he's sort of pushed me to dig deeper in certain areas and, and to come up with stuff that we're better than it would have been initially. You know, and I think he's helped me to have more confidence in myself because honestly, I swear, like he'll help me say some things sometimes I'll be like, I don't know how that's gonna work out. And then you work at it, and you get it, and it works out. And so that confidence-building thing, which is, which is nice, you know,
Ryan Edwards 1:10:58
I used to term sorcery, often when I think about Jeff because there's a kind of taking of certain energy and multiplying it somehow, and then sharing it out even more. And that's a wildly inspiring person for sure.
