Decibel Festival Popup Artshow

Producing a curated poster exhibition for Seattle's biggest electronic music festival - two years running, zero budget, one night to make it land.

  • Role: Producer, Decibel Festival Popup Artshow
  • Company: Decibel Festival / AIGA Seattle
  • Timeline: 2013–2014
  • Team: Benjamin Van Citters, Nick Bartoletti, Chris Blohm, Patrick Wright (projection/AV, 2013)
  • Platform: Live event, print, projection installation
  • Status: Produced and exhibited — highest-attended opening in the festival's history (2013)

The constraint was the same both years: a one-night window and a room full of people about to walk into a music festival. The work had to compete with everything happening around it.

The Show #

The 2013 show ran alongside the festival's anniversary. I brought in Benjamin Van Citters, Nick Bartoletti, Chris Blohm, and Patrick Wright to build a projection-mapped installation across the entire space - window displays, rotating poster frames, and a dancing skeleton tracked live via Kinect. A Monday night triple kegger. It became the highest-attended opening in the festival's history.

2014 scaled up. MoPOP partnered with Decibel and moved the show into the Skychurch at EMP Museum as the official Opening Gala - 40+ designers, an expanded footprint, and a production problem to match.

The Production System #

The artist coordination system for 2014 was a Mailchimp campaign built on Google Forms and merge tags. Every invitation was personalised by artist assignment, print specs, and deadline. The email was the production system - no additional project management layer, no separate spreadsheet handed around. It worked because each artist only ever saw their piece of it. Simple and effective, brought together by the incredible list of participants.

2013 Decibel Popup Artshow promo graphic — 'Pop Up Art Show / September 24 / One Night Only'

Event photo — DJ performing with a skeleton tracked via Kinect projected behind him on the show wall

2014 invite email — 'Popup Poster Artparty / Opening Gala at EMP' header with fluorescent green organic shape

2014 artist confirmation email — 'Because You're Super' with individual artist assignment and print specs

Install shot — 18x24 poster prints laid out on the floor being arranged before hanging

Event photo (B&W) — silhouettes of attendees inside a projection-mapped show space

AV setup — stack of CRT monitors, projectors, and cables powering the 2013 projection installations

Install shot — poster frames on an orange wall with projection overlay mapping the grid

Gallery detail — poster frames projection-mapped onto a yellow field, showing digital prints by multiple artists

Crowd shot — large audience outside in front of the illuminated poster wall at night

Crowd shot — packed outdoor venue entrance with Decibel logo projected on the building facade

Panoramic install shot — gallery space with large-format paintings and works in progress before opening

Participants #