Grant-Winning “Giant Eye” Interactive Sculpture Debuts at ArtPrize 2022
EIRO has officially landed in Grand Rapids
[Grand Rapids, MI] – September 15, 2022 – EIRO, a groundbreaking two-story interactive multimedia art installation and Feature Public Project grant winner, was unveiled for the first time at the 2022 ArtPrize festival in downtown Grand Rapids.
Designed and built by a team of creatives hailing from several unique organizations, EIRO incorporates two gigantic eye-shaped screens, a 16,000-watt speaker system and programmable dynamic lighting on a four-sided stark pyramid-shaped base to create an immersive sensory experience. Available both at its base and via the EIRO web app are interactive panels that allow visitors to directly impact the colors and sounds of the installation by playing a collaborative audiovisual game. The eye’s “vision” of its surroundings, as well as two views of the eye itself, are also being live streamed online at EIRO.live throughout ArtPrize’s two-week duration.
Composer Dave Sharp worked to create three unique compositions based on the sculpture’s chosen color palette of magenta, cyan and yellow. Each composition has five layers, which can be unlocked through interaction and changed through audience participation both locally and globally.
EIRO’s 360-degree base is also designed as a stage and will feature live performances and events throughout the festival.
“People have been looking at art for forever, but this time I wanted the art to look back at you,” said EIRO “Chief Imagination Officer” and founder Noah Kaplan. “EIRO can act as a portal between virtual and physical realms as well as a completely interactive sound stage. We wanted to create a new way to share culture—eliminating the veil of time and space between people. I’ve always dreamed of creating sculpture at this scale that combines art, technology and design to push the boundaries of interactivity.”
The idea for EIRO first came to Kaplan in a dream. “I had this vivid dream where I saw this distant tall station with a beacon on top. When I got closer I noticed that the tower was an obelisk and at the top was a flat hieroglyphic eye,” said Kaplan. “That was the first time I experienced EIRO.”
Years later, Kaplan shared his dream with a group of three friends with whom he had just returned from Burning Man. Ignited by his vision, they formed a core team consisting of Denver architects Aaron Grunwald and Ryan Goold—and Felicia Mariah D’Ascanio, owner of Brooklyn-based Costume Closet.
The group designed many iterations of the piece, including an enormous 55-foot-version slated to be built in Seattle, “But the pandemic had other plans,” said Kaplan. The group continued to work virtually on the piece until Kaplan had a chance meeting with CultureVerse Director Aubrey Martinson. Martinson had been asked by ArtPrize directors if she knew of any large projects eligible for the Feature Public Project grant, and fate took care of the rest.
A lifelong artist, Kaplan is also the founder and president of Leon Speakers—a design-focused manufacturer of audio products in Ann Arbor, MI. Headed up by lead industrial designer Rob Waissi, the Leon team took on the advanced engineering, machining, and fabrication of the structure. A large group of creatives joined them to see the project through.
“The game of the sculpture itself is designed to get people to work together and collaborate and demonstrate that the more we can do together, the bigger and more amazing the results are going to be,” said Martinson. “As an organization, we love to be at that intersection of art, technology and humanity,” she adds.
In addition to the programming and user experience components of EIRO, Martinson and her team also created EIRO Universe: an online virtual realm where users can view and interact with a 3D version of the EIRO sculpture.
Additional contributions from EIRO collaborators included metal fabrication from Mountain Machine, technology and sound integration from Mercury Sound & Lighting, project management and on-site experience from Costume Closet and on-site experience and technological support from On-Air Elements
“We've been working on this project for three years and seeing it come to life like this, it has blown any expectation that I ever had,” said EIRO “Chief Vibe Officer” D’Ascanio. “One of the most special things to me is people coming together to create something beautiful and really having a vision together.
EIRO Affinity will be live in Calder Plaza from September 15 to Oct 2. For more information on EIRO and links to the EIRO web app and 3D space when they go live September 22, visit www.eirovantage.com or @EiroVantage on Instagram.
How to vote:
This year, a new online interactive map will allow users to find art, venues, and “favorite” art pieces, which will help decide how the prize money is awarded. Online map users can vote for their favorite artists and work. Register on ArtPrize.org and click the star on the map listing to “favorite” EIRO.
