Fancy Town
lighting design
Fancy Town is the brainchild of Meow Wolf co-founder Matt King, who spent months building the space from salvaged wood nearly alone. What was intended to be a coffeeshop style afterthought of a music venue for our own DIY shows soon attracted major touring acts.
Two months after we opened we started retrofitting the space with an appropriate sound and lighting system. With little money and a desire to center the unique and intricate physical build of the space, we focused on designing a unique visual experience that could encompass a wide variety of acts while maintaining the immersion of the space, transporting audiences as the vibes evolved.
A baseline warm glow of neon and incandescent pars complemented the wood facades for more intimate acoustic sets. As the energy ramped up we could reveal hidden effects. UV painted sculptural accents could be activated with focused blacklights, neon in the walls could flash in chases tightly synced with the beat, projection mapped shingles and windows might start dancing along, and projectors recessed behind the wall could blast out aerial beams encapsulating the dance floor and haloing the performers.
Expanding on the concept behind the original Meow Wolf lighting controller built by Corvas Brinkerhoff, I worked with interactivity designer Zevin Polzin to create a custom controller that allowed for a musically oriented way of driving visual content. Lights were run on sine waves that could be quantized to fractions of a tap tempo beat. Drum pad triggers allowed me to play each light in the space like a note on a piano, while a foot pedal looping station let me record, recall, and build on various looks, busking freely along with any performers that came through.
I worked as the house lighting designer for the venue for our first two years of operation, playing along with multiple shows a week while also designing and performing in immersive theater, immersive dinners, and other special events.