People have always looked to the skies for answers. Walt Disney believed "all our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them" and created a place for people to transport themselves into worlds full of fantasy and exploration. The Greeks drew constellations, Leonardo Da Vinci built flying machines and Hayao Miyazaki drew floating islands. These dreams of entering the air have always been in our collective consciousness and now we are approaching a point in time when engineering and imagination may be able to send buildings into the air. I believe that it is my calling to redefine the future of entertainment and build the most inspiring performance venue ever created, an opera house in the sky.
I want to save the opera industry through innovation. Opera is the interdisciplinary intersection of all artforms. Unfortunately, in my opinion, opera has traditionally misrepresented itself for nearly 50 years as digital disruption has taken over the music industry. From player-pianos to record players, and jukeboxes all the way to mp3s, music has evolved, and these new technologies should be used in every opera house and not just left at the door. Through closed-minded leadership and an inability to adapt, opera has spoiled humanity’s greatest art form and deprived people of complete and complex artistic experiences. Opera needs to pivot. It needs to embrace the best aspects of the operatic form and truly become the center of interdisciplinary art. Opera needs to get out of the building more often and find new curious audiences (Blank, 2018). According to Mike Tyson, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” I want to be that punch for the opera industry and shift the public perception 400 kilometers north from Bayreuth to the Bregenz (Christiansen, 2011). I want to show the world how opera can be redefined through ephemeral events. Stripping away the tuxedos, jewelry and six course dinners of the Metropolitan Opera era, opera is a perfect form for all artists to participate if guided by the right leadership.
It is my goal to be a cultural placemaker and build the most effective, efficient, and equitable cultural institution ever created. As jobs continue to transition from agricultural areas to cities, it will be necessary to develop creative spaces outside of urban environments to foster economic growth (Noonan, 2013). Here in Chicago, Jim Lasko, co-artistic director of Redmoon Theater defines placemaking as “meaning + space = place” and went on to state that cultural placemakers could bring meaning to spaces through altruistic means. By curating large ephemeral events nationally, we could inspire generations people to look to the skies and connect rural and urban communities through placemaking. Lasko commonly applies his equation to such locations as Ground Zero, Sandy Hook, or Hiroshima, explaining that signature events can shift public opinion of what a place means, whether it’s tragic or inspiring (Lasko, 2013). By increasing access to creative places, innovation is likely to follow. As a cultural placemaker, I want to build a company that can function as an engine to stimulate local economies by providing unforgettable services and spectacles.
It is my calling to build the most inspiring performance venue ever created. I believe that my work will be necessary in a future where technology divides rural and urban areas through polarizing politics and ideologies. I know I am passionate enough and have started in this direction nearly 10 years ago when I began designing site specific opera at the University of Miami. This will be my life’s work and I have enough determination and grit to be a successful social entrepreneur (Latterman, 2016). Without risk there is no reward and I have spent the past four years of my life risking everything to make my dream a reality. It started as a small start-up in 2014 with the Floating Opera Project and now has become a calling worth pursuing. I will be the man that sends opera into the air as an interdisciplinary “circus of the skies” and unapologetically provide hope for people in blighted areas across the planet.
References:
Blank, S., & Harvard Business Review. (2018, February 09). Why the Lean Start-Up Changes Everything. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2013/05/why-the-lean-start-up-changes- everything
Christiansen, R. (2011, August 05). Bregenz Festival: The world's splashiest opera? Retrieved from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/opera/8681827/Bregenz-Festival-the- worlds-splashiest-opera.html
Disney, W. (2013, February 09). Walt Disney - 93 quotes. Retrieved from http://www.great- quotes.com/quotes/author/Walt/Disney
Latterman, G. (2016, November 08). Find Your Calling In Life - Be An Entrepreneur. Retrieved from https://thegarage.northwestern.edu/find-calling-life-entrepreneur/
Lasko, J. (2013, June 12). Jim Lasko on place making and ephemeral events. Retrieved March 20, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KcORj3N4vo
Noonan, D. S., & Breznitz, S. M. (2013). Arts districts, universities, and the rise of media arts. In Creative Communities: Art Works in Economic Development (pp. 118-143). Brookings Institution Press Washington, DC.