Life in Cleveland: AHA! Cleveland.

So last night we took the kids downtown for AHA! Cleveland:

"AHA! is a multi-day festival of lights celebrating Cleveland's recent downtown development boom and will "illuminate" changes to our urban landscape. The event will take place from August 7-9. AHA! will complement Gay Games 9, also taking place in downtown Cleveland and Akron."

It was INCREDIBLE. Seriously so very cool. One of the neatest art instillation that I've seen. I'll just go through and talk about the individual pieces. All of the descriptions are from the AHA! website:

The Pool - Jen Lewin's participatory installation.

"The Pool is an environment of giant, concentric circles created from interactive circular pads. By entering the pool, you enter a world where community play and collaborative movement create swirling effects of light and color. Imagine a giant canvas where you can paint and splash light collaboratively."

When we first got there the pool wasn't turned on yet. And the kids still had fun playing on it:

But when it turned on... well...

I could post about 50 more of those pictures. So much fun. And taking someone who just learned to walk to one of the coolest places to walk... ever... was pretty awesome:

The Global Rainbow - by Yvette Mattern.

"The Global Rainbow, consists of seven parallel beams of laser light, representing the spectrum of the traditional seven colors of the rainbow, and is designed to be projected across large open sites, particularly densely populated areas. The Global Rainbow will be projecting the light beams from the Great Lakes Science Center over Mall B, into the sky. This spectacular rainbow will have the capacity to be seen from up to 36 miles away on a clear night!"

Yeah my kids called this "the Night Rainbow" and basically freaked out over it. They danced under it, wanted to see where it was coming from, and were even more excited to see that it originated at "our science building" (aka the Great Lakes Science Center):

It was very impressive.

Drawing Lines by Iván Juárez.

"Artist Iván Juárez created Drawing Lines using “light” as a starting point. A continuous thread moves across elements in the garden to filter natural light and create new passages and spaces. The installation’s architecture is being broken apart. Its walls are transparent."

This instillation was in the Reading Garden of the Cleveland Public Library which is one of my favorite downtown spaces. I used to bring my lunches here to eat on nice days. Very different watching my kids experience it!

They were more into catching lightning bugs than the art. But that's cool:

Transformations by Obscura Digital:

"The artist studio Obscura Digital will present a monumental art projection on the exterior façade of the original Public Auditorium, one of the city’s most recognizable architectural landmarks. Obscura recreated the building in a virtual 3D program and simulated the projections before creating the media. Using ultra-high definition projection technology, Obscura is transforming a 370-foot wide by 70-foot tall expanse of the façade into a canvas animated by fluid imagery of natural and manmade ephemera."

This was cool. But... yeah. I hate to be this guy...This was neat but it barely used the building at all. There was very little interaction with the actual architecture. As far as digital projections on buildings go it's really hard to beat the one on the Disney Castle. That's the only other time I've seen a digital projection like this one. I've since learned that the Disney one involves many more projectors than this so I was a bit spoiled. It was definitely cool, though, and worth seeing.

Believe in CLE.

"Believe in CLE is a yoga movement taking shape in the heart of Cleveland. Through the power of collective consciousness, Believe in CLE connects the unifying force within our community by raising awareness, generating energy and accelerating the exciting revolution happening in Cleveland, Ohio."

I didn't participate in this but it was amazing to see.

Other Stuff and Things:
The Dude liked the fountain:

There was a drone flying overhead the whole time? Which was... creepy:

The kids thought it was really cool, though:

I talked to the operators for a bit and they said that they were there with the official event photographer. So I'm guessing the videos will be online somewhere at some point? Anyone know where?

Our kids have learned by now that they can't go anywhere with us without ending up looking at architecture. This time it was the Cleveland Convention Center: