A Physical Manifestation of "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space" (Coachella)
Client: The Creators Project
Location: Empire Polo Fields, Indio, California
Size: 5,000 s.f.
The influential UK band, Spiritualized, teamed up with the acclaimed film director Jonathan Glazer to create a physical manifestation of the song “Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space.” This installation was housed in a cathedral-like space designed by Los Angeles-based Undisclosable. A series of material layers separate the frenetic environment of the Coachella music festival from the serene meditative headspace of the building’s interior. The outermost skin, a torqued trapezoid, is composed of an aluminum fabric, reflecting the sun’s rays, cooling the interior and serving as a beacon within Coachella’s expansive grounds. The inner skins exist primarily to further attenuate sound and light in order to provide an ostensibly blank canvas upon which sound and light are sculpted.
The interior of the building is illuminated solely by five trapezoidal shafts of light, forming five 4’ x 7’ rectangles of light upon the floor of the space. Light and sound are fused, each light shaft containing and highlighting a different remixed stem of the Spiritualized track. Coupled with the warmth of the light, this invites the installation occupants to move between light shafts or even lie down within a bed of light and sound. The dark portions of the interior are filled with the remainder of the track, which is intermeshed with white noise, particularly at the perimeter.
The architecture is a platform for the choreography of the light and sound installation, which is, in turn, a platform for the actions and emotions of the festival goers who occupied the space. By Jonathan Glazer and J.Spaceman Presented by The Creators Project Produced by Juliette Larthe Architectural design by Undisclosable A/V Creative and Technical realization by One of Us Original music by Spiritualized courtesy Sony Music / BMG Chrysalis All architecture, music mixing/re-building and light and sound design powered by Intel technology. Structural Engineering by NOUS Engineering General Contracting by Mardukis Projects Truss Build by SGPS, Inc. with ATS Filmworks.