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HUBWEEK ANNOUNCES “IMMERSION,” A LIVE, NIGHTTIME ARTS EXPERIENCE  TO TAKE PLACE ON CITY HALL PLAZA DURING HUBWEEK 2017

BOSTON – Tuesday, July 25, 2017

HUBweek, Greater Boston’s festival for the future, today unveiled new details on “Immersion,” a live, nighttime arts experience taking place October 12-14th on Boston’s City Hall Plaza at The HUB, the festival’s centralized site. Each night, The HUB will come alive through light, sound, and performance.

The HUB, presented by Liberty Mutual, is designed and developed in collaboration with award-winning design firm, CBT, and will feature more than 60 shipping containers, dozens of art installations, and 4 geodesic domes–one of which will be taller than the Green Monster.

Headlining Immersion 2017 is Masary Studios, a team of local artists who awaken built environments through live music, performance and video projection. Each night, Masary Studios will present “Brutal Rhythm,” an original music, light, dance and video composition inspired by the brutalist architecture of Boston’s iconic City Hall. It investigates and responds to the rhythm of the sharp edges, modular format and strong presence the building and surrounding plaza brings. The various scores are created in collaboration, one feeding the other, resulting in a united and bold statement that embraces the spirit of innovation, all while performed inside a wall of stacked shipping containers at the center of The HUB.

The three artists behind Masary Studios, Maria Finkelmeier, Ryan Edwards, and Sam Okerstrom-Lang (or Samo), worked together on a widely popular project for ILLUMINUS as part of the very first HUBweek in 2015, “Waking in Monster,” when they performed directly onto and inside of the Green Monster at Boston’s Fenway Park.

“The opportunity to bring one of the most iconic landmarks in Boston to life in 2015 through sound, light, and performance was thrilling! It brought our team together and launched our career as Masary Studios. Now, we have our creative minds set on City Hall Plaza,” said Maria Finkelmeier, “Our piece, ‘Brutal Rhythm’ will celebrate the bold, gritty, and strong people that inhabit our great city. Inspired by the architecture of City Hall, you'll be able to see and feel the rhythm of Boston.”

Also as part of Immersion, HUBweek features dozens of additional projects involving a roster of over 100+ artists, and collaborations with a number of organizations including AGX, Arck, Artists for Humanity, swissnex Boston, Project Urbano, Museum of Science, Boston Cyberarts, New England Conservatory, and BAMS Fest and many others.

”The HUB serves as a platform to showcase the tremendous and diverse artistic talents present in the Greater Boston area and beyond,” said Leonie Bradbury, director of art and creative initiatives for HUBweek. “Each night, Immersion will present transformative experiences using light, movement, and sound that blur the boundaries between, art, science and technology. The idea behind presenting multi-disciplinary environmental installations, both inside the shipping containers and on the plaza itself, was to create transformative experiences for the HUBweek audience, or as we like to call them “wow moments.”

Projects include:

SWISSNEX DOME

In collaboration with HUBweek and MySquare, swissnex Boston will present the swissnex Dome. A fulldome concept that allows a 360 degree realization of images and sounds and will take the audience on a fully immersive experience. The swissnex Dome will feature workshops, panel discussions, and other events like cosmic yoga during the day. At night, the dome will come alive as part of Immersion with fulldome projections, live digital, visual, and sound performances and more. Additional content collaborators include Museum of Science, Boston and Nest Immersion, Montreal. The dome will feature an exciting roster of artists from Switzerland, Canada, and plenty of local talent including a recent fulldome video project by MassArt students.

OUTDOOR PROJECTION PROJECTS

A select group of artists will project moving image content directly onto City Hall.

• Masary Studio’s Samo will accompany the nightly live Masary performances with live

  digital visuals.

• Fascinated by the power of natural elements, Georgie Friedman will create a custom

  video projection inspired by our psychological and societal relationships to natural

  phenomena.

• Perry Hall integrates painting and filmmaking and his moving image projections are

  created by using natural dynamic forces such as turbulence, thermodynamics, magnetism,

  gravity, chemical reactions, instead of any digital processes.

• AGX, an analog film collective, will project a series of direct animation directly onto the

  City Hall at various locations.

• Boston Cyberarts, the legendary festival of digital art, performance and film created using

  new technology will curate a nightly content block.

  IMMERSIVE CONTAINERS

• “Shadow Coding,” an experiment from Karen Schoucair and Rachelle Villalon that transforms the small confines of a physical space into an interactive and engulfing spatial experience, emanating from the larger than life responsive shadows of everyday objects.
• “Zephyr,” taking inspiration from the spirit of the California Light and Space movement, Clint Baclawski moves the medium into newly de-constructed ground beyond the tradition and constraints of a photographic frame.

• “Go to the Light: Neon Dream,” a unique, immersive black light experience by Helen

  Popinchalk and Morgan Grenier of Trifecta Editions, Jay LaCouture, AntiDesigns and a

  blacklight mural by Andrew Bablo.

• Ginkgo Bioworks “1:1” will feature design futurist Natsai Audrey Chieza. Their collaboration

  explores the dynamics of converging bio and digital fabrication technologies, and seeks to

  determine their impact on materials and product design ecosystems.

• “POLLINATE” explores the intersection points of art, technology, and science. Comprising

  PlantBot Genetics, the Widow Maker collaborative, and Umwelt Operations Unlimited, POLLINATE blends thought-provoking idea-candy with hands-on, interactive, and immersive experiential activations that engage all the senses.

• “I AM...You” is an interactive, multimedia installation co-created by Art Resource Collaborative for Kids (ARCK) and their 7th grade participants from Gardner Pilot Academy, a Boston Public School. Through fiber art, text, and projection, this work will explore the role empathy plays in envisioning both our cultural identities and solutions to societal issues.
• EYP Architecture and Engineering presents “Butterfly Effect,” a multi-sensory container installation that speaks to transformation, sustainability and new fabrication methods. It is created in collaboration with Skanska, Northeastern University, GreenGoat, Associated Energy Developers and Dynalloy. The effort is being produced at the Autodesk Build Space.

  NIGHTTIME DOME PROGRAMMING

  The 49’ high geodesic dome at The HUB will transform each night through projections and performance. Thursday and Friday nights are curated in collaboration with BAMS Fest (Boston Art, Music and Soul Festival), a local organization that strives to break down racial and social barriers to arts and culture.

• Thursday night headliner immersive experience, a live DJ silent disco party featuring a diverse roster of local DJs.
• Friday night’s headliner is a twelve person Cypher, a dynamic, multi-disciplinary jam session that will bring artists and the public together through improvisation, beats and lyrics.
• Saturday night’s closing party will feature Pico Picante, Goodlife’s monthly transnational bass party that celebrates the cultural sources of forward-thinking dance music.

  POP-UP PERFORMANCES

  Roving performances will take place throughout The HUB, amongst shipping containers and in unexpected places.

• Sarah Slifer Swift and Meek Productions will present movement performance scores for 4 dancers that respond to crowds, light, sound and architecture.
• Ben Cosgrove, a traveling composer, pianist, and multi-instrumentalist and classical guitarist Zaira Meneses will perform solo on City Hall Plaza.
• Ian Diver will present “Nightclub,” a curated showcase of local queer nightlife characters in Boston.
• New England Conservatory’s students will provide a variety of musical performances surprising HUBweek attendees throughout the site.
• A Multi-Disciplinary Pop-Up Symphony that explores cultural identity and American immigrant narratives provided by Ashley Gong (Poet), Carissa Chen (Painter), and Miles Hewitt (Musician) the lead singer/songwriter/guitarist for The Solars, a Boston- based indie folk band.

PARTICIPATORY PROJECTS

• Philips Lighting presents “Aura,” an interactive experience that allows people to connect

  with light and sound in new ways.

• “Enchanted Forest,” designed by Fish McGill, Saul Baizman, Andrew Ringler is a

  responsive, interactive, multi-sensory “forest” in the wooded promenade on the perimeter

  of Government Center.

• “TriMe,” an interactive, projection project designed by Philip Gedarovich, explores the self

  by removing all concrete physical properties and replacing them with a digital triangulation

  of the human form.“

• Salvador Jiménez-Flores and Project Urbano present “Tortilla Social” with Urbano Youth

  Artists. Tortilla Social is a mobile printing press that produces handmade tortillas and tostones. It transforms public spaces through printmaking as a tool for self-expression, advocacy, and art education.

  HUBweek, now in its third year, explores and showcases innovation at the intersections of art, science and technology and was founded by The Boston Globe, Harvard, Massachusetts General Hospital, and MIT.

  Festival organizers expect tens of thousands of attendees for this year’s festival. Insider Passes are on sale now and registration is open for The HUB, which includes access to Immersion. The full schedule and registration will open August 16, 2017. Passes are also on sale for Future Forum, presented by MilliporeSigma, a 3-day ideas festival and confab taking place at The HUB. More details can be found at HUBweek.org and media kit can be found here. The majority of HUBweek events, which will take place Oct. 10-15, will remain free and open to the public.

  ***

  About HUBweek:

  HUBweek is a festival for the future that explores innovation at the intersections of art, science and technology. Founded by The Boston Globe, Harvard University, Massachusetts General Hospital, and MIT, HUBweek is a first-of-its-kind civic collaboration that brings together the most creative and inventive minds in making an impact in Boston and around the world. In the past two years, together with over 150 organizations and institutions, HUBweek has hosted more than 250 events, attracting approximately 20,000 registered attendees each year from 49 countries and 40 states.