Secret Dreams Music and Arts Festival 2023

Title: “Wormhole”

Secret Dreams Music and Arts Festival outside of Columbus, Ohio is always a great experience. That begins with the fact that there is huge emphasis on art, which is not the case at every music festival. I created both a yarn installation and a foam installation for Secret Dreams 2022 but for this installment I focused exclusively on yarn.

Both the festival owner and I had the same though after the 2022 edition of the festival – a tunnel of yarn that led people from the Portal Stage to the Woods Stage. In 2022 this area was marked off with paint as a natural walkway and it seemed only right that it should be decorated to its fullest potential with a yarn wormhole.

The full wormhole has a 3-color fade from fluorescent orange, to a dark (but fluorescent) reddish-pink, and finally to fluorescent purple, while its full length was about 170′ from beginning to end. The tunnel experience was meant to begin with intense color and fade as it reaches the end, delivering people to the Woods Stage. Extending out from the end of the wormhole and above patrons heads for nearly 120′ outward from the (audience’s) left corner of the stage was a ceiling of black yarn with multicolored yarn draped carefully beneath.

This looped and seemingly random assortment of draped fluorescent yarn was carefully constructed to maximize the interplay of the lighting effects from a custom-built UV laser. The laser beams are nearly invisible, and everywhere the laser touches the fluorescent yarn it causes the strand to fluoresce brightly as the color of the yarn, not the color of the laser. The effects played on a loop, moving around the ceiling nearly constantly. So as people entered the wormhole and walked down closer and closer to the Woods Stage, they would eventually be delivered to a nearly unexplainable effect dancing on the yarn overhead. Some people I spoke to knew that a laser was somehow involved, but few could point out its location. I’m no magician, but I do my best to build strong illusions.

The wormhole had one side exit to allow crowd movement, though I had planned for more and ultimately they would have been a needed addition. I’ll work on my string theory before the next wormhole edition. This whole installation took a total of 3 days to install with the assistance of two volunteers, and strike took all of 7 hours with the help of one volunteer. The entire wormhole itself was installed by me alone over the course of two days, while volunteers assisted in creating the portion with the overhead ceiling.

Total size:
Wormhole – 150′ long x about 30′ wide at entry point and about 55′ wide at stage.
Ceiling with laser effects – about 75’x 80′ at largest point

I swear I’m getting better at taking photos and videos at night, but these effects are very difficult to capture. Please bear with me through this growing process or just see the installations in person!

Below are a couple videos of the laser effects on the yarn, as well as the interplay with the stage lights.

The edge of the wormhole on one side had an opening so people could more easily enter and exit without being forced to walk between the strands of yarn. I had originally planned to have more entrances and exits, and if we do a wormhole again next year I’ll certainly make some adjustments.