and it goes a little something like this:
lucentdossier
the current state of superheroes
as much as i love movies about teenagers i love movies about superheroes. i haven’t figured out exactly what the connection is between the two, but there’s definitely something similar about characters that experience everything in extreme.
last night i watched blood and chocolate and realized something that i’d already noticed happening in casino royale: the application of parkour into the “superhero’s” arsenal of moves. the weird thing about this is that parkour (also known as free running) is not something that was created using any kind of special effects–well, at least not the digital kind of special effects, anyway. it’s a totally real philosophy of movement that hollywood is starting to use to define a larger-than-life character. in blood and chocolate it was particularly appropriate, since the characters are werewolves, though in casino royale it’s definitely done on a much more intense scale. either way, it verges so close to magic that it’s hard to believe it’s something that evolved and can exist entirely outside of an action sequence choreography.
in fact, what’s really interesting is that after movies like the matrix and crouching tiger/hidden dragon and hero all acclimated us to this kind of movement being a wholly fabricated, cgi, bungee-harnessed, soundstage fairy tale, it’s now getting applied back into movies in a way that presents it as completely within the scope of biological human achievement as it is in real life. stunning not for man’s rule over pixels, but for the sense of his mastery over the laws of physics and physicality themselves.
it’s a peculiar cycle of life imitating art imitating life. the original superhero access to the realm beyond the physically-possible was through kung fu. and undoubtedly there’s an influence of the martial arts movie legacy in the genetic structure of parkour–after all, the artform is based on martial arts. so in the same way that fashion trends influence fashion trends, do movement trends influence movement trends? just how far can we stretch the canvas of our physical bodies once given the creative inspiration of a new possibility? and mind-over-matter stylie, could the unprecedented access to witnessing exponential evolutions in motion actually take us to places we could not have gone before?
some real-life superhero tour guides:
brice (cuz we need a wonderwoman up in this piece):
krump comes as a team rather than solitary heroes (like the fantastic four):
sidenote: i just heard that a coupla free runners up from santa barbara are coming down to audition for lucent dossier today!! damn–how rad would that be?!
The Do LaB Lucent Misting Oasis @ Coachella
it’s 24 days till LIB and we just surpassed the LIB06 presale ticket sales.
now it’s time to buckle in and level up to the next project on the game-plan: Coachella.
since 2005 the Do LaB has been bringing domes to coachella. the first year the Do LaB dome was essentially a spot for festival-goers to be able to escape from the sun for a bit. it had a (renegade) sound-system where we set up some our djs to play, and a misting machine which allowed people to cool off from the heat. in 2006 we returned with the full Lucent Dossier Vaudeville Cirque performing a show developed specifically for coachella called the Forbidden Om, and the Misting Oasis evolved from simply a reprieve to a dynamic performance area with stilters, aerialists, and acrobats thrilling the gathering crowds with four shows a day.
by this year coachella realized that the domes, which could only hold approximately 200 people at capacity were not a very cost-effective option for a festival which attracts 150,000 attendees per day. so for 2007 we are developing an acre-big installation that involves giant flowers blooming from the polo field floor with the drooping petals designed as shade structures.
and in the center, a performance and sound stage which can support a 360 degree, panoramic audience view.
the scope of exposure has also increased, with the festival itself expanding from just a weekend to three days. and with just two weeks and a three-hour drive between coachella and Lightning in a Bottle, this prime promotional opportunity has not gone unnoticed.the do lab has a number of ways planned for engaging the event’s primed music festival-attending audience, from the traiditional, to some that apply new technologies into the design of our experience.
after all, even the way you discover something shapes your experience of it–brand, product, or music festival.
[LIB07] what the hell is a strategy, anyway? #1
people keep asking me what i’m up to these days. people that don’t know that my life has been completely taken over by Lightning in a Bottle. and i try to explain something about how there’s this 3-day greeen music festival, and how i’m directing the whole marketing strategy for it, and how that involves managing everything from our email communications, website updates, street promotions, pr efforts, and to all kinds of other initiatives… but the truth is that when you’re so in the thick of it, it’s really hard to step back and gain enough perspective to really be able to articualte ANYTHING that you’re doing. it’s hard to comment on the state of the battle from the trenches.
so it’s dawned on me that i should have started this months ago. but what the hell, 4.5 weeks out is better than not at all, right?
at this point there’s new moves happening fast and furious, and i figured this could be a good place to document the LIB07 marketing & communications strategy process. it’s also the process through which a grassroots organization is transitioning from the underground to the spotlight, elevating both its community of fans and network of creators with it.
here’s what’s happened within the past few days in the land of LIB promotions:
– LIB + worldchanging = : worldchanging is an online hub that aims to connect innovative, forward-thinking people who are doing things now to create profound, positive change for a better future. i thought they were great even before that fortuitous introduction to alex steffen at sxsw that resulted in this great little piece. turns out worldchanging digs us too: we’re now officially the “coachella for environmentalists”! awesome!
– what lucent dossier really wants to know is… : met with dream this weekend about really kick-starting community interaction among lucent’s 16,000+ myspace friends. we’re so excited by all the great response we’ve gotten already that we’re planning to continue stirring up conversation among that community on a very regular basis leading up to LIB. (taking cues from gnarls barkley on this one, for sure. 😉 )
– the santa barbara news press, which did an article on LIB last year wants to know what’s new about LIB this year. they’re saying that unless there’s something drastically new it probably won’t warrant extensive coverage. so what do you say to that when you know that the santa barbara community digs us hardcore for what we are, not for any gimmick we might be doing differently?
i say:
“last year it was the first time we’d ever done an event in s.b. we have a devoted following in l.a. but we had no idea how people there would react to it. whether they’d even care. the response we got from the people there was really overwhelming. we kept hearing over and over how excited they were that we had brought an event like this to santa barbara. people really loved this festival.
so the big difference is that while last year our venture into s.b. was somewhat of an experiment, the genuine enthusiasm for LIB within the santa barbara community (the same community where “earth day” originated) is what’s giving us the support to bring LIB back on a larger scale in all areas in 07.”
– “hi, i’m an awesome video of Lucent L’amour that no one’s seen before”:
david starfire, one our mainstay event djs, and on the lineup for LIB, turned us on to this really great video of an event we did in february 2006 (yeah, that’s how long it takes us to catch up here, at the Do!) anyway, we contacted the creator, and are considering using this video in the Spring issue of the Do LaB Artist Network email blast, which is going to be all about videos, especially music videos. he says he’s got footage from LIB06 as well, maybe we can find some way of convincing him to edit that too…- lots of other bits and ends going on, and in the works, including that ad in Plenty Magazine, now on newsstands, gonna be getting some coverage from bijoubreaks.com, the San Luis Obispo New Times is gonna be doing an interview with some our crew–jesse, dream, and shena, i think. brian shaw is hopefully programming our music contest as i type, i think…brian? are you? will we be able to announce it to the bands that sent in submissions soon? ….
and then there is, of course the constant construction and preparations going on for another little festival called Coachella where the Do will be producing an acre-big installation with full performance stage and sound-system just two weeks before LIB…. so that’s going to be madness….
i think this is all i can think of for right now…. not sure how often i’ll be making these “what the hell is a strategy?” posts, but i’m positive it’s a good idea that i started.
DO’in it
based in downtown l.a., The Do LaB is an “open source” artists collective of event producers, lighting designers, choreographers, performers, djs, constructors, welders, costumers, jewelry makers, dancers, airbrush artists, musicians, installation artists, glassblowers, photographers, and anything else you can imagine, all dedicated to creating interactive environments where experience itself is the artform.
in addition to producing our own events and creations, we also work on events for traditional clients such as lexus, scion, redbull, the coachella music festival, e! entertainment, aids project los angeles, and many others.
after almost two years of involement with the do lab–first as the production manager for the collective’s performance troupe, Lucent Dossier Vaudeville Cirque, and later as the sponsorship coordinator for our 3-day, green energy-powered, summer music festival, Lightning in a Bottle–i became the do lab’s director of marketing and communications this past october.
this responsibility is not only a huge committment in my life right now, but is also one from which i draw incredible personal satisfaction and pride. it is an honor to get to create and collaborate with this incredible bunch of folks in such a dynamic, innovative atmosphere. it is also extremely exciting to be a part of a company so prescient both in the experiential nature of its “product,” and in the democratic structure of its organization.
the do lab is a fascinating example of future trends in marketing and business, in action now.
there will absolutely be a lot more to say on these and other subjects involving our circus of a startup company in the future, but for now i’ll just offer a few highlights from our portfolio….
(click the links of the creation headings to find out more about the events).
