LIA CHAVEZ: P3STUDIO
Press Release
LIA CHAVEZ
THE OCTAVE OF VISIBLE LIGHT: A MEDITATION NIGHTCLUB
January 7 – February 8, 2015
Hours: Wednesday – Sunday | 6PM – Midnight
Artist Performance: Every Saturday | 9PM
To maintain the sensory experience, capacity is limited to 10 guests at a time.
P3Studio
The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas
3708 Las Vegas Boulevard South
Las Vegas, NV 89109
The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, in partnership with Art Production Fund, is pleased to announce artist-in-residence Lia Chavezwho will create a pop-up nightclub in P3Studio. Combining performance art, neuroscience and technological invention, The Octave of Visible Light: A Meditation Nightclub invites guests to explore the wondrous nature of oscillatory resonance throughout the universe.
Chavez is known for work that explores the mysteries of light and emergent possibilities of utilizing consciousness as an art material. For The Octave of Visible Light, she has invented a revolutionary digital-neurology system in collaboration with the creative technology company rehabstudio, which allows guests to observe the relationship between their brainwave oscillations and corresponding frequencies in both light and sound. Brainwaves are harnessed to orchestrate an atmosphere of chakra-healing music and hypnotic light sculptures, which envisage the mystical optics described in Dante’s final vision of paradise in “The Divine Comedy.”
This mesmerizing experience draws upon Sir Isaac Newton’s synesthetic theories of concurrent frequencies, discoveries of physicist Winfried Otto Schumann and the field of bio-resonance frequency therapy. Featuring pre-recorded vocals by Au Revoir Simone front woman Erika Spring, low frequency waveforms are noninvasively delivered to the body, resulting in profound synchronization of the brain’s right and left hemispheres. Guests are invited to wear an EEG headset and Chavez will guide them through a brief meditation session. The headset reads their brainwaves and, via bluetooth, transmits a custom-coded signal to the audio visual system. The signal’s frequency and strength mirrors the participant’s brainwave activity, which is reflected in the intensity and register of the colour and sound emitted by the system. As a result, each audio-visual ‘set’ is unique to the person wearing the headset. The deeper the meditation, the more fully the viewer is able to traverse the spectrum of visible light and sound.
By creating carefully choreographed correlations between neurobiological, sonic and visual resonances, The Octave of Visible Light generates real time feedback for the guest to observe and reciprocate. Light and sound are guides to ecstatic states of meditative intensity, thus empowering the viewer to explore the role consciousness can play in sculpting and stabilizing our bodies and environment.
The installation features code and hardware development by Samuel Cox and rehabstudio; electronic composition by Andrew Gaskins; vocals by Erika Spring; sound design by Kenny Bergle and Sweetwater; curatorial development by Tali Wertheimer; and neuroscience consultation by Dr. Joydeep Bhattacharya and Dr. Caroline Di Bernardi Luft.
Lia Chavez is a New York-based artist working in a wide range of media, including performance, photographic processes, painting, sculpture, installation and scientific and theoretical innovations. Her art draws upon her fascination with the laws of the physical universe and investigates the astonishing mysteries of light, form and interior space. Chavez has been featured in a number of internationally-renowned venues, including the Venice Biennale, Istanbul Biennial, Frieze Art Fair and The Armory Show. She has been a visiting artist, lecturer and critic at numerous institutions, including Tate, University of Oxford and Savannah College of Art and Design. Her photography monograph, “Lia Chavez: A Thousand Rainbows,” was recently released by Damiani.
The artist-in-residence program at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas represents one component of its larger art program, in which artists create projects that are interactive and participatory, giving guests the opportunity to connect at an authentic and personal level. Developed and curated in partnership with Art Production Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to producing ambitious public art projects, it strives to reach new audiences and expand awareness through contemporary art.
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