Ingenuity experiments with location and innovation

Ingenuity, Cleveland's annual art and technology festival, is always searching for a perfect marriage of location and creativity. This year, after moving from the Detroit-Superior Bridge to the Port Authority's warehouses 30 and 32, it found the right pairings in some places more than others.

The bridge-to-port move traded architectural grandeur and ruin for industrial grit.  The wide-open spaces in Warehouse 32 allowed the fest to include a lot of big installations, such as a venue-bending conversion of a classic silver bus into a movie theater showing a looping program of shorts. Some of the films were a bit quiet or esoteric for a restless festival-browsing audience.  Two friends told me they'd seen great short films in the bus. But in two visits, I saw few images that would stick with me, and I noticed that viewers stayed, on average, just a couple of minutes.

With Warehouse 30 taken up by a sort of flea market and a music stage with a deafening sound system, Warehouse 32 attracted most of the installations and crowds.  It hosted at least two great successes.

"Blue Desert," a film shown on three video screens, took viewers on a trip to Antarctica, penguins and all.  The film, by two Oberlin College cinema studies professors, showed ice cracking and parting in front of the camera's eye and the thousand-shades-of-white cliffs of the continent's coast. The film, shot with very high-def cameras, fascinated with its detail while still capturing mystery.  I couldn't tell which black masses in the distance behind the flocking penguins were rock outcroppings and which were another solid flock of birds.



TAKES - 2minute trailer from Nichole Canuso on Vimeo.

In the multi-media performance "Takes," by the Nichole Canuso Dance Company, a man and a woman performed an intimate and evocative series of dances inside a tent-sized translucent projection box. Cameras caught their movements and projectors cast grainy black and white images of them onto the box's screens. At one moment, the man held up an empty picture frame, and though the woman was standing on the other side of the performance space, her image was projected into the image of the frame, as if he were seeing her in his mirror.

Nearby, a peculiar hodgepodge of obsolete technology and note-card-filled easels celebrated the nerdy gaming culture of the '80s.  The "Action Fiction Adventure," patterned after text-only computer adventure games and Choose Your Own Adventure young-adult books, invited the viewer to play the role of a solitary traveler. The protagonist attempts to escape a bizarre labyrinth filled with hazards, many of which lead suddenly to the "You Died" ending shown above.  Though the collage appearance made the game seem confusing at first, visitors who engaged with it soon turned obsessive, hunting with flashlights for their story's next scene.

Across the warehouse, kids decorated several temporary displays, including a cardboard West Side Market, with donated art supplies.

Outside, people walked along the lake, behind the two warehouses.  Chairs at the water's edge gave strollers a chance to stop and contemplate the harbor's lighthouses and the Goodtime III passing by.

Ingenuity’s Bal Ingenieux revives Kokoon Club’s masked balls

 

The Ingenuity festival’s new fundraiser, Bal Ingenieux, held this Friday, May 4, draws its inspiration from Cleveland’s Kokoon Arts Club balls of the 1920s.  

“Kokoon was known for their funky art parties with a risqué approach,” says James Krouse, director of programming for Ingenuity, an art party for the 21st Century. “They were about the cutting edge, getting out and celebrating.”  

The Ingenuity festival combines art and technology for a free three-day event in September. The Bal Ingenieux is a fundraising precursor for the fest and takes place at Halcyon Lodge, the old Masons hall on West 28th Street in Ohio City.

“It’s not your grandmother’s formal event. But I guess that really depends on who your grandmother is,” Krouse says.

He hopes to see guests in costume, channeling their inner Kokoon. “The spirit of everyone showing up in costume is what sets the bar for us.” Krouse recalls a guest decked in a full, red zoot suit at an earlier Ingenuity fundraiser. “I don’t know why he would have that in his closet, but it’s just what we’re looking for.”

Krouse wants this year’s masked ball (where about 900 to 1,000 guests are expected) to be a preview of the festival, surrounding guests with musical performances and interactive art. Returning to Ingenuity after an overwhelming response from last year’s event is Cello Fury, a musical act meshing cellos and rock drums. Interactive artist Chris Yanc, creator of the Digital Graffiti wall, will also preview his plans for the September fest. (Another act, Zany Umbrella Circus, is pictured.)

Tickets are available at ingenuitycleveland.com and start at $20, ranging upward for different levels of performances, displays and drink tickets. And no worries if you don’t have a costume. Masks will be provided.

“Explore the art,” Krouse says. “Be a part of the art.”

Interactivity meets art and technology at this year's Ingenuity Fest

Through the doorway with the green awning and down a flight of steps lay a festival of sights and sounds spanning the lower level of one of Cleveland's historic bridges.

Just about a hundred feet above the river, Cleveland’s past, present and future were all on display at the 2011 Ingenuity Fest this weekend. The annual event, set up for the second year in a row on the lower, streetcar level of the Detroit-Superior Bridge, was a giant art exhibit — of sorts.

Paramount at this exhibit was interactivity. Consider the Doodle Bar by the YoyoSyndicate, a sub-group of Dr. Sketchy Cleveland.

The Doodle Bar let Ingenuity Fest-goers write whatever their hearts desired on several white walls, desks and chairs. By late Sunday afternoon, people were seen lugging around scribbled-on pieces of furniture as souvenirs.

As in the past, technology was prevalent at Ingenuity. Every installation had a QR code that could be scanned with a smartphone. The code sent users to a website containing more information on the installation or artist.

At the middle of the span, the phrase "tweets light hearts" could be seen written in chalk on the concrete poles supporting the bridge. An interactive installation, comprised of a series of hearts (similar to those in a video game), lit up progressively over the weekend as more and more people tweeted using the #ingenuityfest hashtag.

Steve Lambert's art installation "Capitalism Works for Me!" also invited viewers to participate, while provoking discussion.

Viewers could walk up to a podium and press "True" or "False" buttons to vote on whether they agreed with the sign's sentiment. A side effect (or probably the intended effect) was the conversation that often arose after someone cast a vote. At one point in the afternoon, capitalism was leading the race, but only by a slight margin.

UFOs on the Cuyahoga: Ingenuity Fest 2011

If you see a flying saucer near the Detroit-Superior Bridge this weekend, don’t be alarmed. That’s just part of the Squonk Opera, the hallmark piece of Ingenuity Fest 2011.

“The Squonk is sort of a modern opera which will be performed outdoors,” says director of programming James Krouse. “There’s going to be a UFO that looks like it’s crashed into the side of the viaduct.”

Ingenuity, founded in 2004, has hopped around the city from East Fourth Street to PlayhouseSquare. Last year, it found its newest home, the lower level of the Detroit-Superior Bridge.

“When you say the word ‘festival’ to people, a lot of times they think of a street fair: some tents, food and booze,” says Krouse. “But at Ingenuity Fest I think our ambition is much more along the lines of something like SXSW in Austin, Texas." Krouse hopes Ingenuity, like SXSW, will become a cultural exposition well-known outside its home city.

Kicking off tomorrow evening and wrapping up Sunday night, Ingenuity Fest celebrates art and technology with interactive exhibitions, performances and demonstrations. Onlookers can react and respond to different pieces via text and navigate through a maze using only their ears.

“Art and science are not two separate things,” says Krouse. “They’re this one continuum. We show that in a couple of different ways.”

Some of the performances literally tie art and science together. Krouse recommends Erica Mott's "The Victory Project," a dance of sorts. “She integrates technology into her movements. She’s actually tethered to a sound operator, so her motions actually produce sound.”

With more than 20 hours of programming, including more than 110 scheduled musical acts, where does one begin?

“There’s a lot to take in.” Krouse says, laughing. “I would pick out one or two things that really grab your attention, particularly if it’s a performance. Pick out those few things you want to do, but also give yourself the time to wander a bit. That’s part of the pleasure of being here.”

Ingenuity, Saturday night

The Ingenuity Festival is filling every quirky nook of the Detroit-Superior Bridge's streetcar level with art. One alcove became Dr. Sketchy's Doodle Bar, a space filled with white walls made for markering, as well as white-painted tables, dishes and glasses. Two days of doodling had filled the space by last night.

Dr. Sketchy's main event, the monthly Anti-Art School at the Beachland Ballroom, invites artists to sketch burlesque models. (Here's a Cleveland Magazine article about a Dr. Sketchy night.) B.C. Miles and Danielle Muad-Dib, who's also a burlesque instructor, posed with local Dr. Sketchy founders Jason Tilk and Aaron Erb.


A bit higher up the span, visitors leaned over a scenic overlook's rail to admire Ingenuity's man-made waterfall and the lights of the Flats' West Bank.




As festival-goers descended into the catacombs of the West 25th streetcar stop, local video artist Kasumi's work flashed on an immense screen. Just by walking by, people seemed to merge with the kaleidoscopic, haunting pop art, with its ever-moving, ever-multiplying characters.

Ingenuity continues today until 5 pm.

Ingenuity, Friday night

Water is emerging as a theme at this year's Ingenuity Festival. Not only is the 130-foot waterfall flowing off the Detroit-Superior Bridge...


...visitors can also text messages to a water fountain that spells out words, letter by letter.



The Ingenuity Festival continues tonight until 1 a.m. and tomorrow from 12 to 5.

Ingenuity creates 130-foot waterfall off Detroit-Superior Bridge

How's this for ingenious -- a 130-foot-tall man-made waterfall off the Detroit-Superior Bridge?

This weekend -- as the Ingenuity Festival stages a sprawling kaleidoscope of art, music, and theatrical performances on the bridge's old streetcar level -- the biggest art project of all will cascade past, from the bridge's upper floor all the way into the Cuyahoga River. As many as 5,000 gallons of water a minute, illuminated by amber lights, may tumble from the bridge.

This video, shot last night, captures the waterfall's first test run. Only three of the 10 weirs were running, so this weekend, the ribbon of water should three times as wide. The Cleveland Division of Water is working with Ingenuity to make it happen.

"We wanted something iconic," said Kidist Getachew, one of the three artists who conceived of the idea. "We wanted to celebrate Cleveland, Lake Erie, the water, the natural resource, the abundance of it." At lifelinefromcleveland.org, the artists are collecting donations to help bring running water to a community in Ethiopia, where Getachew is from.

The Ingenuity Festival runs this weekend on the Detroit Superior Bridge's lower level. For more info, see the festival website, ingenuitycleveland.com.

Ingenuity's Speakeasy 2.0 lights up the catacombs with '20s flair

Ingenuity threw a benefit party Friday night, building excitement for its September festival inside the Detroit-Superior Bridge with a theme that played off the hidden-ness of the old lower-level streetcar route: Speakeasy 2.0.


The party's early-evening $100 tickets promised a trip back to the '20s, with a swing band and swing lessons.


I showed up for the $15-$20 post-9 pm version. The crowd still included lots of flapper girls and pinstriped gangster guys.


A crowd of hundreds, maybe thousands, descended into the catacombs under Massimo di Milano, the spooky old underground streetcar station below West 25th St. and Detroit Ave. Where trolleys once turned south to head down 25th, a replica of one now blocks off the tunnel. You might recognize it from the cover of Cleveland Magazine's August 2007 Hidden Cleveland issue.


For the late-night party, swing gave way to electronic dance beats and a light show played off the 93-year-old bridge's columns and ceiling beams.






This electronic graffiti wall, designer by local interactive developer Chris Yanc, allowed visitors to draw their own swooshes of color across a screen using hand-held lights. It'll be back at the main event.

Ingenuity returns to the bridge Sept. 24-26 for its full-fledged, 6th-annual festival celebrating art and technology.

Update as promised

Some vendors are now up and running. Ingenuity officially starts in 9 minutes.

My aforementioned coffee break may now be a funnel cake break...

Balloons? Check.

The Ingenuity Festival starts today at Playhouse Square. Last year was a mess with the Euclid Corridor Transportation Project bringing torn-up streets and orange barrels. This year...well, it's still a little bit of a mess. But less so. Here's a photo from a few minutes ago. Since the Cleveland Magazine World Headquarters is 20 feet from the Ingenuity Fest, I'll keep an eye on any major updates during my coffee breaks.