Astera Titan Tubes at Golden Gate Park
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The vibrant, fun-filled event celebrates the spirit and energy of the city and the Bay Area with a diversity of music, dance, art, poetry, debates plus a myriad of other performances, interactions, and dialogues.
Rob has been involved with the festival in several different roles for over 10 years and was initially approached last year to light the new SOMA venue - named after the city’s lively SoMa - South of Market district - a haven for electronic dance music enthusiasts that debuted in 2021, which he did, working with some pre-existing décor elements.
This year, the festival’s artistic director Will Irons from Iron Bloom gave Rob an open brief to create a production design for the entire space and curate the atmospherics exactly as he wanted.
Rob immediately thought of a structure and the Tubes, combined with smart programming to produce positive energy, with kinetic flowing pixels.
A multifaceted speed-rail framework was built around the DJ booth with Titan tubes attached everywhere transforming it from a utilitarian metal framework into a highly dynamic three-dimensional artwork combining a sense of adventure with structural elegance.
The Tubes were mapped and run via a Madrix controller which enabled video content to be played up / down, in / out and through the tubes for fluid and crazy effects. They could also spell out the venue name S-O-M-A on the Tubes, an effect much appreciated by the organisers and audiences alike.
One night of intensive programming on site was followed by three days and nights of shows with a US and international DJ line up including TOKiMONSTA from LA, ANNA from Brazil, Berlin-based Dixon, European activist and music producer Absolute, Detroit’s DJ Minx and many more.
In the roof of the tent, 120 Dartz beam effects were rigged, which contrasted well with the Titan Tubes.
Collaborating with Rob were associate designer Aidan Marshall, production manager Roger Picone, master electrician Justin Souza, grandMA programmer / systems tech Brandon Young and Madrix programmer Fabian Gordon.
The Titan Tubes were supplied by Rob’s own company which owns several hundred. Rob also recently used 500 Titan Tubes to highlight the architectural and industrial areas at Tesla’s new Gigafactory in Austin, Texas for the automotive giant’s ‘Cyber Rodeo’ facilities launch party.
