Interactive director Aramique has joined the roster of Tool. He will explore the intersection of technology and storytelling with a focus on interactive and experimental installations for brands, the music industry, museums and festivals.
Aramique possesses an extensive and diverse background in interactive installations, immersive media, participatory narratives, and the internet of things. His installation “Playground Deconstructed” was featured as part of Spectacle: The Music Video at Museum of the Moving Image. He has created the first 3D-printed music video for Cut Copy, an immersive labyrinth for Nike and most recently, a 30-foot tall interactive balloon sculpture powered by tweets in Times Square.
Prior to Tool, Aramique was the creative director at Obscura Digital NY and founded Odd Division, a studio for emerging media. His collaborators have included brands and entities such as Nike, Marc Jacobs, Calvin Klein, Pepsi, Puma, Sonos, XL Recordings and Moogfest.
Aramique and Tool recently launched Conductar, an experimental project for Moogfest, the arts/technology/music festival in Asheville, NC. Using a mobile app connected to a brainwave sensor, attendees were able to compose live electronic music with the electrical activity of their brains. As they walked through the city of Asheville their phones served as a window into a location-based virtual reality that reacted dynamically to the music they were creating. This was also ported to an Oculus Rift experience that allowed festivalgoers to undergo full immersion in the virtual 3D city.
First-Time Feature Directors Make Major Splash At AFI Fest, Generate Oscar Buzz
Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More