The Creators Project: Muti Randolph

This year, The Creators Project joined the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival to display innovative visual experiences over the three day event. Bands such as Arcade Fire, Animal Collective, and Interpol partnered with the Vice and Intel global network in order to enhance Main Stage performances, while also hosting retro-inspired video games and robot performances in the company’s tent. Aimed at fusing technology and art, The Creators Project revealed various pieces and installations made specifically for Coachella, including Muti Randolph’s enveloping Sahara Tent lighting installation, Mirage. Randolph, a Multimedia artist, set designer, and lighting engineer from Rio de Janiero, programmed Mirage to sync with the compositions of each set, providing a musical experience for all the senses. Ladygunn got a chance to meet with the brilliant artist and talk with him during some down time at the festival.
LG: Have you been enjoying the festival so far?
Randolph:I haven’t really had time to check it out cause I’ve been setting up and everything. I’m able to now though. But I did catch The Chemical Brothers set yesterday.
Oh yeah, all my friends went to that they and they said it was amazing.
Yeah, it really was incredible.
So, how did you go about making the installation? Did you do it yourself, or did you hire people to?
Yes, I had people helping me from Brazil and from Germany. I designed it, and this German company helped me build it because they have the equipment that all came from Germany. So, I had four technicians from Germany helping me build it, and I also had four or five people from Brazil to help me with software for the lighting installation.
Wow that’s amazing, a lot of people. How did you come up with the idea for the installation?
I had been working with this whole idea of taking over a whole space; it’s what I like to do, to create a very immersive environment. So you can feel it and see it from all places—just lights in all directions. It’s just what I like to do.
How do you think your piece enhances the experience of the people who view it, or the music that’s going along with lighting?
The idea is to make people feel music in different ways, not only hearing but also seeing the music. I do it through a software I’ve been developing in Brazil that takes the music and translates it in the computer and creates [the lighting].


-Aly Vander Hayden