We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Miguel Munoz. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Miguel below.

Hi Miguel, thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

Karnival of the Arts

Miguel, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

As mentioned, my background has been in security but I had started creating art installations for festivals and bands. I would create these light up, music reactive signs jigsawed out of wood by hand, 360 degree entry ways into indoor stages and other art installations like 12 foot tall haunted halloween tree. I made a sign for this band Dr. Slothclaw as a commission but as I started checking them out, I realized they were super talented, humble and overall great human beings. I gave them the sign for free and they started taking me along to bar shows where I started getting into projection mapping and incorporating 3d cameras into the show. Down the road, I would move on to integrating more live video and audio feeds into my set up and multi-layered setups with video walls, vertical tv arrays, holographic screens and other effects. I’ve featured my work at other festival, projection mapped on a dam, worked the video wall at Club XL in Harrisburg for so many great national and local bands.
The highlight of what I do at Karnival is working that video wall. We have elevated platformed for Art Music and Flow with live camera feeds. I use filters and effects to tie everything into the video experience, turning artists and performers into the stars of the show. I know what I liked and did not like in my experience as an artist but recognition and full credits was a big one. So many people are involved in the overall festival experience beyond the musicians so we include them all on our t-shirts and posters. I love watching artists, musicians and flow performers meet and inspire each other. We see collaborations, artists taking their art in new directions, and flow troops being formed. We support artists at all levels, beginner, intermediate, and professional. Progression is art. At our own show, we never stop trying. Each day, we are making new projects to enhance the experience. Similarly, watching artists and flow performers’ progression over the year is not amazing just for me but our kommunity. Each year we also have first time live artists perform at Karnvial to give them an opportunity to step up and inspire the next year’s newbies.
This year at Same Same but different we had the opportunity to bring a Karnival Kreation station to the festival curated by Sam Schultz. We featured 14 artists, had djs, hosted art classes and had a general safe relaxing space people could stop by and create art. The festival was actually getting hit by storm belts from a neighboring hurricane. This wasn’t my first rodeo with hurricanes, ask me about KOTA East 2021 sometime. The weekend was a testament to the team’s perseverance and commitment. We had to take everything down a total of 3 times that weekend but as soon as we were cleared to set it back up, we brought it back even better each time. We just don’t quit.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Oh, the hurricane from KotA East 2021, lol.

In 2021, we were gearing up for our comeback from covid festival and second installment of Karnival of the Arts east in our original hometown of Lehighton, PA. A week beforehand we started hearing reports of hurricane activity.

On Sunday, it was apparent we were going to be hit with torrential rain for over 24 hours leading up to the festival VIP night opening. Perfect. I had also found out the main stage shield I had made the year before was completely inaccessible and that that and half of our art created last year was now being guarded by tens or thousands of wasps. Sweet

On Monday, we learned of an agency’s recent policy that all staff needed to be covid tested within 72 hours of the show. We had to figured out how to source and administer all those tests but we did miraculously were able to source a few hundred tests.

On Tuesday, the stage owner said he would not drop the stage in its intended location if the ground was wet. In a Wile. E Coyote moment, I found a tarp wholesaler and covered the stage area, backstage and VIP with some 45,000 square feet of tarp all tied, posted, and arranged in a way that funnel the water to a pond.

On Wedneday at midnight, the rain started. We stayed up all night checking the tarps but sure enough, the tarps worked and kept the ground dry enough to drop the stage.. Porta potties showed up at 7:00am and did all the carnival tents that myself and one of my security captains, Draco, were available to help set up. I put on a rain suit and was soaked through withing 30 minutes. My slicks were filled to my calves with water. After we would put a tent up, we would try to huddle underneath it while he got the poles for the next but it did not matter. We got just as wet from the rain splashing in from all sides and back up from the ground. I put on my back up rain suit and soaked through in 20 minutes. I tried a 3rd poncho and waterproof pants but soaked through within minutes. After 7 hours, I went inside.

Around 8pm, the venue lost power. All the staff was inside the main hall crafting and getting ready for the Blietzkrieg decorating needed Thursday morning and we were in the dark. Even work, the festival was doing to be tapped into the now not functioning power grid. We used a generator to get through the night but I will tell you, I was feeling the struggle. It was my birthday that day actually. I took a moment to myself and for the first time, really didn’t know if I would be able to pull it all off.

Thursday morning, the rain stopped. It was the most recorded rainfaill ever recorded in that region in history but he tarps had worked and we were able to drop the stage. Spirits were high and we rushed to create the best Karnival ever. We had gotten a bead on generators that morning but the power was restored at 1pm. Doors opened and while we were a little behind that day, this team took on the Hurricane Ida head first and we came out on top.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Art is Evolution. I think was makes being a creative so challenging is how hard we work at the intangible. We develop decades worth of technique to refine our talents to spend hours, days, months, or more on a single piece of work. It’s not an hourly job where you get a paycheck at the end of your hard work. There is no guarantee and of your art will be seen, heard, or sold. What’s worse is we can’t stop and if we could, something would be lost. I feel like evolution followed a similar compulsion. A being, not knowing why, but acting a certain way or holding onto a particular idea. If they did not, we would not have the foundations for literature, medicine, farming, nor science. I’d like to see where Art takes us.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.karnivalofthearts.com
• Instagram: karnivalofthearts
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KarnivalOfTheArts
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/miguel-munoz-b31808b/