Gearóid Dolan aka screaMachine, Festival Henge, 2025. Installation view, MIT Media Lab.
Photo: Gearóid Dolan.
Festival Henge @ MIT Media Lab Fall 2025
screaMachine / Gearóid Dolan
This is a community participation project that involves, absorbs, and reflects the community of artists at and associated with MIT
Festival Henge is a dynamic, participatory installation composed of eight freestanding, translucent hand-made LED video panels arranged in an octagonal formation. Evoking the spatial logic of the artist’s earlier Panoctagon work, the structure functions as both architectural gesture and digital canvas. Each low-resolution video screen displays imagery visible from both sides, while also allowing the surrounding environment to be visible between the LED pixels, inviting viewers into a 360° audiovisual environment with sixteen-channel surround sound.
Open Call for Participating DJs and VJs – Sign Up Here!
Short video of Festival Henge as a dance party at MIT Artfinity Arts Festival in February 2025. Courtesy of Gearóid Dolan aka screaMachine.
One aspect of this light dance is that the low resolution content is only readable from a distance and as the viewer approaches the content dissolves into flickering lights, much like community isn’t so visible when you are inside it but clearly visible from afar. Viewers inside the circle are immersed in a sparkling light environment but seen from afar are wrapped in dynamic video content.
The installation remains silent except on occasion when activated by performances by community sound artists and DJs. The work evokes community by including community artists’ content but also by the content provided by Dolan which comprises scenes from neighborhoods and scrolling text messages starting with Community is… As such the installation serves not only as a meditative sculptural space but as a performance platform
Gearóid Dolan aka screaMachine, Festival Henge, 2025. Installation view, MIT Media Lab.
Photo: Gearóid Dolan.
Gearóid Dolan aka screaMachine, Festival Henge, 2025. Installation view, MIT Media Lab.
Photo: Gearóid Dolan.
The project includes community participation with artists in the broader MIT community contributing video content for inclusion on the LED screens. Initially the Festival Henge is seeded with a 30 minute loop of screaMachine content. As the project continues it will evolve as new content is added to this loop until the project finishes at the end of September. [Note: there is a possibility it will continue further into the Fall, depending on the Media Lab exhibition schedule.]
Gearóid Dolan aka screaMachine, Festival Henge, 2025. Installation view, MIT Media Lab.
Photo: Gearóid Dolan.
Gearóid Dolan aka screaMachine, Festival Henge, 2025. Installation view, MIT Media Lab.
Photo: Gearóid Dolan.
Festival Henge is open to participation from video artists, VJs, sound artists, and DJs for “Jam Sessions” very Friday Night in September after nightfall – fostering an evolving dialogue of light, motion, and sound. On these nights, 16 speakers will be installed, two at the base of each LED Frame pointing into the circle center, and a big subwoofer off to the side. Audio artists and DJs will perform live on this Hexadecaphonic sound system. screaMachine will both do some live audio performances and some dance party DJing into the night as needed. Video artists and VJs will similarly be live mixing/presenting content on the LED Frames, different to the regular loop running the rest of the week. Members of the community are encouraged to come hang and experience the audio and video works, dance to some dance music and participate in the audio and video jam session. Each evening will evolve into its own live experience for audiences and participants alike.
