The Objectives:
Our team began by developing a series of installation concepts, as shown in the pictured slides, for our clients at Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park. Across our team, over 80 different installation concepts were developed for the client to pick and choose from. From these initial concepts, several technical and visual ideas emerged that the client found particularly exciting. The visual motifs of a starry winter night and the Aurora Borealis were particularly striking to the client, and we ultimately received approval to create two new lighting and projection installations for the park’s light show based on our concepts. The largest and “headliner” among these was our concept for the sculpture “Age of Stone”, for which I set out to design the installation Celestial Current, and another for the “Passage” sculpture designed by my colleague Mary Johnston-Medina. In Celestial Current, I sought to use “Age of Stone” as a canvas upon which to capture the magic and mystery of the night sky in wintertime. So many of our holiday legends begin with stars in the sky, and the magic that unfolds between them, so we combined constellation imagery with a blue-green color palette inspired by winter Auroras to bring that magic to Earth in the form of a “Celestial Current”.
My Contributions:
As the Experience Design and Creative lead for this project, I oversaw conceptual unity and development of all of our contributions to the Pyramid Hill Lights (see “Passage”, the secondary installation depicted below) as well as personally designing and directing “Celestial Current”. I developed scripts and cue sheets for “Celestial Current” as well as several other design concept for the client to implement in future iterations of the show, oversaw the implementation of the design, and worked with our programming and technical teams to adjust to the needs of the site throughout installation. I also provided art direction to our content team throughout the entire process, as well as overall creative direction. Throughout the project I worked with and directed team members across fields and mediums including our technical team, projection content, lighting, as well as working directly with the Executive Producer for overall planning and execution of the project. I was also responsible for communicating and showcasing designs to the client for their approval and feedback.
The Pyramid Hill Holiday Lights are a beloved December tradition in Hamilton, Ohio, in which Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park brings their grounds to life through a number of bright and festive installations celebrating the start of the holiday season. Audiences of all ages move through the experience in their vehicles, experiencing installations both classic and innovative every year. For the 2025 show, I along with a team of fellow students in Miami University’s Department of Emerging Technology in Business and Design took on the task of combining our skillsets from the worlds of Entertainment Design, including projection mapping, theatrical lighting, experience design, and beyond to create new installations to contribute to the show. I served as the lead Experience Designer and Creative Director for all of our installations, in addition to personally designing our headline installation “Celestial Current” (pictured on the left). Read the full process book here.
The Processes:
Once the initial concepts had been approved by the client and decisions were made about what aspects of each should be incorporated into the final design, I set about preparing scripts and cue sheets for each installation that could be used to begin developing previz prior to installation. These simulations were designed in Unreal Engine 5, enabling us to render and see the installation in full realism prior to install as a guide. Once this was completed, I guided our projection content team through creating visuals in Adobe After Effects, Notch, and TouchDesginer. I also helped oversee the final install of rental fixtures from 4Wall Entertainment including several of the Proteus Maximus and Maverick Storm 2, as well as a sequence of programmable LED strips prepared by our technical lead Alex Harrison. Alongside programmer Mary Johnston-Medina, we then worked in EOS to fully program and complete the final implementation of the “Celestial Current” light and projections show with all fixtures, projectors, and customized LED strips.
