To the left of the buttons were a set of touchable controllers which also added effects or changed tones, etc. The buttons were responsive, so if you wiggled your finger on the button, you could create a wobble effect on the sound. The control panels were labelled with titles such as “Temporal Displacement Matrix” and “Circumphonic Spectral Decoder,” but according to a recent Tweet by Moldover, the whole installation is called “The Music Mill.”Įach side had a collection of buttons that were programmed with a sound. The audio portion of this piece was by musician and controller maestro Matt Moldover. It felt like entering an airlock between dimensions. Photos by Moldover and Heather Gallagher, CameragirlĪnother addictive audio experience was also on the second floor, in the far corner of the labyrinth of offices and light tunnels in a small chamber with infinity mirror light effects behind each user station. During build, then in action at Meow Wolf. Music composed by Ben Wright.) The Music Mill by Moldover. The laser harp was designed and built by Meow Wolf sound artist Meason Wiley. (Update: Thank you to Les Stuck, Senior Sound Technologist at Meow Wolf for providing this information. It doesn’t matter to me how it works, all I know is that I want one, ideally programmable with the ability to swap out the sounds and effects. I’ve been told since that this is probably accomplished via highly focused lidar detection, with the beams of light just for show. At least that’s what I told myself to justify the long periods of time I spent playing… on several trips back to the room… on both of my visits to Meow Wolf during opening week. Before long, and especially if you happened to be playing it alone or coordinating with a friend, you could actually get a good rhythm going and squeeze out 30 seconds or so of something which might pass for a moment on the dance floor at a late-night electronic music club. It quickly became mandatory to sample every string and see what sounds were available. As a bonus, each was sensitive to the distance and fluctuations of your hand, so you could change the effects almost like playing strings of a guitar, complete with warbles, wah-wahs, screeches and flutters. Each string had a particular note, sound, beat or effect which was activated once your hand broke the beam of light. To play this harp, whose ‘strings’ are made of beams of light, you put your hands through a gap in acrylic panels which surround the instrument. The Laser Harp at OmegaMart, Las Vegas Area 15. It was tucked away on the second floor as part of a series of doors down a hallway that looked like various offices or infrastructure, including one near and dear to my geeky heart, a locked room with a glass window into a huge server closet which was labeled “The Internet.” Behind one of these anonymous doors, in a mostly darkened room, waiting to be discovered and played, was my new favorite thing… a laser harp. I almost missed what became my go-to installation and “happy place” at Omega Mart. Part of the reason these installations were successful is because they were distributed throughout the venue, and each given their own dedicated location with sound separation via distance, walls, height or doors so the players could hear their own creations, but the beeps and boops of the rest of the venue faded into the background. Imagine the best playground or amusement park you ever visited - but indoors and on steroids.Īmid the ruckus of four floors of fun, several sound installations were artfully incorporated into the mix which had me coming back to play again and again. Granted, the whole venue is a cacophonous buffet. Photo courtesy of Meow Wolfīeing the blinky light and button-pushing junkie that I am, I was surprised that the installations I found the most satisfying, and definitely spent the most time engaging with, were those that enabled visitors to play with sound. Psychedelic Art at Miow Wolf’s OmegaMart. This psychedelic art meets consumer satire experiential journey is full of many of my favorite kinds of amusements, ranging from poignant to trippy, interactive, detailed, playful and comedic. There are tunnels to crawl through, lots of colorful lights and projections, many buttons to push, numerous slides to ride, and an overarching mystery to solve. The new Omega Mart by Meow Wolf in Las Vegas at AREA15 is a multi-layered sensory feast of fun. Having already got a first look at Omega Mart, the new Meow Wolf in Las Vegas, the former Head of Technology for Burning Man festival zeroes in on how sound installations including a laser harp and button-pushing, knob-pulling control boards took centre stage (ear?) during her experience – an example of what fellow immersive experience creators Punchdrunk call Total Soundscore.
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