CASCADE: An interactive art experience by Jen Stark
Cascade is the vibrant world of LA based artist Jen Stark’s most ambitious project to date, seamlessly integrating both physical and digital spaces. The inaugural edition of Cascade’s in-person component debuted at The William Vale in late 2021. The interactive exhibition featured 6,000 square feet of interactive projections and 3D mapped environments, along with paintings, sculpture, and a gift shop. Cascade is a collaborative venture between multi media artist Jen Stark and visionary New York gallerist Josh Liner.
Space Junk, 2021, interactive animation (real-time generative projection), dimensions variable. Run Time: Infinite. Concept by Jen Stark. Interactive Design by CutMod. Sound by CutMod. Inspired by the 2004 Japanese video game Katamari Damacy, Space Junk features abstract forms that magnetize to viewers’ feet like orbiting satellites, accumulating beneath them as they move. When two colorful clouds collide, they emit harmonious tones reminiscent of kalimba chimes and wooden drums.
Rainbow Cycle, 2021, interactive animation. Run time: Infinite. Concept by Jen Stark. Interactive Design by CutMod. For Rainbow Cycle, Stark created a collaborative sonic experience inspired by the meditative sounds of a Tibetan singing bowl, where each viewer’s aura is visualized as an inverted color bubble paired with a unique musical note. As people move through the undulating rainbow space, their notes combine into an immersive orchestra of human interaction.
Strobe Wall, 2021, Interactive Animation. Run Time: Infinite. Concept by Jen Stark. Interactive Design by CutMod. Sound by CutMod. Strobe Wall is an interactive musical mural of geometric shapes and pulsating hues that reflects Stark’s fascination with Op art and color theory. When touched, the circles, squares, triangles, and diamonds reverse direction and change tonality, intensifying the chromatic tension between complementary colors.
Drip Cascade, 2015, animated projection, dimensions variable, 36 secs. Concept by Jen Stark. Animation by David Lewandowski. Sound by Charlie Scovill. Stark’s homage to the psychedelic era, featuring her signature oozing drips with contoured bands of color trickling down the wall. Accompanied by rhythmic pulses, this hypnotic cascade creates what she calls “psychedelic camouflage,” an immersive veil revealing sacred geometries from the natural and spiritual realms.
PORTAL, 2021, Run Time: 1 min 33 sec. Concept by Jen Stark. Animation by TJ Pulliam. Sound by Jamie Vance. Stark’s signature portals, inspired by black holes, have been central to her practice since her early colored paper and wood sculptures that hinted at other dimensions. In Portal, projections transform the space into a spinning vortex that evokes time travel while referencing geological formations and evolutionary patterns.
Kaleidoscopic Waterfall, 2021, animated projection, dimension variable, 1 min 15 secs. Concept by Jen Stark. Animation by Christopher Rutledge. Sound by Jamie Vance. Features three-dimensional renderings that resemble viscous liquid rather than projected light, setting it apart within Cascade. Here, Stark explores how liquified patterns slide, swirl, and congeal into amorphous blobs before morphing into kaleidoscopic mandalas reminiscent of a hallucination.