"EMPAC 360" gave audiences a glimpse of what's to come; music was provided by string quartet Ethel, while dancers from Flyaway Productions used the building-under-construction as their stage.

Rensselaer’s Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) marked the midpoint between groundbreaking and opening with a sunset performance around the site on Sept. 8. A crowd of approximately 2,000 — including students, faculty, staff, families, and members of the Troy community — attended the evening presentation that featured local, national, and international performers.

EMPAC Director Johannes Goebel urged audience members to “exercise your bodies as well as your minds” at the show. Titled “EMPAC 360: On Site + Sound,” the event included aerial dance, music, live visuals, and pyrotechnics, which audience members watched as they walked around the periphery of the building site.

“I was extremely impressed with the creativity of the performances, and now I’m even more excited about the types of activities that will be going on in EMPAC,” said Steven Cramer, professor of chemical and biological engineering.

The evening included performances by: San Francisco-based Flyaway Productions, who created an aerial site-specific dance work that ranged over the walls and empty spaces of the building; Ethel, a New York City-based string quartet; Long Island-based visual artist Benton-C Bainbridge and Troy composer, audio artist, and sound designer Stephan Moore, who collaborated in a real-time creation of projected video and sound; and French pyrotechnics designer Pierre-Alain Hubert, who illuminated the evening’s events with pyrotechnics.

Originally published in Rensselaer Magazine, Fall 2005
Photo by Ray Felix

Published November 1, 2005