Glow Santa Monica

Last Night there was the Biannual Glow Festival on the Santa Monica Beach. What it was exactly was unclear and, despite reading up on it on their website before going with my friends Jenn and Nickerson, I really had no clue what to expect. It took at least an hour of being at the festival before I felt like I had a grasp on what it was. In the end, I guess the best way to describe the event as a whole was a 19-piece nighttime art installation. The event went from 7pm-3am and it seemed as though everyone in Santa Monica and the greater LA area showed up. The clientele was quirky, diverse, and of all ages. In fact I am still flabbergasted that so many people were there...because while it was cool...it wasn't THAT cool.

Anyways, the first installation we saw was a checker-board like projection on the wall of the Holiday Inn where numbers and letters scrolled randomly in certain boxes. A DJ was playing electro music near by which may have been related. The second installation we saw was three drummers drumming on the Santa Monica Carousel. They just spun round and round, and we watched. At this point I was almost ready to give up. Seriously what was this and why is it art. But the hoards of people walking around convinced me there MUST be something more to see. And the snide comments of some other people near me, reassured me that we weren't the only ones at the butt of a cruel joke. The joke in fact got better. As we walked along a remote control rock veered toward us out of nowhere. This was getting weird and I started cracking up as the rock danced at my feet. I was sure that the guy standing with the remote control was just another Santa Monica Resident bringing his pet remote control rock out for a spin along with the rest of the city, until I realized that he was standing under one of the official Glow signs that read 'Controlled Boulder.' At this point I was nearly crying from laughter. Jenn, Nickerson, and I were utterly perplexed...what is going on? The whole event redeemed itself on the next installation. It was called 'Sandbox' and at first I was pretty sure it was just a powerful light illuminating a huge square on the sand (really clever huh). We walked into the illuminated sand-square and noticed images flitting across the sand. On the side of the square was a small sand box on a table. People could lay their hands or small objects on top of this sand and it would be projected enormously on the sand. Since there was sand in the mini sandbox the hands that picked up the sand and let it fall looked so real in the real sandbox. It was really cool. And the (I'm sure intended) effect of blurring the line between audience and artist was very successful.

The beach stretched on in front of us with many more installations. Another impressive one was the Santa Monica Muscle Beach.
The rings and monkey bars and acrobatic equipment were tapped up with neon tape and the whole place was illuminated by black light. People in white with neon paint on themselves climbed, swung, balanced, and performed on different apparatus. Some were very impressive and some were not so much. I'm pretty sure some people were just random visitors to the festival that were performing...again blurring the line between audience and performer. Another installation was neon string bridge that
you walked beneath. Another was called Bella Luna and had an old-style circus feel to it. This one had a huge white balloon that was floating above the sand and people could enter a patchwork-tent and sit in front of a camera. Their face would be projected on the large white balloon, like the man in the moon. We didn't wait in-line to get our face on the moon but it was pretty cool. There were a few other duds mixed in like this strange movie of pitbulls projected on the wall of Hot Dog on a Stick, the lifeguard tower that was overflowing with foam, or the wooden steps with fake fog sliding down and (as the description put) 'sensual and disturbing' music played.

After 2+hours Nickerson, Jenn, and I were glowed out. But when we left at 10:30 the crowds were still growing!