NEWT Miami
NEWT Demo
NEWT Transforms the Magic City Skyline.
Synesthetes experience a neurological phenomena in which stimulation of one sense triggers the simultaneous experience of another. Chromesthesia is a kind of synesthesia where one experiences sounds as colors or colors as sounds. If you’re in Miami during the first week of November, you may be able to know what this feels like when NEWT takes over the Intercontinental Miami building with a public art project integrating light, color, and sound.
From several vantage points, people will be able to watch an installation of colors and lights on a 19-story digital canvas while listening to synchronized music on any mobile device – smartphone, iPad, or even an iWatch. NEWT co-founder Dejha Carrington says “The InterContinental hotel’s digital exterior presented itself as an opportunity: a vertical canvas to do something that’s artistically rigorous and accessible as public art. “
Dejha Carrington & Kelly Nunes
The conversation with the InterContinental began about a year ago, but the idea for a site-specific sensorial activation had been brewing for much longer. In fact, it may have started somewhere around 1666 when Isaac Newton refracted a beam of white light through a prism to reveal a seven color spectrum that he later correlated with the seven notes on a musical scale. Carrington credits composer and NEWT co-founder Kelly Nunes with developing the creative aspect of the project. Spring boarding from Newton’s theories on color and sound, Nunes worked closely with animator and art director Adam Sajkowski to bring together their vision for an interactive art and music installation.
“Some animations were created to be composed, and some compositions were written to be animated,” Nunes says. “We wanted synchronized content, which feels like it is neither leading nor following, but emerging harmoniously.”
Festivities begin with a free reception and panel discussion on November 3 at MDC Museum of Art +Design at Freedom Tower and continue with a series of community engagement events like NEWT’s Yoga in El Barrio at Bayfront Park. The installation debuts at sundown on November 10. The events are free and open to the public. Carrington hopes that since there are so many vantage points of the InterContinental Miami “that maybe the residents with the best views of the hotel will invite a few friends over, play the music on their wireless speakers, and vibe out.”
More information can be found at ProjectNewt.com
~ Jessica Chesler
