The Google Street View pop-up gallery was a rewarding and moving experience for all involved. It was a collaborative effort and a concept which we helped develop from the ground up. From scouting locations to planning all event and infrastructure details, launch parties and staffing the gallery daily, we were integrally involved.

The artist was Jacqui Kenny and like many around the world, she suffers from agoraphobia. Venturing outside of her home became a challenge even for a trip to the store or to work. Street View was a way for her to explore remote parts of the world…she looked for side streets and corners of cities to travel through. She started taking screengrabs of images that spoke to her and began sharing them on Instagram. It has allowed her to travel the world and share it with the thousands of people who follow her feed.

The gallery, located in New York City, was her first solo showing. It featured a selection of her photography from areas such as Peru, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico and the US among others. Throughout the opening, several events were planned such as the Opening Night party for nearly 400 and a special World Mental Health Day event in partnership with Stories for Good. At that event, limited edition prints were sold to raise money for mental health charities. Main features at the gallery included a custom built lightbox to display her photography. This could be viewed from all sides as gallery visitors strolled around it exploring the world. Several prints were featured in VR for visitors to hear Jacqui talk about the location shot explaining why she chose it and to explore the area in a 360-degree scene.

Aspire Ventures had the opportunity to showcase the innovative work they’ve been doing in the Lancaster region for the Rise of the Rest tour. Lancaster, PA was one of several Central PA stops for this startup pitch competition led by AOL co-founder Steve Case and his investment company Revolution. On October 10, Case and the Rise of the Rest tour visited York, Harrisburg, and Lancaster including a stop at Aspire Ventures.

We teamed up with Aspire to transform a traditional conference room into a corporate theatre for the world-class presentation. The opportunity included design for the presentation and motion graphics as well collaborating on scripting and run of show.

As part of our ongoing contributions to the local community, Nimblist teamed up partners Tait Towers and ATOMIC to create and build an interactive moving light exhibit for the Lancaster Science Factory.

Situated next to the Rock-n-Roll stage (a collabortive project with Nimblist and others from the Rock Lititz Community), the exhibit allows children to work collaboratively in operating a moving head lighting fixture. By using the various controls, children can learn about effects such as colors, gobos and prisms. Several overhead targets provide places to aim the light to see the projection and even learn about color mixing. The fixture’s covers were removed and clear panels installed on the exhibit so the inner workings are visible to inquisitive minds.

Tait fabricated the exhibit’s cabinetry and made sure all the pieces would fit together. ATOMIC provided all graphic and print elements, as well as fabricated the control surfaces and target circles. Our scope reached end-to-end, starting with full design and drafting, part procurement and fabrication, electronics, assembly, and ending with final delivery and install.

In another year of our working partnership with the NFL, we were tasked once more with an exciting challenge. Our team was pleased to work on the NFL Draft for the fifth year, which was comprised of four experiences. The NFL Draft Eve was kicked off with a concert hosted at Ole Red in Nashville, with artist Jake Owen headlining the live performance. The NFL Draft Legends Lounge consisted of a hospitality lounge for prospective picks to relax and view the Draft comfortably. The NFL Luncheon was a catered lunch event at the Country Music Hall of Fame, complete with a panel discussion from current and retired NFL players remembering their own Draft experiences. The NFL Draft VIP Viewing Lounge, which was held at the Acme Feed and Grain Company, was a luxury hospitality design and viewing experience for VIP sponsors to watch the Draft picks. Our scope of hospitality design, production design and implementation was part of a collaboration with décor designer Casey Cooper of Vireo Design. The hospitality design was driven by the rustic features native to Nashville with modern and luxurious details mixed in to create a unique experience for all four designs.

The Park Avenue Synagogue is rich in both a long history and a vibrant, ever-growing community. With the completion of the new construction to its expanded campus, the Park Avenue Synagogue held a rededication ceremony to honor its past and celebrate its future.

To highlight the historical establishment of the Park Avenue Synagogue, the interior was decorated to be reminiscent of the 1880s. Featuring flicker bulbs to give the impression of old gas lamps, our team also incorporated a screen that would illuminate the history of the synagogue from its construction in the 1880s to the present day. Audio of carriages being pulled by horses over cobblestone streets was also used to fully immerse the attendees into the late 19th century.

Our lighting design was achieved by the introduction of the new Ketra lights, which were an exciting addition to our lighting gear. The Ketra lights allowed for a greater range of customizability in the color and luminosity of the lighting.

INDIGO GREY: The Micah Grey Experiment was an immersive theatre experience created and performed by the Hammerstep dance collective founded by Jason Oremus and Garrett Coleman. Hammerstep is known for utilizing choreography, technology and non-traditional audience engagement to tell a story and this performance was no different. The performance, part of the exhibition “Only Human” was presented by NEW INC and Nokia Bell Labs, was performed at Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ.

The concept was based on a utopian Sixth Borough in New York City and its cutting-edge research facility, Borough Labs, which was searching for solutions to the worldwide energy and humanitarian crises. Chief Engineer Micah Grey had discovered the presence of an Indigo energy life force, demonstrated through the physical and extrasensory abilities of society’s most creative and innovative individuals. Micah involves audience members in a public event to recruit “Motion Thinkers” to help fuel a revolutionary new Indigo experiment. Developing a story like this and taking audiences along thru it required creative thinking to push limits and the experience to execute the production at all levels while not sacrificing design but keeping the project on budget.

Through the use of cameras that measured the motion, frequencies, and depth which displayed data in real time on the screen, the responsive projection environment was used to build a relationship and create fluid interaction between technology and humans. This allowed the audience to wirelessly control drones and solve interactive motion puzzles through simple gestures and progress through the story.

Our Nimblist team included Spike Brant, Lauren Brunson, Atshusi Hanano and talented collaborators Scott Peterman, Andrew Hildebrand and Branko Balic who worked hard on the technical drawings, lighting design, animation and scenic elements that helped manifest the creative vision of the Hammerstep founders. Our draftsman, Atshusi Hanano, put his skills to work and created the drawings for a pyramid-like structure which consisted of a modular array of geometric 3D shapes that can be arranged in various configurations. This served as one of the key structures of the performance and functions as a monolithic projection-mapped sculpture.

 

Photos by: Beth Holzer, Rain Embuscado and New Inc.

 

The Legends Community Lounge is an intimate safe haven for not only NFL legends, but also current NFL players, their families and friends. This lounge was a place for them to go during Super Bowl week to escape the hustle and bustle of the Miami streets. Located in the Loews Miami Beach Hotel, we transformed an empty ballroom into a private, cozy getaway for them to grab a bite, meet up with others or merely kick back and relax.

Large LED walls displayed the celebration of 100 years of the NFL and the theme of the All Time Team and Man of the Year winners. The space, which was also used for the All Time Team and Man of the Year Reception and Castrol Private Event was expertly designed and curated by our key collaborator Casey Cooper. For years, Nimblist has been proud to be in charge of executing the private lounge for such prestigious athletes to enjoy during one of the craziest weeks a city will ever experience!

To kick off the Lancaster County Conservancy Water Week and spread the word, we enlisted the help of our friends at Image Engineering in Maryland. Lasers have specific design constraints causing some laser shows to look formulaic. The Image Engineers were awesome to work with as we made a show that embraced the constraints, and broke the rules a bit. Growing trees, flowing water, and falling rain covered the side of the Hagar Building downtown in our pop-up show.