(upbeat jazz music) (upbeat jazz music continues) - In this edition of "WLIW Arts Beat," an otherworldly art experience.

- [Daniel] What I'm interested is in giving people experiences that they've never had before in ways that stimulate their imagination, spark their creativity.

(bright music) - [Diane] Redefining architecture.

- There's always a kind of, like, wellspring of new ideas in the practice and it's just a matter of understanding how those might get instrumentalized in new ways.

(bright music) - [Diane] Teaching flamenco.

(bright flamenco music) - For me, it's really important the communal relationship between the music and the dance.

(shoes tapping) - It's all ahead in this edition of "WLIW Arts Beat."

Funding for "WLIW Arts Beat" is made possible by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Welcome to "WLIW Arts Beat."

I'm Diane Masciale.

We take a trip underwater for an immersive experience in Wisconsin.

Called Deep Lake Future, this surreal art adventure imagines a future where freshwater invasive species have overrun the Great Lakes.

Take a look.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) - What I'm interested is in giving people experiences that they've never had before in ways that stimulate their imagination, spark their creativity.

Kind of aesthetic experiences that can transport them.

We are in Deep Lake Future.

This is the first show of FuzzPop Workshop.

It's an interactive, immersive art experience set in a surreal underwater future.

(upbeat music) Well, FuzzPop Workshop came because I was trying to develop this idea for a production company, a studio, but really with a kind of interactive, hands-on approach.

So, something like a workshop that you would really be engaged with and involved with.

(upbeat music continues) I love garage rock, which uses a lot of fuzzy guitar, and FuzzPop had a good ring to it and was, you know, something a little odd, you know, that we thought worked.

So, yeah, we've got a great team of 25 artists, all people I started meeting about a year ago, and everyone was really excited and wanted to do something big, you know, had heard about these kinds of immersive art experiences and wanted to be part of something huge.

And so there's a great team of folks working on this.

We have lighting designers and engineers, sculptors, muralists.

A couple of them, Drew York is a muralist who's done some great walls all over Milwaukee, but, like the rest of us, is stretching beyond and learning new skills, working in sculpture, and painted most of the surfaces that you see here.

- From the beginning, Daniel reached out just I think by hearing my name from other artists and finding out that I was a local muralist.

So, from our first meeting, we talked about, you know, how I could be a part of it and if I could paint things here and there or where I would fit in.

And now it's turned into, you know, learning how to sculpt a large, you know, 25-foot-long lamprey.

(upbeat music continues) - Eduardo Zavala is a young artist, recently graduated from MIAD, has created a gigantic stone godhead that lords over this world that we've created and has really done some amazing work bringing that to life.

(bright music) - I met Daniel here through the studios at his studio space here and he was needing someone to take over this large sculpture and I'd worked with foam before, so I was really excited to jump on.

I've never worked in something this large-scale.

So, working this big was really exciting and I also really liked their ideas.

(bright music continues) - The experience starts in a kind of laboratory where a group of scientists has been trying to experiment with or maybe understand strange creatures that are this sort of merger of technology and biology.

(upbeat music) So, in that room, we set up the story.

There have been great floods, and since then, people have tried to find a way to survive and then that leads people through a kind of portal into this surreal underwater world where they can explore our version of Milwaukee's Deep Tunnel project filled with strange lifeforms.

Zebra mussel mound where they can play on a sturgeon synthesizer and make their own music.

(electricity crackles) (upbeat music continues) A rainbow cave that's underwater that glows as you move through it.

(upbeat music continues) I think my hopes for this show and for FuzzPop Workshop generally is to create exciting aesthetic experiences that stimulate people's imagination and creativity.

Show them something they've never seen before.

Think about something that's in their world, but from a totally different and fantastic point of view.

(upbeat music continues) We've really thought of this as a kind of prototype and so the hope is to do this on a much larger scale, all still in this interactive immersive world, and the plan is that it's still really focused on the local and the regional.

So, here we've got a Deep Lake, but also a North Woods.

You know, that's also this surreal version that's unexpected and tells a different kind of story about the region in Wisconsin.

(upbeat music continues) (upbeat jazz music) - Learn more at fuzzpopworkshop.com.

(upbeat jazz music continues) And now the artist quote of the week.

(upbeat jazz music continues) Outpost Office is a design practice based in Columbus, Ohio.

Through inventive design and experimental production, they are redefining the meaning of architecture.

Here's the story.

(upbeat jazz music continues) (bright music) - We are an experimental architecture practice.

So, what that means is that we design buildings like a traditional architect would, but not only buildings.

So, we also design public spaces, we design furniture, we design landscapes, and kind of everything in between those scales as well.

And we try to be kind of experimental and push the boundaries of also the definitions of each one of those things and the definitions of architecture itself.

- Outpost Office is a clearinghouse of our ideas, but also ideas that are brought to us by compelling clients, collaborators that we've worked with, consultants.

Kind of everyone is part of Outpost Office.

I think that one of the most important things for us in our process is that we don't really search for problems.

We chase hunches.

And the reason that we do that is because if there's something that kind of nags at us as designers, then it's something that's worth kind of working our way through.

There's always a kind of, like, wellspring of new ideas in the practice and it's just a matter of understanding how those might get instrumentalized in new ways.

So, I think one of the things we're always working with is trying to find new techniques or new means to work with.

(bright music) The field paintings are kind of architectural-scale drawings that are executed with a striping robot.

So, the striping robot is GPS controlled.

It's not totally autonomous, but we communicate with it through coordinates.

- [Ashley] We call them Drawing Fields because they're something between a painting, a landscape installation, and architecture.

We see them as architecture because they're specifically spatial and they're spatial prototypes.

And so what we are interested in really is understanding and looking at how people behave with the kind of simple act of drawing a line on the ground.

- [Erik] We're trying to experiment with notions of temporality, thinking about architectural drawings as more than just representations that are preparing for the act of building, but actually are things that can be embodied, can be experienced in space.

And the painting series we found has been a really interesting way to engage institutions that want to use their landscapes or their campuses in unique ways.

- And so we've been using this technique kind of hacking or, like, working with and around the presets of this robot, also writing our own code that can interface with the robot, and really figuring out how you kind of make a sort of industry partnership work when your main application is artistic in its endeavor and not kind of commercial use.

- I think the premise in most temporary work is that temporary work builds toward more long-term work.

And so that establishes a kind of value scale where things that don't last as long aren't as valuable as things that last longer.

And I think that we used to kind of understand that value system as pretty concrete.

But after doing these paintings and starting to experience the way these temporary things can actually have a kind of lasting impact, we're questioning a lot more.

It's like the premise that bigger things are better than smaller things.

You know, that's a really kind of simple way to look at things and there are a lot of precious things that are very small, and we're looking at timescale kind of in the same way where maybe longer isn't necessarily better.

(bright music continues) So, while the painting was our first engagement at the Wex and it dealt with understanding how the exterior landscape could be activated, the furniture pieces that are now on display are a little bit more of an opportunity to ask those same questions both inside and outside the building.

- [Ashley] You're almost never allowed to touch the art.

And so we like, as architects, where you can always touch a building.

And so, you know, touching for us is a very important aspect of what we do.

We want people to physically engage with the objects, not only visually engage with the objects.

It is something between the size of a room and the size of a piece of furniture.

So, we like this term super furniture because it suggests that people interact with it, touch it, sit on it, lay on it, but also suggests that it's not a table and it's not a chair.

We design things that might have horizontal surfaces or vertical surfaces or angled surfaces, but we really make sure that they don't look like furniture that you've seen before and used before because we want people to improvise.

We want people to invent new uses, use their bodies in different ways.

We also want it to conform to bodies of different sizes or bodies with different abilities and really be very inclusive of different ages and different population groups.

- [Erik] A lot of our hunches have to do with color.

Color is a fascinating topic, but it's a little underserved in the world of architecture.

Part of that is what some people have described as a kind of chromophobia.

Architects are almost afraid of color.

And part of that is that color is, as we're discovering, really, really, really hard.

In all these experiments, what we're trying to do is understand how color can perform effects that we're used to form doing.

- [Ashley] We're inspired a lot by art.

We're inspired a lot by history, the history of art and architecture.

And we're inspired by different geographical contexts, traditions, and cultures in architecture.

Some of those we've witnessed firsthand living in different countries, but many of those we just enjoy kind of learning about and expanding on our own horizons either through the courses we teach at Ohio State University or, again, learning from our students and really just seeking out new knowledge and new forms of inspiration wherever they kind of happen to come along.

- [Erik] One of the terms we use in the office is timeful.

So, thinking about how architecture can be experienced and be built at a lot of different speeds.

At the core of the architecture discipline are these kind of Vitruvian values and one of them is firmness.

This idea that, you know, to be an architecture, something has to kind of last.

But we ask a lot of questions about exactly how long that duration needs to be and how something endures.

Does it endure as a kind of relic or does it endure as a kind of memory or does it endure as a kind of experience?

- A typical architect might work on a project for three to five years.

And while I have projects that have run that long, I'm often anxious for the next, to mix in kind of shorter-term projects along the way.

And so I think working in academia but also working in more gallery context, in more art context, and in temporary architecture, allows me to explore things that work on the duration of two weeks or two months or two years.

(bright music) As architects, for many centuries, we have imagined our buildings will last forever.

Reality is the average lifespan of a building in the US is 40 to 50 years.

So, although we might plan as architects for a building that will last 200 years, we have to be aware that the reality is just not the case.

And the demolition and destruction of buildings over and over is really contributing to the climate crisis.

A lot of building material goes into landfills when buildings are torn down.

So, at every scale of the design and building process, we have to think differently about materials and the way we use materials.

Because of this, we can either plan for extremely long time periods or extremely short time periods.

And so Outpost Office has recently been looking at both ends of the scale.

But these drawing projects and these Drawing Fields projects really operate on the kind of two- to six-week time span, up to a year in some instances.

But what we like about that is that there's no material waste associated with it.

So, we can have large public gatherings, we can have community engagement, we can prototype space, we can think about architectural issues with the public and with the community, and at the end of the day, nothing goes into a landfill.

The paint that we use is biodegradable, it's environmentally friendly, and it naturally dissipates with sun, wind, and light.

And so we're incredibly excited about, you know, the potentials of doing these short-term projects which have a big social impact, but very, very little material and waste impact.

And so we think that's, it's not the right application for every single architectural project.

Obviously we still need buildings.

We need new buildings and we need to renovate old buildings.

But we are trying to at least just kind of reframe our thinking related to time and architecture.

(bright music) - [Erik] A lot of architecture is always about kind of making new ground or inventing new space.

And I think that one of the things that's exciting about a lot of the work we do when we deal with furniture and we deal with landscape paintings or other types of installation is that we are almost, like, constantly renovating spaces, taking spaces that already exist and asking them to be looked at in a new light.

When we're thinking about what we're gonna do next, it usually is a kind of a hunch that comes out of a question that came from the previous project and they kind of daisy-chain together.

In many ways, it's adding up to a kind of clear trajectory, but in other ways, we remain interested in the kind of underexplored corners of the practice.

(bright music continues) - Discover more at outpost-office.com.

(upbeat jazz music) Now here's a look at this month's fun fact.

(upbeat jazz music continues) Born in Havana, Cuba, Irene Rodriguez is an internationally renowned flamenco dancer.

Now residing in Tampa, Florida, she shares her talent through dancing, teaching, and choreography.

(upbeat jazz music continues) (bright flamenco music) - [Linda] Irene is energy and light and creativity.

(bright flamenco music continues) - Flamenco is an energizing form of dance and Irene has a professionalism that is so precise and energetic and it's really based on her personality, which is so determined to be that way, and she makes it come through in her performances.

(bright flamenco music continues) - Since she was little, she was different to the other girls of her group.

You can see her over everybody.

- I started dancing ballet because my mom, she took ballet lessons when she was young, and I used to skip the classes because in the next studio, they were teaching flamenco style.

So, I used to hear the music and the footwork and I used to escape to the other lesson.

So, one day the flamenco teacher took me by my hand and asked for my mom and my mom said, "Yes, she's my daughter, Irene is my daughter," but my mom said, "There is a mistake.

Irene takes ballet lessons, not flamenco lessons."

She said, "That is what you think.

Irene has been taking my classes for three months now, so, you owe me some money."

And it was the beginning of my relationship, the same with ballet and flamenco.

So, I started studying both careers at the same time.

And I'm very happy because ballet is aesthetic and prepares the body for all the styles you really want in face dancing, and flamenco is the passion, flamenco's the real expression of your soul through the movement in my opinion.

(shoes tapping) (bright flamenco music) In 2012, I opened the Compania Irene Rodriguez, Irene Rodriguez Company, and it became really successful in the country.

And I arrived to have 400 students for many years and an amazing studio of four floors in the Malecon of Havana until I decide to immigrate and, you know, realize my career and develop my career here in the US.

- Tampa has a deep and rich history of connections to Cuba and to Spain.

So, flamenco has actually been around the community.

But we've never had a performer of the stature of Irene and that's what's exciting.

- Her technique is above what some people can do today.

In the same way, Irene teach the kids like that.

So, we are so honored to have Irene in this area.

It's just like a master class every time that the kids are getting involved with Irene.

(shoes tapping) (hands clapping) - (speaks in Spanish) One more time.

One, two, three, and four.

(bright flamenco music) - [Dancers] Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay.

(Irene speaks in Spanish language) - As a teacher, what's really amazing about her is that often people choreograph or they teach.

They don't do both.

But she does both extremely well.

And it doesn't matter what age or advanced level or not.

(bright flamenco music) (Irene speaks in Spanish language) - I like it.

I like my teacher.

I like the footwork.

What I like about the footwork is the sound.

(Irene speaks in Spanish language) (shoes tapping) (bright flamenco music) - When you enter Irene's class, you enter in the knowledge that she is the profesora.

She's the professor.

You're going to respect her.

You're going to give all your attention to her, because the dance of flamenco demands it.

So, she's very precise in her expectation of what we're going to give her in the class 'cause she gives everything to us.

(bright flamenco music) (shoes tapping) - And.

Ah, okay?

Don't think about the steps.

Think about the power of the movement and the feeling you want to express with that.

One more time, the same phrase, and continue to the end.

- She's tough.

We have a joke.

I don't know if she's aware it or not.

We call it Irene one more time, 'cause it's never one more time.

It's always more than one time.

But she's very exacting.

(shoes tapping and hands clapping) (Irene speaks indistinctly) - She spends a lot of time on the clapping because you have to get the beat of the music correct, otherwise you can't do the footwork.

(bright flamenco music) - I love the musicality.

I love being a musician at the same time I am a dancer, because when you do footwork, you are creating percussion with your legs.

And in fact, not only with your legs, we call it footwork, but, in fact, it's a complete percussion because we do palm, we do percussion with our body.

It's like you with your body are playing this music.

So, I always try to convey that because for me, it's really important the communal relationship between the music and the dance.

And never be over.

- Dance is just so lovely because it is that human interaction, and I think she shares a lot of her history and stories very generously with people and the transitions that she's been forced to make for herself, and she brings that into the room and I think it's very inspiring to the people that she works with.

- We really get right now one of the best international dancer in flamenco ever.

(bright flamenco music) - For more information, head to irenerodriguezcompania.com.

(upbeat jazz music) And here's a look at this week's art history.

(upbeat jazz music continues) (upbeat jazz music continues) That wraps it up for this edition of "WLIW Arts Beat."

We'd like to hear what you think.

So, like us on Facebook, join the conversation on X, and visit our webpage to watch more episodes of the show.

We hope to see you next time.

I'm Diane Masciale.

Thank you for watching "WLIW Arts Beat."

(upbeat jazz music continues) Funding for "WLIW Arts Beat" was made possible by viewers like you.

Thank you.

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