Sonic Design is an interdisciplinary team in Colombia that specialises in unique architectural projects and large events around the world. The creative team at Sonic Design designed and built a multi-sensory Art Car, Jaguara, and incorporated Elation Cuepix 16 IP LED matrix panels in the design to help spread its environmental message.
Jaguara is a collaborative project by an interdisciplinary collective of artists, designers, scientists, musicians, and artisans from different areas of the American continent. Sonic Design’s Director, Leo Vilar, worked throughout the world on projects that brought focus to Colombia and led the team that created the Art Car vehicle that portrays a jaguar emerging from the Amazon River.
Director of Design for Jaguara, Vilar wanted to create an Art Car with a very unique character which would clearly portray the ancestral power of the Amazon rainforest and its vital role in preserving the balance of our global climate. “Many times technology pulls us away from nature but this project intends to work the other way around,” he said. “Through a very thoughtfully crafted design, complemented by state-of-the-art lighting and sound technology, we wish to raise awareness about the vulnerability of our most precious life supporting systems and about the critical moment we are living in now.”
Jaguara debuted in August 2018 until September 2018 at Burning Man in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada.
During daylight hours, Jaguara was a rainforest oasis of patterns, colours and handcrafted art accompanied by sounds of nature, indigenous chants and tribal beats. At night, the Art Car became an electro-Latin music party featuring DJs, musicians, and performances from the counterculture movement in South America. Projection, lasers, and other effects enhanced the multi-sensory experience, a colourful multi-texture jaguar head emerging from the Amazon River.
The key Elation fixture used in this design was 64 Elation Cuepix 16 IP LED matrix panels used to re-create a traditional ‘jaguar man’ figure, a symmetrical and schematic design placed centre stage in the Art Car. The Cuepix 16 IP is a powerful 4×4 matrix LED panel with all-weather IP65 protection capable of projecting high-impact colour or white light, eye candy or pixel-mapped effects.
“It’s a unique product.” Villar commented: “When I looked at the shape and design of the fixture, it looked like a sculpture and I thought it would be ideal for the Jaguara project. It has nice pixels but it also looked nice as part of the jaguar man sculpture.”
The designer also chose the product because of its IP65 environmental protection. “We needed something robust and powerful and looked at many products before choosing,”
Jaguara debuted at Burning Man and was well received by the Burning Man community, according to Vilar. He concluded: “It was a great experience and we received just amazing feedback, nothing but great comments.”