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Interview: Space Yacht Co-Founders Rami Perlman & Henry Lu On The Secrets To Their Success

Los Angeles locals know the underground staple and mid-week party trailblazers Space Yacht . Formed in 2015 by founders Rami Perlman and Henry Lu, it’s a powerhouse organization in the scene supporting up-and-coming artists until they become huge stars.

Space Yacht has also thrown events all over the world , expanding to highlight locals in Vegas, New York, Seattle, San Francisco, and international destinations like China, Taiwan, Singapore, and more.

Furthermore, they’re known for their successful Tune Reactor series on Twitch where new producers can send in their tracks for feedback and advice, but the pair also frequently sign music to their label Space Yacht Records on the spot during Tune Reactor broadcasts

We sat down with Space Yacht’s founders Rami Perlman and Henry Lu to talk about their event philosophy, how they keep their shows fresh, and their upcoming Space Yacht 360 show at AREA15 in Las Vegas:

EDM Maniac: So let’s start from the beginning. How did you two meet and how did you get your start with music event organization?

Rami Perlman: We met at a startup company that we were both working at that focused on running social media accounts for celebrities and big musicians. I was in the music department and Henry was in the data analytics department. But we became friends through music.

We’d both be staying late and I’d be cranking music in my office. I had started my DJ project, LondonBridge , around the same time. So I’d play him stuff I was working on and that’s kind of how we became friends.

In terms of how Space Yacht started, selfishly I was very interested in launching my DJ project and I didn’t want to beg people to play shows. I just loved the idea of starting a party and then Henry had experience in doing that.

We then happened to meet a person who had a new venue called the Golden Box and he was like, “Hey, come throw your party at my place. I just opened this speakeasy in Hollywood.” And the first one did so well that the owner of the club came up to me and was like, “You gotta do this every week.”

EDM Maniac: You’ve become staples of the LA underground scene throwing sold-out midweek parties with secret lineups of top names. What would you say is integral to your success?

Henry Lu: I want to say consistency. We have stayed very consistent in the sense that it’s always fresh and new.

Part of our identity is we’re oftentimes the first co-sign. So as these new sounds from new DJs crop up, we have our way of interacting with them either through our curations or getting to know them over time.

Rami Perlman: Yeah we want to be a platform for an artist that’s just starting and I think our value in the ecosystem is that first co-sign.

At this point, three years down the line of doing our Tune Reactor series on Twitch, 95% of what we signed to our labels comes from the show.

Henry Lu: Yeah and we’re eight and a half years in and a lot of the people that we worked with five or six years ago are superstars.

EDM Maniac: You’re constantly hosting events and you have stages at all these huge festivals. How do you keep everything fresh and new?

Henry Lu: There isn’t a day where we’re not listening to new stuff. And with Tune Reactor, now we have a system of actually giving feedback.

Rami Perlman: It’s also because we have many disciplines. We throw events, we have a clothing company, we have a record label. That stuff I think is also a way that our team stays fresh because in our morning meetings, it’s always something different.

We’re able to take our brains into different places as a way to not be always under the same pressure. When you have a great show, you pat yourself on the back for like five minutes with a beer after the show, and then you’re literally thinking about the next one.

The other thing I will say, even specific to our Vegas show that’s coming up, we really do a lot of due diligence on who’s doing what locally in terms of the artists. A lot of our shows, outside of Los Angeles specifically, are very focused on making three of the five slots locals on purpose.

Sometimes it’s people that we met through Tune Reactor or Henry will put up a tweet and be like, “Who’s popping in Tech House in Vegas?” And we go through that list very seriously. So the local aspect of what we do is another piece of this puzzle.

EDM Maniac: On June 23 you’ll be taking over the portal at AREA15 with DJ Susan and Kaysin and then later in July with Pickle . What can we expect from this 360-degree experience?

Henry Lu: The 360 brand was just something we came up with as a response to the YouTube-style set. Honestly, shout out to Boiler Room, huge inspiration. And a lot of DJs love just playing with no real barrier between them and the crowd.

Rami Perlman: We’ve had DJ Susan recently and both are incredible performers. And then the show after that, we have Pickle and he’s got incredible animators and visuals who work for his normal show and they are prepping for this one. And so I really think if you want a spectacle plus fantastic house, this is one to check out.

Henry Lu: To be able to find a venue that’s flexible enough to work with that adjusted staging, we’re really excited to get to flex this muscle at AREA15, specifically on the portal because it has these crazy 360 projections on every single wall.

And we’re a brand that also wants to be associated with helping people build a legacy. So to be able to do that a few times in Vegas is pretty exciting.

It’s a real spectacle so shout out to AREA15 for having us. We have these two shows coming up, but hopefully we have more for the rest of the summer and the fall.

Featured image credit Space Yacht

• Space Yacht

Danielle Levy

Danielle Levy is an MBA with a concentration in Corporate Social Responsibility. Danielle has several years of experience in the sustainability education world and has held various positions in human resources and intern management. Danielle is passionate about the ties between sustainability and social impact.

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Happy birthday: Space Yacht celebrates six years [Q&A]

Los Angeles-based event and music promotion company Space Yacht recently celebrated its six-year anniversary with its first-ever Tech My House label compilation and a 15-hour livestream event that foregrounded a slew of ascendant house artists. Space Yacht was founded in 2015 by Henry Lu and Rami Perlman, who have since forged Space Yacht’s quest of “showcasing the next generation of dance music” into more than 150 shows, including event showcases at festivals such as Electric Daisy Carnival , Beyond Wonderland , Miami Music Week , SXSW , Coachella , and more. What started as a secret party occurring each Tuesday in Hollywood’s tiny Golden Box venue, Space Yacht has organically grown into a platform for the talents that Lu and Perlman believe in.

In commemoration of Space Yacht’s six-year anniversary came the label’s very first compilation, Tech My House Vol. 1 , which spanned 17 tracks from Mikey Barraeneche, Casmalia, Luke Andy, Qlank, Ocean Roulette, Ranger Trucco, SkiiTour, and many more. Space Yacht and Desert Hearts also collaborated on TECH MY HOUSE, a 15-hour livestream event that broadcast 18 DJ sets.

Dancing Astronaut  caught up with Lu and Perlman to gain insight on their Space Yacht journey, what they look for when signing tracks, and their future post-pandemic. Tech My House Vol. 1 and the interview can be found below.

How did you first become involved in dance music and how did this prompt your transition into curating your own events?

Perlman : “Dance music has always been a part of my life both as a fan and artist. I first started DJing back in college, in the early 2000’s, where I got heavily into house and drum ‘n’ bass. It wasn’t until years later that I got into events.

Henry and I met while working at a social media company, and we often worked late. I’d play him some demos of a new project I was producing, which eventually turned into LondonBridge, and we quickly realized that we were into similar styles of music. It was me wanting a place where I could perform, which then became the place for everyone to perform. The community vibe and opportunities within it became apparent quickly, and we nurtured it into where we are today. But all of this revolves first and foremost around our love for dance music and dance music culture.”

Lu : “In the beginning, I got involved as a student at UC San Diego volunteering at concerts and eventually became one of the coordinators for the big annual bash Sun God Festival (it was a huge school, so we planned our concert for 20,000 people every year). It was such a thrilling experience that I stuck around wanting to do more. Oddly enough, UC San Diego has some of the industry’s biggest power players as its alumni. 

Fast foward, I’m interning at Z-Trip’s management and Windish Agency (now Paradigm), all through connections I made at UCSD. Throughout all of these unpaid internships, I started multiple businesses of my own to sustain my lifestyle, and this is where I found my life calling—starting things from nothing and causing a ruckus.

Throwing events was just my manifestation of wanting to create something from nothing. It’s my way of thrill-seeking. It’s the most liberating feeling to work on my own terms at all times. In another life, Space Yacht totally could have been an app or tech platform. It feels strange to say this, but it’s not necessarily music or even events that I am primarily obsessed with. I’m obsessed with  creating . I just happen to love the music that I love, and when I met Rami, it was house music.”

Can you share some takeaways from your experience heading Space Yacht for the past six years?

Lu : “I’m absolutely blown away that an off-the-cuff idea we came up with became globally known and impactful across the industry. We never planned for this. We’ve learned an immense amount in the past six years, and the takeaway I’d like to share to the world is to just go for it. Obviously, come up with a plan and a fallback, but ultimately you will need to take action and follow through.”

Perlman : “My main takeaway is that consistency and quality are king. Just like a great restaurant, growing a brand is about providing the consumer with the best product possible, and being consistent with it—same goes for everything we do at Space Yacht.  Another takeaway is how strong and loyal our community is. The fact that we are still able to engage and even grow our brand in these crazy times is a testament to the love that people have for the brand and the culture. It’s truly humbling, and we don’t take it for granted.” 

What were some of the biggest challenges you faced when going about throwing events throughout the years and how were you able to overcome them?

Perlman : “One of the main challenges was always about answering the question ‘how do we keep it fresh?’ When we started, there were only a few parties going on, but over the past three years there has been an explosion of dance music events, both large and small. Since so many of the DJs live in LA, it was always a challenge to make sure our lineups were unique and featured both new artists and fan favorites. It always kept us on our toes. To this day, we have a high bar for who we book and why. Like our label, it always starts with the music.”

Lu : “Being able to focus in a sea of distraction has been a growing pain both for myself and Space Yacht as a whole. We’re pulled different directions at all times, and the thing that has helped us find peace has always been to think back to why it is that we’re here. Knowing what you want and what your mission is the key!”

Moving forward, how do you plan to overcome the live event-related obstacles introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic?

Lu : “I’m not sweating. The events will come back. Until then, we’re going to get good at all the things we’ve wanted to get good at. Instead of trying to expend our energy fighting the obstacle, we completely leaned into it.” 

Perlman : “To me, we are just scratching the surface of what Space Yacht could become. Before COVID, the entire identity of the brand revolved around events. Our curatorial voice was only represented in the lineups we put together. Now, we get to play in a bunch of different sandboxes, from signing records we love to creating clothing lines to livestreaming on Twitch to  producing NFT collections   All of these new disciplines are new ways for the brand of Space Yacht to be creatively expressed. A lot of our new business initiatives just started over the past 12 months. It’s exciting!”

At what moment or period of time did it become apparent that your brand was going to grow a lot more bigger than expected, and do you see another point in the future where that might happen again?

Lu : “At some point, folks started lining up around the block, and I had to turn town celebrity types at the door simply because I literally could not fit another person in the venue. My thought was ‘well, where do we go from here?'”

Perlman : “I think when we moved the party to Sound Nightclub in Hollywood is when it really started to explode. Sound is known as on of the best clubs in LA for underground dance music, and the team that runs the club is best in class (they run and book the Yuma tent at Coachella).

The combination of the club, our brand, and our fans was a perfect marriage. Word started to spread like wildfire after that. I think we are in our second or third phase of growth right now since we’ve had to move everything online. The funny thing is that we are streaming to way more people than could fit in the 600-capacity club, so in a sense, we are still growing even without live events.”

Will you aim to keep these events more intimate upon the return of in-person programming?

Lu : “Absolutely, yes. In fact, now that we don’t have the pressure of packing out clubs, our music programming lanes have opened up significantly. We now have time to listen to music that we wouldn’t have as DJ bookers and it’s already showing in our label signings. Our attitude towards music is that we are here as  scholars —there’s so much we don’t know, and it’s on us to see for ourselves. We simply share with the world all the things that excite us.”

Perlman : “Our brand is predicated on the idea of not sticking to one particular genre. House and bass genres are the most popular in our world, but we’ve been releasing drum ‘n’ bass records on the label and are planning a ton of niche compilations this year. I think we just follow the music that is interesting to us, and there are no rules when it comes to that. We can’t wait to get back to live events, but only when it’s safe to do so.”

What do you consistently look for when you’re listening to demos, looking for music to sign?

Perlman : “It’s always music first. It’s cool if someone has social media presence or things going on in their career, but we never prioritize that, even though we probably should. It’s always about the quality of the material.

One thing we do look for is a hook, whether it be a vocal or synthline. It has to be catchy and memorable. We think the TECH MY HOUSE  compilation set the bar really high, so we are becoming more and more particular about what we sign. There is so much good music out there!”

Lu : “The main signing criteria is that we light up and share the collective feeling that know exactly what to do with the piece of music to nurture it within our ecosystem. If we are struggling to find a vision for it, at least in terms of what we can do to help, it’s usually a no.”

What’s something you want new fans to keep in mind when they discover the artists who first got their start on your platform?

Perlman : “Remember to support these artists! It can be through a simple follow or sharing their track on social media, or donating when they play livestreams. Most of these people have day jobs and are trying to find their way. Any support you can give them is valuable.”

Lu : “Come curious! There’s just so much more we can do with a fan or attendee who’s genuinely open-minded.”

Now that you’re six years in, what are some of your goals for Space Yacht moving forward?

Perlman : “The growth of the label and apparel business are both really exciting. We’ve already signed the next six months of releases and are planning some massive compilations for the third and fourth quarters.

We are also super excited about the crypto-art NFT movement that we’ve been lucky to be a part of. Our first two collections  sold out in three minutes and people have been asking us to make more. A lot of people are just starting to find out about the space and huge artists like deadmau5 and 3LAU have already jumped into it. We see this as something that can intersect with the label as well as being its own thing. Our next crypto art drop is on Nifty Gateway on March 8, so look out for that!”

Lu : “We just started our Twitch and YouTube pages, and I can’t wait to hit our first few milestones. It’s going to help us reach a much more global audience once we get it together.”

Featured image: Martin Cabrera Lopez

Tags: henry lu , interview , label compilation , londonbridge , Q&A , Space Yacht , tech my house

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How Space Yacht Takes the Pain Out of Signing Records

Jul 13, 2021

Multi-platform event and culture brand Space Yacht started six years ago with the simple intention of throwing a dope party. They quickly amassed a cult following of industry heads and dance music fans. Crowded into a tiny Hollywood club each Tuesday, Space Yacht established a reputation for taste making secret lineups, mid-week debauchery, and 1 am pizza.

In many ways, they carried the torch that Steve Aoki lit in the mid-aughts with Dim Mak Tuesday’s. Yet they did it with their own brilliantly conceived aesthetic that has led its founders, Henry “Hidden Hen” Lu and Rami “Londonbridge,” Perlman, to become a unique pair of personalities in dance music.

Their weekly LA events, nationwide club takeovers, and curated festival stages were an engine for massive pre-COVID growth. However, when the industry stopped in its tracks in March of 2020, they had to pull a hard left. And though their shenanigans were confined to the small screen, they entered a period of creative growth.

They fully embraced technology and became thought leaders in the budding NFT space . They also remarkably flipped the script on the process of running a label. They’ve spent nearly a year broadcasting their A&R sessions to the world via their Twitch show, Tune Reactor which airs Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 4 PM PT.

“I don't know if it's the future of A&R, but it's our signature way of doing A&R,” Perlman says about their two-hour listening sessions.

Tune Reactor is an interactive listening party the duo established at the height of the pandemic. For a small donation producers get live feedback from the boys. It’s invaluable for producers who never know if their demo submissions to other labels ever get heard.

Perlman explains that “It's enabled people to actually reach the label and know that the label is listening.” The process of shopping music as an up-and-coming producer is daunting. Without contacts in the industry, young artists grow accustomed to being outright ignored by most labels.

Lu adds, “So that that all of a sudden solves that issue that all artists have, because you know where to find us. That's when you get the most focus. That is actually when I'm going to listen and give you real feedback, because that's the give and take of the show.”

Lu goes on to explain that the show wasn’t designed as an A&R platform, it just ended up that way. The pandemic put the founders in an unhealthy place mentally. And the online community that they’d begun to create with their live streams was helping them stay sane and relevant.

“We wanted to build our stature as entertainers. because in the absence of nightclubs, we were like, we don't have that, but we have ourselves. So let's try to make ourselves be more of a music influencer using this downtime. And, you know, number one, it worked. But number two, the byproduct of that was like, whoa, this is like A&R plus!”

They wanted to merge a music review show with a reaction video, hence the name Tune Reactor. They’ve always been champions of new music, and Space Yacht parties have a reputation for breaking talent. So, Tune Reactor was a natural step toward creating a record label.

The model they’ve created has been a success story. The label has released nearly 100 records including the recent Tech My House Vol. 2 compilation. The cross-pollination of new and established acts makes the story that much more compelling. Remarkably 90% of the songs on the new compilation came from Tune Reactor.

They insist that this hasn’t replaced traditional A&R. They still have a demo inbox. However, the community they’ve created around Tune Reactor has only served to make their brand stronger.

Tune Reactor is a donation-based show. An idea they both struggled with early on. Lu says they were both worried about taking money from creators, especially in such a crucial time for the industry.

It’s important to consider the serious value prop for the price of a cup of coffee Lu says. “You're getting rich, on demand feedback.” He explains. “Our thesis is supposed to be that we want to get you in a place where people can pay you vast amounts of money to play gigs, or to sign you, or decide to manage you.”

Their prime example is Ranger Trucco an artist discovered on Tune Reactor. When they heard his song “Tiffany” they were immediately struck by his tongue-in-cheek lyrics and bubbling tech-house beats. Space Yacht didn’t just sign him to the label, they picked him up for a management deal.

Tune Reactor has served several purposes through the pandemic. It was a platform for Perlman and Lu to keep Space Yacht’s name on the industry’s lips. It’s a community-building project, label feeder, and it’s also reinvigorated a long-lost feeling in its hosts.

“It's really, for me recreated that teenage feeling of chills down my spine,” Lu begins. “Like arm hair standing up. That feeling and having that record, making that part of my job has really given me brand new energy. This kind of immediacy, and the ability to kind of have it on the record and the stakes are real.”

You can tell that the label is truly excited about the music because the reactions are raw and unfiltered. No formula or algorithm decides if they should release something. All that matters is how it makes them feel. It's validating for young producers to see the discovery process happen in real-time. It's also undeniably important to dance music culture.

Lu continues, “There's nothing in the Space [Yacht] ecosystem that's not accessible to someone who we think we can be a…I like to call it a torchbearer for. That that has been the core cause for excitement to me is when those records do pop up. And we kind of can tell, we can read each other's body language even through the camera. It's like, 'oh, shit, it's unanimous consent. The whole team is gonna be behind this.”

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From irl to url - an interview with space yacht.

The planets may be acting strange but one thing is clear: Space Yacht is making WAVES in not just the EDM community but in the NFT, festival & fashion worlds alike. Founded by Rami Perlman and Henry Lu, the Space Yacht vision was to create an inclusive dance music environment where fans and artists could create intimate memories with one another at a party unlike any other in the industry.

Fast forward several years and Space Yacht has carved a name for itself within the music world. From discovering some of the best up & coming artists through their Tune Reactor on Twitch to creating an eclectic clothing brand and taking over entire stages at festivals like Beyond Wonderland , there’s no doubt that the Space Yacht crew is on the verge of something massive—one pizza slice at a time.

W e caught up with Space Yacht Co-Founder Rami Perlman to find out where the Space Yacht ship is headed after catching wind of their debut DnB Compilation: Critical Mass Vol. 1

iHeartRaves : Space Yacht has been taking the scene by storm in the last few years, what would you say sets space yacht apart from other shows and dance music events?

Rami Perlman : When we started Space Yacht six years ago, it was just a hang for our friends, DJs and industry folks. We didn't set out with any grand vision. After the first year, we started to see Space Yacht as a real thing where people were asking us if they could play our shows.

We made it our mission to bring the best up-and-coming talent, who you may or may not have ever heard of, to the forefront. We always joke that we discover new artists 18 months before they ever hit one of the festival main stages. We think of our events as a source of new music discovery. We also have an incredible community of music fans, producers and club goers who are some of the most open-minded, kind people out there.

iHR : The pandemic definitely threw everyone for a loop last year but Space Yacht continued to rise & thrive. What are some of the ways you leveraged and balanced everything going on in 2020 and what are some of the milestones you’re proudest about?

RP : Like many, Covid completely shut down our existing events business. We were able to survive by starting new businesses that could exist online. In 2020 we launched a record label, clothing line, NFT business and Twitch demo listening show show called Tune Reactor .

By living online and connecting directly with our community, these new businesses enabled us to not only stay relevant, but grow our fanbase. What we didn't see coming was that Tune Reactor would became a place for us to discover new talent for the label and our events; 80%-90% of what we've been signing to the label has come from that show, and in many cases we've booked lineups for events based on who is impressing us on Twitch. Wild!

iHR : There’s no shortage of talent & creativity with the Space Yacht crew and that clearly showed through your NFT drops last year! From your in-house designers to your collaboration with Goldweard, could you tell me more about everything that went into creating “the fastest selling NFTs that Nifty Getaway had ever seen”?

RP : NFTs have been a new form of expression for the brand. We had already been working with animators and creatives for our tour visuals, so we already had a gang of great visual creators. I also loved the idea of creating music specifically for NFTs that don't exist on streaming platforms.

We ended up bringing on Sahir Khan to lead the animation team. Sahir was a Space Yacht regular who I often smoked joints with on the back patio at our Tuesday night events. He also just so happens to be an insanely talented creative director and animator. In the past year, we have created 4 collections together , all featuring original animations by Sahir and music from me. I'm also a physical art and NFT collector, so for me this has been a true labor of love.

iHR : Speaking of collabs & cool drops, talk to me more about the Space Yacht aesthetic and how it inspires your clothing line as far as who you collaborate with & what kinds of designs we see? I loved the drops with Crimson Child and Bubz and am excited to see you guys continue to highlight some of the amazing art within the EDM community!

RP : The images and slogans that are put on our clothing represent the attitude of our community, and they're a reflection of me and Henry's twisted sense of humor. Designs like "WE ARE SO F CKED" and "Welcome To Hell" are good examples of that.  It's all tongue-in-cheek in some way, but it's who we are.  Just as we collaborate with talent in the music space, apparel allows us to further collaborate with visual artists who are in our scene.

Most recently we’ve collaborated with Pretty Done , who is an artist based out of Las Vegas. He’s been creating all the artwork for our record label releases and we have a collaborative apparel collection coming this fall.  We love visual art, it's always been a part of what we do.

iHR : Now that we’re on the topic of fashion I have to ask, what are some of your favorite rave and festival fashion styles you’ve seen this year and how do you see yourself continuing to incorporate yourself into the festival fashion circuit?

RP : We just did our second pop up shop with Rave Wonderland , who are one of our favorite clothing brands in the festival space. When you go to the bigger raves, you see Rave Wonderland outfits and clack fans all over the place. It's amazing to see them killing it, and they have been huge supporters of Space Yacht.

I think the three biggest fashion trends we've been seeing at the festivals are definitely artist jerseys, clack fans and sling bags . And it makes sense. A jersey is the most comfortable shirt you can wear. It's breathable, and both guys and girls can rock it. It's hot as hell on the West Coast, so the clack fans will keep you cool. People also love clacking them at the drop. Clack fans are by far Space Yacht's best selling item at festivals.

Finally, the sling bag is the perfect accessory where you can keep all essentials without having to carry around a backpack. It also looks cool. You can keep your weed in it. Also, bucket hats have been the rage!

iHR : Now I know you’re not just at festivals and shows checking out the fashion - could you tell me more about the way you curate the artists you choose for your Space Yacht Takeovers? What would be the best way for an up and coming artist to catch your attention?

RP : Like any other music fan, we discover music from our own research and various sources. Henry and I are music fans, first and foremost!  But we have indeed found a lot of new artists from Tune Reactor, as well as from managers and agents who hit us up about new projects that they are working on.

The curation always revolves around genre or theme for each event. If we’re going to do a Tech My House night, we'll focus on DJs and producers in that lane. We'll usually have an anchor person to headline the night, and then build the lineup around that person. More and more, we are integrating talent from our record label to play our shows.

A lot of times, the bookings are centered around who is in our universe at the moment. Sometimes, I'll be racking my brain about who to put on a show, and then someone will tweet at me, or a manager will hit me up on email, and all of a sudden I'm booking that artist. Curation is about 50% of what we do on a day to day basis, and we are constantly pushing ourselves to deliver fresh artists and lineups. It's easy to get stale if you don't keep pushing new ideas.

iHR : DNB is definitely the talk of the town these days & Space Yacht continues to be at the forefront with your inaugural Drum and Bass Compilation which is curated by REAPER this year. Tell us more about what we can expect from Critical Mass Vol 1. & if we can expect to see more of these artists at your takeovers?

RP : Drum and bass is actually the first type of electronic music that I fell in love with, so this compilation is definitely near and dear to my heart. Critical Mass Vol. 1 showcases a collection of artists who are on the rise and pushing the genre forward, specifically in the US.

We tapped REAPER to help curate the comp as we've been huge fans of his, and definitely see him as leading the D&B scene in the states. He brought a lot to this project, both in finding records and working out the tracks that flowed together on the comp. We intend to do more of these kinds of curatorial collaborations in the future. We have an upcoming Techno compilation that we are working on with HELBOUND! , and a few other projects in the works with producers from our scene.

iHR : You don't have to tune into Tune Reactor for long to discover some incredible new artists and sounds that haven't yet graced our ears at the clubs or mainstage. Can you name a couple (or a few) of up & coming artists you’re most excited about from Critical Mass, Tech My House or just in general? PUT US ON!

RP : Top to bottom, we think all of the artists on the Critical Mass compilation are worth diving into. If you are new to D&B or interested in where the genre is headed, this group is really leading the way. For real, I can't choose just one. On the House side of things we are extremely excited about the upcoming Tech My House Vol 3. roster which includes Xeno , Dem2 , Gibson Parker , Local Singles and a slew of other house gunslingers. Also, the Crimson Child album we dropped a few months back is a masterpiece. Definitely worth diving into.

iHR : Did you always see Space Yacht going in this direction? What do you see for the future of Space Yacht?

RP : We started this party on a whim, just for fun. In no way did we see it turning into a relevant brand within the dance music space, let alone become our full-time jobs. We feel grateful every day that we get to do what we love, and help be a platform for new talent to reach their goals.

As we look towards the future, we are focused on brand and company growth, which in some cases means that we are just going to keep doing what we are doing - sign records, throw shows, make cool shit. We always have a few experimental projects in the works that may or may not lead to anything, like when we started our NFT initiative, which turned into a new, successful business for us. But our core passion will always be in music, dance music culture and helping new artists live out their dreams.

iHR : How can I get my hands on a Space Yacht Disco Ball tho?

RP : That thing weighs 300 pounds. Good luck carrying it out of the club haha!

So, while I try to figure out how to smuggle this disco ball out of Sound, make sure to check out Space Yacht on Twitter & Twitch for all the out of pocket content, vibey tunes & pizza you’ll ever need! Check out the latest Space Yacht release, Big Bass Ting Vol. 2 . The compilation was released just in time for the Halloween weekend.

Photo by Eden Shohat | @edenskiz

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Label Engine May 12, 2021 Label Spotlights

Founders: Henry Lu and Rami Perlman Founded: 2020 Genre : Drum & Bass, Tech House, Bass House, Dubstep Country of Origin: United States Roster: LondonBridge, VOUTI, Ranger Trucco, Ekonovah, Crimson Child, Vastive, Tony H, JEANIE, Friendzone, Nikademis, Beauty & The Beats, Aidan Sokol, Haus of Panda, Alenn, Money Money

“Openers have always been a strategic booking for us, because in 18 months they become the next headliners,” Lu shares. “That same spirit and approach made it very easy for us to launch a label, because up to this point, those openers were the kinds of people we wanted to invest in. Now, they are the artists we want to sign.” – Space Yacht, SF Weekly

“One of the brands in the dance music scene that has truly taken the world by storm is Space Yacht. Originating as a weekly party that became renowned for its rowdiness, secret lineups, and free pizza, they’ve consistently had their finger on the pulse of the latest trends and helped foster top-tier talent along the way” – EDM Identity

“The promise of going to a Space Yacht show is that you don’t know what you’re going to get,” says Co-Founder Rami Perlman, who produces house music under the moniker LondonBridge . “It’s like an omakase in sushi where they bring out all kinds of fish. It’s delicious, and you go with it because you trust the chef.” In this case, the set menus that attendees can experience at Space Yacht’s sold-out bashes are built from undiscovered talent. The chef’s are Perlman and Co-Founder Henry Lu, who source emerging stars and grow them from the ground up.” – SF Weekly

“Over the last five years, the production team has solidified their name as a staple on the electronic music event circuit by specifically catering to the greatest upcoming talent around and highlighting the next generation of dance music artists” – EDM Manic

Fridays are usually pretty busy days for music, but today seems especially busy. With new albums, singles, EPs, and more galore, today is a fantastic day for new music and new beginnings. Space Yacht, the Los Angeles party collective that has been dominating the underground scene for years is officially “Moving Forward” with a brand new label and they just put out their first release. – Your EDM

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Music/Crypto art pioneer Space Yacht announces third NFT collection

After a series of sold-out drops, space yacht is set to roll out a new collection on nifty gateway on monday, march 8 at 4 pm pt/7 pm et.

Global party brand Space Yacht is dropping their third NFT (non-fungible token) collection, “ Iconography Collection Volume II ,” on Monday, March 8 @ 4 p.m. PT/7 p.m. ET via Nifty Gateway . Industry pioneers in the movement towards the digital art realm, Space Yacht was one of the first dance music brands to get into the NFT space , dropping multiple collections in past months on Nifty Gateway that sold out in a matter of minutes. Space Yacht’s upcoming NFT collection will dive further into their own world of crypto-memes bringing back familiar characters including the Twerk Skeleton and Crypto-Smiley who were featured in previous NFT drops. How crypto are generated tho? Every digital currency can be earned via cryptocurrency mining.

We’re starting to see NFTs as a new form of story telling and expression for our brand, – says Space Yacht co-founder and DJ LondonBridge. – Part of the fun of NFTs is the idea that you can string themes and storylines across multiple pieces or collections.

The Space Yacht Iconography Collection II expresses an evolution of core themes of Space Yacht inspired by the iconography of rave culture, including smilies, Space Yacht’s signature peak-of-the-party pizza runs, animated pills, twerking skeletons, and nihilistic prophecies like “WE ARE SO F☻CKED.” The iconography pays homage to a special Space Yacht tradition that takes place at every event, when founders pass out free slices of pizza on the dance floor at 1 a.m.

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Michael Bibi announces “One Life” tour in London at Finsbury Park

All the animated works are done in-house by creatives who connected at the live events, and each NFT features original animations as well as original music composed by LondonBridge.

“My goal is to write music to elevate the visual component and the overall experience of the artwork. As with all of our NFTs, the animation comes first and then I compose a track specifically for each NFT. We purposely don’t release the tracks on streaming platforms which makes the music itself highly rare and collectible.”

Before the pandemic hit last year, Space Yacht had been throwing 150 shows around the world annually. When Covid-19 kneecapped the event industry, the international party brand transitioned into the digital realm by launching a record label and entering the crypto-art space. Last summer, they opened a door of creativity for their brand with their first NFT collection, at the time the fastest-selling NFT on Nifty Gateway with over 230 pieces sold in 2 minutes and 28 seconds. Some crypto collectors have already cashed in early on previous Space Yacht drops, reselling pieces on Nifty Gateway for up to 15 times the original price. Crypto collectors can buy arts using Ethereum or Bitcoin. You can even buy bitcoin cash without having to use an online exchange.

Their second collection, called Space Yacht Iconography Collection , hit the market just before Christmas 2020 and sold out in just 3 minutes — the highest-grossing Space Yacht campaign of all time. Since then, Space Yacht NFTs have appreciated at least five times their value since being released.

Space Yacht’s Iconography Collection Volume II drops March 8th on Nifty Gateway.

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Arts & Culture | April 4, 2024

The Long History of Art Inspired by Solar Eclipses

For centuries, curious artists have been trying to make sense of the celestial event

Elissaveta M. Brandon

Contributing Writer

Drivers in Dallas earlier this year may have noticed a curious trio of billboards on the side of Highway 67. Instead of advertising for the nearest brisket or “the world’s most refreshing beer,” the signs depicted a black disc ringed by a nebulous, fiery red circle.

The billboards were actually works of art. They were part of a five-billboard series called View Finder , in which American video artist Brian Fridge portrays a solar eclipse. To create his images, Fridge used a desktop lamp for the sun, an opaque disc for the moon, and a little motor pulling the disc on a string for the gravitational pull that steers the moon around the sun.

Fridge is one of many artists looking in the shadow of the moon for inspiration, ahead of the solar eclipse set to cross the United States on April 8 . At the Dallas Art Fair, Ashley Zelinskie will unveil an eerie sculpture depicting a bitumen-black moon cloaking a tentacled sun, plus a hologram of a floating black moon. Meanwhile, in New York City, Angela Lane , who has been creating postcard-sized oil paintings depicting eclipses, twin suns and other celestial phenomena for almost a decade, will present another exhibition of such paintings at the gallery Anat Ebgi later this year. And at her solo show at Hollis Taggart, Rachel MacFarlane will display The Event , a fantastical depiction of hurricane-battered Prince Edward Island in Canada that is coupled with an abstract depiction of a solar eclipse to imbue the landscape with a sense of foreboding. MacFarlane is also planning to view the upcoming eclipse, then rebuild the scene from memory back in her New York City studio.

That the solar eclipse has become a favorite muse for artists isn’t all that surprising considering the theatrical allure of the phenomenon. What is remarkable is just how long artists have tried to make sense of the celestial event, and just how much their interpretations have evolved with our own understanding of eclipses.

“I think it brings us, in a visceral, time-limited way, in touch with these cosmic-scale things that really pull us out of ourselves and our own, little, tiny world and bring us into some kind of interface with the infinite,” says Karl Kusserow , a curator of American art at the Princeton University Art Museum who contributed to a 2017 exhibition about eclipses called “ Transient Effects .” “Eclipses have been happening for billions of years, and they engage us, in a very fundamental way, with that ineffable hugeness of the world beyond our daily routines.”

As it happens, the cyclical occurrence of a total solar eclipse (which, contrary to popular belief, isn’t all that rare and happens every 18 months or so somewhere in the world) makes this extraordinary phenomenon an ideal platform to explore the changing ways that humans perceive the world around them. These perceptions vary based on geography and culture, but also on time.

The solar eclipse hasn’t always been the entertaining tourist magnet it promises to be on April 8, when the path of totality will extend from Mexico, across the United States from Texas to Maine, and into Canada. People didn’t flock to rooftop viewing parties. They didn’t travel thousands of miles to watch the sky go dark. To ancient civilizations, an eclipse was seen as a dark omen that often signified the wrath of their gods. It wasn’t exhilarating; it was unsettling.

This might explain why, according to some experts, the solar eclipse wasn’t depicted much in the early days. In many ancient cultures, the sun was seen as a deity and a source of life that helped the crops grow every season. By the same token, the absence of a sun was fraught with danger—so why turn it into art?

“To make an illustration was not as easy as just picking up a ballpoint pen,” says Kusserow. “If you’re carving in stone, you’re going to focus on things that are not the worst of all times.”

Early depictions of the solar eclipse are few and far in between, but they do exist. In Norse mythology , the eclipse takes the form of two wolves—Skoll and Hati—chasing the sun and the moon. The story goes that if one of the wolves caught the sun, and a solar eclipse occurred, it would bring about the end of the world. And in Chinese mythology , the eclipse has often been depicted as a dragon devouring the sun.

In Western art, one of the most recurring representations of the eclipse has been in Christian art. But as the director of London’s Science Museum, Ian Blatchford, thoroughly outlines in a 2016 article in a Royal Society journal , there, too, the eclipse is more of a symbol than a literal depiction.

For example, the crucifixion was believed to have taken place during a total solar eclipse, so the Salerno Ivories from the 11th or 12th century show the dying Christ flanked by the sun and the moon, hinting to a verse from the Bible stating that “darkness fell over the whole land … because the sun was obscured.” In the Echternach Gospels , which illustrate the moment of Christ’s death on the cross, the sun and the moon take the form of human figures shrouding their faces in grief.

Depictions of eclipses became more and more realistic during the Renaissance, a period known for its convergence of art and science. Around 1518, Raphael and his workshop created a striking fresco titled Isaac and Rebecca Spied Upon by Abimelech . Located in a loggia at the Vatican Palace, the fresco features a detailed version of a solar eclipse, including the sun’s fiery streamers. Some experts believe that Raphael used the eclipse as a complex metaphor for Isaac and Rebecca’s stealthy deception and lovemaking, which occurred during totality.

In more recent years, various artists have explored celestial themes with increasing detail—from Etienne Trouvelot’s captivating astronomical drawings (1878) to Roy Lichtenstein’s cosmic pop art (1975). But the most important among them remains the early 20th-century painter Howard Russell Butler, whose eclipse paintings stand out both for their artistic and scientific merit.

Butler is most famous for his portraits of Andrew Carnegie, but he studied physics and law before turning to art. When the painter was 62 years old, he was invited to join a U.S. Naval Observatory expedition to Oregon, where he chronicled the 1918 solar eclipse. “I generally asked for ten sittings of two hours each,” he later wrote of that expedition. “But all the time they would allow me on this occasion was 112 1/10 seconds.”

Butler would go on to paint three different eclipse paintings after observing the phenomenon in 1918, 1923 and 1925. By that time, photographers had attempted to document the eclipses with varying levels of success . But where photographers had struggled to capture the nuances and fiery hues of the sun’s corona, Butler succeeded by taking meticulous shorthand notes during the eclipses, then filling in the gaps later, a bit like a paint by numbers kit. (By some accounts, Butler had mastered this technique while painting 13 portraits of Carnegie, who reportedly could not sit still for long.)

Today, capturing a solar eclipse is no longer a herculean effort. Almost anyone with a digital camera, a solar lens filter and the patience to read explainers online can get a decent photo of it. The event has been documented in all its evanescent glory, and from every single angle. Yet, artists continue to be enthralled by it.

For visual artist Zelinskie, to make art that is inspired by science means to grapple with existential questions like “Why are we here?” and “What’s out there?” “We’ve been asking these questions since we were able to think, so to be answering these questions as an artist is basic human curiosity,” she says.

A little over two years ago, Zelinskie partnered with NASA scientists to produce a range of artworks, like a pair of marble gloves modeled after retired NASA astronaut Mike Massimino’s hands. This year, she’s unveiling Eclipse , a 3D-printed sculpture that doubles as a pinhole viewer, plus a hologram of the event. “[The solar eclipse] is something you have to see for yourself. You can’t describe it to somebody,” she says. “That’s why I chose to make a hologram of it. People see the hologram I’m making and take photos of it, but it doesn’t look right; you can’t tell that it’s 3D, and that’s the perfect medium.”

“It’s something you have to physically be there for,” she adds.

For her sculpture Eclipse , Zelinskie tried to convey the eerie feeling that washes over during a solar eclipse. “The birds freak out, the crickets come out, the animals think it’s nighttime, there’s a weird lighting situation,” she says. Zelinskie fashioned her moon using data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been mapping the lunar surface for 15 years. She then sheathed the sphere in a dark black patina, and she 3D-printed flares to represent the corona.

The resulting sculpture is somewhat sinister, which goes back full circle to the dawn of eclipse art. “Every culture has eclipse artwork, but it’s always, ‘God is punishing us,’” says Zelinskie. “I didn’t find one instance of, ‘Yay, an eclipse.’ I guess this is how humanity is interpreting it, so I’m staying true to that doom and gloom.”

Meanwhile, video artist Fridge has long been fascinated with light, matter and the passing of time, but his View Finder series marks the first time that he has made eclipse-inspired artwork. Fridge is known for his abstract images and films depicting natural processes that he records in his home—like seeded clouds he created in his own freezer or, in this case, desktop lamps that stand in for the sun. “I never really leave the house, and I don’t record anything outside in nature,” he told me on a recent video call from his house, which is also his studio. “I find things on the domestic scale, then try to imbue some kind of meaning to it.”

To make View Finder , Fridge used a little device that plugs into an iPhone to pick up the heat signature of any given object and create what is known as thermographic imaging. He created a six-minute film retracing the evolution of his makeshift eclipse, captured stills from various stages of an eclipse, then blew them up to fit the size of five billboards in and around Dallas.

The result was convincing enough that when the film, also titled View Finder , premiered at Dallas Contemporary on March 10, Fridge felt the need to clarify this wasn’t footage from “the actual thing” as some viewers had assumed. It was an artistic interpretation, an illusion that was intentionally created with the constraints of household objects. “I like the meaning that could come from something that’s this limited, and you feel those limits,” he says, referring to the highly realistic renderings one can achieve with a computer or artificial intelligence today.

With View Finder , Fridge says he wanted to explore different ways in which humans see things. You can don a pair of safety glasses and look up at the solar eclipse, or you can drive past a billboard on the side of a highway and find meaning in a still image.

“Hopefully that would do what art does,” he says, “which, to me, is to contribute to a sense of curiosity and wonder, and hopefully more complex and diverse ways of seeing the world.”

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Elissaveta M. Brandon | | READ MORE

Elissaveta M. Brandon is a Brooklyn-based freelance writer whose work has appeared in Curbed , Metropolis , Architectural Digest and more. She writes about architecture, cities and the life in between.

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Sign up for essence newsletters the keep the black women at the forefront of conversation., project for empty space throws a stylish fête, the 2024 badass art woman awards.

Last night at the Angel Orensanz Foundation on the Lower East Side, the New York City art community showed up to support the Badass Art Woman Awards. The energy in the room was celebratory and it was conjured forth by Jasmine Wahi and Rebecca Pauline, both co-founders of Project for Empty Space . The femme-led organization is dedicated to the intersection of art and social activism. There was even a hint of energy that was exhilarating too. The theme of the night lent itself to honor intrinsically connected creative duos. A bustling cocktail hour was the first stop of the night before the festivities officially kicked off. During this hour it became clear that the event was set to be filled with stylish attendees, the honorees were styled meticulously in Dior.

Hearing Wahi and Pauline share how they co-created Project for Empty Space was heart-warming–this was the kick-off to the lauded ceremony. They took turns sharing the road to 2024, which began in 2008 when they decided to create an arts organization. They parted ways for a bit but eventually what followed was a series of successful pop-ups. But today, the two program nearly 50,000 square feet across Newark.

One moment from the evening that evoked laughter was when the artist Derrick Adams introduced his friendship with his former schoolmate Mickalene Thomas , multi-disciplinary artist and co-founder of Pratt Institute’s Pratt>Forward, a free platform for emerging creatives and alumni of the institution. The platform supports them as they navigate the art world. Adams noted how when she was a student at Pratt she was already an entrepreneur. He also shared details about how seriously she took being a resident assistant. He shared: “From then on Mickalene and I have continued our friendship for 30 years.”

The dynamic duo Mickalene Thomas and Pratt>Forward co-founder, artist, and Chair of Fine Arts at Pratt, Jane South shared a singular moment on stage when they received their awards. While on stage, the former spoke about creating the mentorship platform to pour into students and alumni who needed guidance and professional development. “Through our initiative, we’ve built a very vibrant community that supports a lot of emerging artists. And with the support it provides resources and mentorship,” Thomas said. She added that the space is a beacon and Pratt>Forward was created so artists won’t make the mistakes she made business-wise years ago.

Maria Grazia Chiuri, the creative director of women’s haute couture, ready-to-wear, and accessories for Dior received her flowers too. Her creative partner Karishma Swali, the co-founder and artistic director of the non-profit, the Chanakya School of Craft was honored alongside her. Since 1998, Swali has led Chanakya International, an atelier that partners with global luxury houses further ensuring that Indian artisans and their craftmaking lives on through generations to come.

The Chanakya School of Craft co-founded by Swali in 2016 has educated over 1,000 women to date. Programs within the non-profit enhance the professional opportunities for India’s female artisans. These women are offered opportunities to learn over 300 craft techniques, including embroidery, hand weaving, and macrame. The Chanakya School has partnered with Chiuri since 2020. 

“We understood the value of the craft, embroidery. It has been an incredible creative dialogue between us,” Chiuri said. She went on to express that working with the school has been a joyful experience for her, especially on multiple collections. “I am so deeply honored to share this award with my dearest friend, forever mentor, and my forever inspiration Maria Grazia,” Swali shared. Swali also shared that their common ground was found almost immediately after they met: holding space for artisanal legacies through innovation. “Over the years we dreamt and envisioned a world where women can find spaces to express themselves freely and creatively,” she adds.

Aside from the celebratory spirit throughout the evening, there was also a certain level of warmth and familiarity. The closing award was presented to Project for Empty Space’s Inaugural Feminist FUTURES Curatorial Fellow, Alyssa Alexander. She spoke of the work she has been doing–and acknowledged her hopes for continuing to pour into the arts industry with an intersectional lens.

For their next feat, co-founders Wahi and Pauline are aiming to raise funds for a cross-country exhibition tour and digital database: “Body Freedom For Every(body).” Through a Kickstarter campaign , they’re hopeful that they will secure funding to showcase 200 artists’ works within a truck. Celebrating reproductive justice, queer liberation, and the joy of the trans community are core goals of the exhibition. 

With the rights of women and those within the LGBTQIA community being snatched away state by state, this feels timely. Bodily autonomy is of the utmost importance to many–and Project for Empty Space is looking to garner awareness while showcasing art. The announcement of this campaign which was already live further noted the grassroots movement that has allowed the organization to thrive since 2010.

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10 Shows to See in Venice During the Biennale, From a Pierre Huyghe Blockbuster to Art About Palestine

By Alex Greenberger

Alex Greenberger

Senior Editor, ARTnews

Italy’s Venice Biennale, the world’s biggest art festival, would be big enough if it were limited to merely its main venues, the Arsenale and the Giardini. But the sprawling show has gradually expanded beyond these sites as other seek to get in on the action, piggybacking on the central show and accompanying national pavilions by staging their own exhibitions alongside it.

Enter the phenomenon known as the “collateral event,” or a show that is technically mounted outside the confines of the Biennale but has been given the official stamp of approval by the Biennale’s foundation. Most collateral events are, to be sure, pay-to-play affairs. They are underwritten by major galleries or foundations, typically, and are lent authority by branding themselves with the Biennale’s logo.

For that reason, most collateral events are no more notable than the average gallery show. Yet every so often, one comes along that is worth seeing. And that’s not to mention the institutional shows that are being staged by museums and foundations across the city.

Below, ARTnews has collected 10 shows to see during the Biennale.

“Pierre Huyghe. Liminal” at Palazzo Grassi

Expect the talk of the town this Venice—non-Biennale-wise, at least—to be the latest creation from Pierre Huyghe, an artist whose restless imagination has led him to utilize in his work materials as diverse as AI, live bees, and the ground beneath an exhibition space. The increasingly fuzzy relationship between the human and the nonhuman has been a longstanding concern for Huyghe, who had been mulling the topic well before DALL-E, ChatGPT, and the like, as past works included here will demonstrate. (The show itself is not quite a survey, not quite an exhibition of new work, but something in-between.) But Huyghe still has that query on his mind, too, and will broach it once more with the exhibition’s titular artwork, Liminal (2024), a moving-image work that is being teased with an image of a nude person with a black hole for a face—“an experiment, the simulation of a speculative human condition,” per the exhibition’s guide.

Campo San Samuele, 3231; Closest vaporetto stop: S. Samuele

“Christoph Büchel: Monte di Pietà” at Fondazione Prada

The title of this show from Swiss provocateur Christoph Büchel takes its name from an Italian institution that provided poor people with access to loans, essentially offering an alternative to having to seek financial relief from corrupt families with lots of money. Before it was an art museum, the Fondazione Prada’s Venice building hosted one such Monte di Pietà outpost; Büchel will here use that history to explore the concept of debt more broadly. Among the objects on view will be The Diamond Maker (2020–ongoing), a diamond-encrusted suitcase whose stones were grown in a lab with materials derived from Büchel’s unsold art. Past works by the artist that have been shown in Venice were followed by allegations of exploitation and opportunism . Whether this show will face similar accusations remains to be seen.

Calle Corner, 2215; Closest vaporetto stop: San Stae

“Janus” at Palazzo Diedo

Venice’s newest art space is the Palazzo Diedo, a site operated by collector Nicolas Berggruen that has the aspiration of becoming one of the city’s must-see venues. The lineup for its first exhibition, “Janus,” suggests that the space is already on its way to achieving that goal. Featured here will be 11 commissions by a range of celebrated artists, from well-known figures, like Sterling Ruby and Lee Ufan, to up-and-comers such as the London-based Rhea Dillon, who will show a new sculpture featuring a mahogany cross that is set to leak water onto the floor of the building. It’s one of the many ways that the artists will engage the history of the palazzo, an 18th-century structure that was once the property of an aristocratic family.

Fondamenta Diedo, 30121; Closest vaporetto stop: S. Marcuola Casino

“Re-Stor(y)ing Oceania” at Ocean Space

This art space dedicated to commissions about bodies of water and their politics is this time turning its focus on two Indigenous artists from the Pacific: Latai Taumoepeau and Elisapeta Hinemoa Heta. In a two-person show curated by artist Taloi Havini, both exhibiting artists will be showing new installations that take up forms of Indigenous knowledge and resistance. Taumoepeau, an artist from the Tonga kingdom, will show Deep Communion sung in minor (archipelaGO, THIS IS NOT A DRILL) , a choral work meant as a protest against deep sea mining. Its sounds can be heard within the galleries, sometimes while local athletes perform within. Meanwhile, Heta (Ngātiwai, Ngāpuhi, Waikato Tainui, Sāmoan, Tokelauan) is showing The Body of Wainuiātea , which similarly relies on music to encourage new modes of communion with the ocean.

Campo S. Lorenzo, 5069 ; Closest vaporetto stop: Ospedale

“All African People’s Consulate” at Castello Gallery

When the art world converges in Venice this week, it will represent a multinational coalition of people who’ve had the privilege to transgress borders. But the unfortunate fact is that not everyone can pass through their countries’ bounds, and an aspiration toward a different state of living guides this project by Dread Scott, who here envisions a consulate for “an imaginary Pan-African, Afrofuturist union of countries, promoting cultural and diplomatic relations,” according to a description of the show. Brought to Italy by the Africa Center and the Open Society Foundations, the presentation will allow people of African descent to apply for a passport to this fictional union and all others to obtain a visa to it.

Castello, 1636; Closest vaporetto stop: Giardini “A”

“Landworks, Collective Action and Sound” at Magazzino Gallery

The elephant in the room at this Biennale will be the war in Gaza, a topic that has already led thousands of artists to call for a boycott of the Israeli Pavilion . The list of collateral events contains just one project dealing with Palestine: “Landworks, Collective Action and Sound” presented by Artists and Allies of Hebron, a group cofounded by activist Issa Amro and photographer Adam Broomberg, who worked in collaboration with Dar Jacir for Art and Research, a Bethlehem art center founded by artist Emily Jacir. The show will include a spread of artworks, both by Palestinians and non-Palestinians, that deal with the West Bank. Broomberg, working with Rafael Gonzalez, has produced for the show a series of photographs of centuries-old Palestinian olive trees that many have warned are being imperiled by Israeli military action. In picturing the trees, the artists seek to showcase the “presence and resilience of the Palestinian people and their relationship with the land,” per a statement about the photographs.

Sestiere Dorsoduro, 874; Closest vaporetto stop: Accademia

“Jean Cocteau: The Juggler’s Revenge” at Peggy Guggenheim Collection

While contemporary art abounds in Venice during the Biennale, scholarly exhibitions of modern art are generally few and far between. This retrospective for French multihyphenate Jean Cocteau is the rare historical show worth seeing this time around. Art historian Kenneth Silver has been brought on to curate the show, which upholds Cocteau as a figure who did more than simply collaborate with artistic figures such as Pablo Picasso, Sergei Diaghilev, and others. Rather, as Silver asserts with this show, Cocteau sought to master many different mediums, from dance to painting to film—although, depending on who you asked during his lifetime, he was not always particularly successful at any of them. His dalliances with Dada, Surrealism, and other European avant-gardes are on full display here.

Dorsoduro, 701-704; Closest vaporetto stop: Accademia

“Elias Sime: Dichotomy ፊት አና ጀርባ jerba” at Spazio Tana

Many of Elias Sime’s works seem like abstract paintings in reproductions. In fact, the Ethiopian artist’s most famous pieces are composed of computer parts—wiring, keyboard pieces, and the like—that he has recycled to form vast arrays of stuff. Those pieces, with their trenchant commentaries on technological trash coming to the Global South from the West, have been a hit with critics. Having appeared in the 2022 Biennale, Sime returns to Venice with this show organized by Germany’s Kunstpalast Düsseldorf, which will next year give him a proper retrospective. In addition to abstractions formed from smartphone bits, the show will feature a new sculpture formed from stone.

Fondamenta de la Tana, 2111; Closest vaporetto stop: Giardini

“Yoo Youngkuk: A Journey to the Infinite” at Fondazione Querini Stampalia

Yoo Youngkuk’s abstractions of the 1960s and ’70s are radiant, bright, and enchanting, filled with contrasting planes of color that contain their own strange harmony. With their mountain-like forms and their swatches of effervescent yellow, they can often seem to represent imagined landscapes. But in representing nature with few details, Yoo found a minimalism that made him one of South Korea’s foremost modernists. Here, the late painter will be represented by 30 paintings, along with drawings, prints, and archival materials.

Campo Santa Maria Formosa, 5252; Closest vaporetto stop: Rialto

“Shahzia Sikander: Collective Behavior” at Palazzo Soranzo van Axel

The Pakistan-born, US-based artist Shahzia Sikander has been credited with helping to revive contemporary interest in Persian miniature painting, the tradition that sets figures within ornate, tiny images of buildings. Sikander’s miniatures, however, are unruly and unrestrained—they are filled with fantastical beings and references to bloodshed that would’ve been out of place centuries ago. Much of her art functions this way, with allusions to the conflicts of the present that also invoke Mughal and Hindu iconography of the past. Ahead of a more comprehensive survey for next year, the Cincinnati Art Museum has teamed up with another Ohio institution, the Cleveland Museum of Art, to present a sampler of Sikander’s work that also includes new glasswork.

Fondamenta Van Axel o de le Erbe, 30121; Closest vaporetto stop: F.te Nove

Weeks After Selling, One of L.A.’s Most Avant-Garde Homes Pops Back Up for Sale at $2.3 Million

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Fact Check: Solar eclipse from space impression from 2017, not 2024

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Fact Check: Video of cheering crowds not related to 2024 total solar eclipse

A video of crowds at a beach watching a solar eclipse in Chile has be en miscaptioned to say it is showing the April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse in North America.

InnovationRx: $90 Million To Make Drugs In Space

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InnovationRx is your weekly digest of healthcare news. To get it in your inbox, subscribe here .

Artist rendering of a Varda spacecraft in orbit

L ess than a month after the company released the results of its first drug manufacturing experiment, Varda Space announced that it has raised a $90 million series B round , bringing its total investments to date up to $145 million. The company has developed spacecraft that are capable of manufacturing active pharmaceutical ingredients in orbit, then safely delivering it back to Earth.

Why make these ingredients in space? It all has to do with the chemistry of microgravity , which allows finer control over the process of crystallization . The upshot is that in space, it’s easier to make exactly the ingredients you need and they can be tuned to improve both activity and delivery (smaller crystals means you could potentially take a drug that requires an I.V. and deliver it through injection instead, for example.) The company’s next mission is currently slated for the summer.

30 Under 30 Europe 2024: The Founders Fixing Painful Periods, Printing Prosthetics And Pulverizing Pathogens

LEVON BISS FOR FORBES

The scientists, doctors and entrepreneurs of this year’s 30 Under 30 list for Science & Healthcare are working to improve healthcare and our understanding of the world around us. They include companies focused on women’s health, new technologies for prosthetics, artificial intelligence and more.

Read more here.

Pipeline & Deal Updates

Health AI Lab: UMass Chan Medical School was awarded more than half a million dollars from the state of Massachusetts to establish a health AI assurance lab in partnership with MITRE.

AI Enrollment: California’s Obamacare insurance marketplace Covered California will start using Google Cloud AI solutions to automate parts of the verification process. The solution will be live in June, according to a press release .

Cardiovascular: Johnson & Johnson will acquire Shockwave Medical, the manufacturer of a catheter-based treatment for patients with build-up in their arteries, in a deal valued at $13.1 billion .

Orthopedics: Onkos Surgical announced that it has received FDA approval for its antibacterial coated implants.

Lung Cancer: Prothea Technologies, which aims to develop lung cancer diagnostics and treatments, launched with a $12.9 million series A round .

Robotic Surgery: Robotics company Medical Microinstruments received FDA authorization to commercialize its Symani Surgical System, which is geared towards microsurgical procedures.

Genetic Medicine: Nvelop Therapeutics, a biotechnology company working on non-viral solutions to deliver genetic therapies, announced its launch . According to Pitchbook, the company has raised a $100 million seed round.

Here’s Why ALS Drug Relyvrio Is Being Removed From Market—And What That Means For Patients

Associated Press

Drug manufacturer Amylyx Pharmaceuticals announced on Thursday plans to remove Relyvrio from the market after lackluster results from a phase III trial, leaving only two other ALS drugs on the market.

Other Healthcare News

Arizona’s Supreme Court ruled the state can enforce an 1864 law that makes it a felony to perform abortions with almost no exceptions, but the issue will head to voters on the ballot in November. Former President Donald Trump , who this week said abortion laws should be left to states, agreed that the Arizona law went too far.

Popular diabetes and weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy , known as GLP-1 medications, don’t substantially increase thyroid cancer risk, according to a new study.

A late-stage trial of Pfizer’s RSV vaccine showed promising results in adults under 60 years old.

One Medical has added 15 new locations since being acquired by Amazon has and plans to expand into two new U.S. markets by the end of 2024.

Across Forbes

Les Wexner’s Second Life: How The Epstein-Tarnished Billionaire Is Quietly Reshaping Ohio

Super-Polluting Greenhouse Gases Are For Sale On Facebook Marketplace

This Main Street Billionaire Bought Over A Thousand Small Businesses—And Never Lost A Dime

What Else We are Reading

Did you say 486%? Why one company thinks such a price hike for its drug is justified (STAT)

Congress Likely to Kick the Can on Covid-Era Telehealth Policies (KFF Health News)

Health Secretary Becerra weighs exit from Biden administration for California gubernatorial bid (POLITICO)

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Space Yacht Delivers Heavy Hitters on ‘Big Bass Ting Vol. 5’

The fifth volume of Space Yacht’s Big Bass Ting has arrived with tracks from Ablaze, AFK, NEAVE$, SPYTER, CALLEN, Adacic, and more.

Professional party-throwers Space Yacht have made their mark on the scene over the years with impressive shows that have drawn in thousands upon thousands of attendees. Yet their curation abilities go beyond lineups, and that’s been proven ever since launching the label side of the brand just a few short years ago. From house and techno to dubstep and experimental, Space Yacht has flexed with releases from rising and established artists alike, but it’s their compilations that have won over more fans, and today, they’ve dropped off the latest in the Big Bass Ting series.

Big Bass Ting Vol. 5 is out now across all platforms and features 12 dubstep tunes for headbangers to sink their teeth into. Artists who have found a home in this volume include the likes of INVEIN , BASSGALAXY , Dennett , Adacic , Ablaze , CALLEN , and SPYTER , so let’s dive into some of the standouts.

The lead track, “ Frontin ,” arrives from the minds of AFK and Cody Ray . These two throw down with plenty of heaviness in each drop and a vocal sample that kicks in as you’re being pummeled for added effect. BASSGALAXY’s “ STEEL BOUNCE ” offers a melodic intro that swells with energy before the oscillating bassline consumes your soul. Look no further than Cromatik’s “ CYBERSQUAD ANTHEM ” if you want a similar ride to take with its trancey start and gritty drops.

If you’re hunting for a more ominous soundscape, then SPYTER’s “ Embryo of Psychosis ” or NEAVE$’s “ HIDE ” will do the trick with a flurry of aggressive elements, vocal inclusions, and more. And others, like Hexadrone and IMAN’s “ SLOW DEATH ,” will grapple with your mind as it tosses you around throughout its entire runtime.

Get your dose of dubstep today by streaming Big Bass Ting Vol. 5 on Spotify or your preferred platform .

Stream Big Bass Ting Vol. 5 on Spotify:

Big bass ting vol. 5 – tracklist:.

• AFK – Frontin (feat. Cody Ray)
• Dennett – I’m The
• BASSGALAXY – STEEL BOUNCE
• Noiz-E-Boi, STAYNS – GOLB
• INVEIN – CONFESSION
• SPYTER – Embryo of Psychosis
• Adacic – Program Reality
• Ablaze – City Sound
• Cromatik – CYBERSQUAD ANTHEM
• CALLEN – Gutted
• Hexdrone, IMAN – SLOW DEATH
• NEAVE$ – HIDE

Follow Space Yacht:

Website  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Instagram  |  SoundCloud  |  Twitch

Grant Gilmore

Grant Gilmore’s authoritative voice as a media professional lends credibility not common to EDM journalism. As the founder of EDM Identity he has effectively raised the bar on coverage of the past decade’s biggest youth culture phenomenon. After ten years of working for nonprofit organization Pro Player Foundation, Gilmore launched EDM Identity as a media outlet offering accurate informative coverage of the rave scene and electronic music as a whole. Although they cover comprehensive topic matter, they have taken special care in interviewing the likes of Armin van Buuren, Adventure Club, Gorgon City, Lane 8 and Afrojack. In addition to household names, they have also highlighted unsung heroes of the industry through their ID Spotlight segment. Whether he’s covering it or not, you can expect to find Grant Gilmore attending the next big electronic music event. To find out what’s next on his itinerary, follow him via the social links below.

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