Dustin Klein

About Me-

 

Ever since I was young I have wanted to communicate the natural patterns of nature and geometry through the medium of filmmaking. This led me to pursue a degree which I completed in 2009 and then shortly started working as an animator. While learning to animate, I started creating live visuals to music which I was making, and by 2011 I had fallen in love with creating light shows and haven't stopped since. 

 

I discovered projection mapping in 2012, and started primarily working concerts and music festivals as well as making art installations for public spaces. Over the next 5 years I developed my projection mapping and lighting design skills while primarily working with the North Carolina based band The Mantras, and as well as created stages and installations for annual events like FloydFest, Rootwire Festival, Hyperion Festival, Kinnection Campout, Mantrabash, and Mellow Mushrooms in Virginia . 

 

In 2017 I took over as the full time lighting and video designer for the band Papadosio debuting a 5 diamond projection mapped audio reactive setup where each band member had a screen that reacted just to them. In 2019 I was able to bring a large variation of this setup to Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado. Also in 2017 and 2018 I joined the projection mapping team at the Electric Forest Festival, creating over 40 outdoor projection mapped installations and visuals on 1 stage over a period of a month. 

 

In February of 2020 after  I returned home from my first out of country stage at the Envision Festival in Costa Rica, the Covid crisis dismantled the concert industry as we knew it. Out of work and inspired by the racial justice protest happening in Richmond Virginia, I pointed my projectors to aid the removal of the confederate monuments in the city. The projections became viral and my good friend and I spent a good part of the year using this online traction to put out positive messaging to support the protest. Imagery from this time was captured and was called “Most influential works of protest art since World War II” and was featured as National Geographics 2020 photo of the year. At the end of 2020 we founded Reclaiming the Monument,  with a mission to use the medium of light to promote positivity, the arts, equity, and justice in the form of public art

 

In 2021, Reclaiming the Monument was awarded a grant from the Mellon Foundation for a series of public art Events called Recontextualizing Richmond over the course of 2022 and part of 2023. I served as the Technical Director of the project, overseeing the logistics and creation of many art installations over four multi day public events in Richmond. Separately from this project, Reclaiming the Monument projection mapped the Washington National Cathedral for Juneteenth in 2022.

 

While working with Reclaiming the Monument, I still was simultaneously working shows as concerts restarted after covid. In 2021 I designed my second Red Rocks show with Papadosio, choosing to map the backdrop of the rocks with two large 31k projectors. Designer Andy Cass was impressed by the effect of the projection mapping and asked me to repeat the effect in collaboration with him for two nights of Billy and the Kids (Bill Kreutzman of the Grateful Dead, Billy Strings). Additionally that summer at Red Rocks, Brown Note productions asked me to dial in projectors for Portugal the Man. 

 

2021 was also the first year Papadosio had me projection map The Caverns, a musical venue / cave in Pelham TN. This rock projection mapping show turned into an annual festival for the next two years featuring a fully immersive projection mapped cave

 

Over the past two years, Reclaiming the Monument has created several installations, with clients including Virginia Commonwealth University, The Richmond Forum, and the National Parks Service.  We have spawned a non-profit called Collaborative Arts that seeks to bring public art opportunities to Richmond VA. I currently serve on the board.

 

I am currently still the full time lighting and video director of Papadosio and will be creating several art installations and stages at Music Festivals this summer. I am always looking for new  projects that get me excited. Please reach out if you want to connect and collaborate!

 

Dustin Klein

Videometry visuals

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