As students on the BMU's Audio/Video Tech team, we wanted to use a venue that we know inside/out for the rave. The BMU Auditorium recently completed (almost) all of its renovations, including the new LED lighting fixtures that we used for the rave. Ultimately, we wanted to show off what we were capable of producing when given the opportunity to do everything in-house. The BMU is also a familiar location for most students, and we felt people would feel safer if the rave was held on campus.
Our group is called the Zeitgeist Visual Society, and as of this moment we are a non-official campus club comprised of mostly AV Tech staff in the BMU. Originally, we intended for this club to be open to all students as we sought official club recognition, however, we realized students wouldn't be able to operate any of our tech unless they worked for the Associated Students AV Tech team. So, as of right now, we might operate under Conference/Events Services or merge with KCSC, but neither option has been confirmed.
The turnout of the rave was pretty good! I think we had ~100-120 students in the Auditorium at certain points throughout the night, mostly around 9-10pm. I think the turnout will only get better with subsequent events!
As with everything, the creative process started with a simple idea. I took inspiration from Klangkuenstler, a well known European techno DJ, and his label, Outworld. They create very complex, futuristic lighting installations for their raves. From there, I made sketches/mockups of what the design could look like using the lighting/rigging equipment we had at the time. I presented these ideas to our Technical Manager, Hugh Hammond, to see if they were even physically possible, and then, to check if we could provide sufficient data and power to all of the lighting fixtures. From this discussion, we built upon the idea even more, which is when myself and Chris, who also works on our AV Tech team, came up with the idea of a square portal. This idea would require more physical rigging equipment, including two additional 10' trusses, blocks for the trusses to attach to, and stands to keep portal elevated off the ground, as well as new lighting fixtures like our new Chauvet Epix Strip IP's, which feature 100 individually addressable LED's each. As these purchases arrived over the summer, we began constructing the portal bit-by-bit, until even the day before the event when we finally managed to get the pixel strips working with our lighting board. I'm very grateful that our management allowed us to make these purchases, as they will enhance both the Zeitgeist and non-Zeitgeist events that we setup in the future.
For our next rave (hopefully in November), we'll be using the Auditoriums new LED ceiling lights to create a much more immersive audience experience! And the lighting designer/DJ stations will be placed in the middle of the auditorium to create that "boiler room" environment that has become so popular with raves in recent years. Of course, attendees can expect the usual insane lighting, with a darker twist on the genres of music we'll be playing.
I, Grayson (AV Tech Staff), produced this event alongside Hugh (AV Technical Manager), Ben (AV Technical Assistant), and Chris (AV Tech Staff), with additional help from Jeffrey (AV Tech Staff), Dillon (AV Tech Staff), and Sky (AV Tech Staff)! I really can't thank the team enough for putting up with these crazy ideas! We love to experiment and push the limit of what we are capable of achieving in the BMU Auditorium!
