Around May 20, a student said to me: “Enjoying the summer so far?” Implicit in the question is that professors — the moment they turn in grades (and maybe right after their last lecture) — bask on a tropical beach, or putter about gardening, or … maybe just twiddle their thumbs waiting for the next semester to start.
When I co-founded Outdoor Vision Fest® in 2011, I never imagined it would spin off in so many varied directions. But since the semester ended this mid-May, OVF has hit the road again (as it has every summer), heading first to the annual Currents New Media festival; then to Hobbs, New Mexico for the New Media New Mexico exhibition (which was supposed to take place outdoors, only the mother of all thunderstorms chased everyone inside Lea County’s Center for the Arts (in the photo above, you can see me with the Center’s director, Andrew Akufo — I’m the guy in the hat); and now, to Fantase Fest, where the “OVF Collective” has been commissioned (for the second year in a row) to create an installation by New Mexico Arts, the state’s arts agency.
I co-produced (with my colleague Brad Wolfley) last year’s projection-mapping installation (“Santuario: Timelessness and Transformation”) — and this year I’m solo-producing “membrane,” which is featuring choreography by Santa Fe University of Art and Design contributing faculty member Jocelyne Danchick, and visual imagery from former student (and very accomplished visual artist) Keith Ryan Riggs. Recent Film alum Nathally Botelho is the production designer, current Film student Jesse Brooks is adding motion detection and more visual imagery, and recent Film/Creative Writing alum Charlotte Martinez is our videographer.
What’s this going to look like? Well, we’re not entirely sure yet. But we think it’s going to look pretty cool.
These are only previews … behind-the-scenes snapshots as we put this together. Because the installation contains a narrative as well. From the initial proposal: “A membrane is a selective barrier allowing some things — but not others — to pass through … Santa Fe has been a ‘pass through’ location for hundreds of years — a membrane that continues to evolve through the present.”
If you’re in northern New Mexico, come to De Vargas Park Saturday, June 18, to see the finished product: showtime begins as the sun sets.
And after June 18, I get back to a couple of feature film scripts in development. Which, I guess, is the definition of summer…
Terry Borst: Screenwriter 