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Astera Titan Tubes for Outside Lands Festival light sculpture

New York and Los Angeles based lighting and visual designer Rob Ross of technical production specialist Studio RRD used 160 Astera Titan Tubes to create a light sculpture centrepiece for the SOMA Tent at the 2022 Outside Lands Festival staged in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.

The 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 Ross has been involved with the festival in several different roles for over ten years and was initially approached last year to light the new SOMA venue (named after the city’s 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 Ross an open brief to create a production design for the entire space and curate the atmospherics exactly as he wanted. Ross wanted to start with a completely black space - something dark and moody, a bit like an abandoned warehouse and with no fancy décor or prerequisites but with an aura.

Into this raw environment he envisioned lighting that would appear to be floating in the air, offering an element of surprise and playfulness for guests. Ross immediately thought of a structure and the Tubes, combined with smart programming. 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 dynamic three-dimensional artwork.

The Titan Tubes were secured to the speed-rail positioned on two levels around the structure. Due to the long operational hours, they were all run in wired mode. They were mapped and run via a Madrix controller which enabled video content to be played up/down, in/out and through the tubes for effects. They could also spell out the venue name S-O-M-A on the Tubes.

One night of programming on site was followed by three days and nights of shows with a US and international DJ line up. In the roof of the tent, 120 Elation Dartz beam effects were rigged, which contrasted with the Titan Tubes. Collaborating with Rob Ross 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 Ross’ own company.

(Photos: Andrew Jorgensen/Jorgphoto)

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