A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas
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A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas
Time Loop: Nighttime Art Experience in Crystal Bridges' North Forest
Join us as we sit down with Ricardo Rivero, the visionary for Time Loop, an outdoor art experience at Crystal Bridges. The podcast will uncover the journey behind this latest project as well as Ricardo's transformation from a filmmaker to the creative director for Klip Creative. We dive into his DIY ethos and how it fuels his passion for turning ordinary spaces into extraordinary, immersive experiences.
Learn how Time Loop electrifies the North Forest at Crystal Bridges, creating a meditative exploration through stunning light and sound projection mapping. We uncover the process of designing a nature-inspired art installation that resonates deeply with its natural environment. From the symphony of bird and cricket sounds to depictions of pine cones, fruit, and fungus, every element is carefully curated. This episode is not just about art—it's about the power of time and presence in connecting us to the world around us.
Enjoy the podcast and then reserve your Time Loop tickets at Time Loop by Klip Collective: A Forest Light Experience.
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Welcome to A New American Town presented by Visit Bittenville. I'm your host, Beth Bobbitt, broadcasting from Haxton Roads, and today we have Ricardo Rivero, creative director and founder of Klip Collective. Ricardo, thanks for joining us today.
Ricardo Rivera:Nice to be here. Thank you for having me.
Beth Bobbitt:Of course. So we're going to talk about Time Loop, which is an outdoor light, sound projection mapping experience in the North Forest at Crystal Bridges. It's never been seen by any audiences. It was designed specifically for this space. It's open Wednesday through Saturday, so you can get tickets through October 19th right now, and then likely there'll be more added later. So we want to talk about the experience, but before we do that, let's back up and hear a little bit about your role, about Klip, how this project in particular came to be. So if you want to start with your background, Okay, my background, well, it's a little.
Ricardo Rivera:it's been a long and windy road, so I'm going to try to keep this brief. Okay, I'm constantly asked by people when they see my work how I ended up doing this, um, and I always answer with the same type of uh uh answer, because it kind of sums up a little bit about how I got here is that I was just a frustrated filmmaker. I always wanted to make, I always wanted to make films. Uh grew up wanting to make movies and uh then went to school studying film and photography, um, and art, and I think somewhere along the line I kind of diverted away from that path and that industry, mostly just because filmmaking is a very tough industry to kind of I don't know if you're, if you're, if you don't have family or friends that are in it, then it's like kind of like hard.
Ricardo Rivera:I come from delaware. Um, you know, it's a small state, literally it's what it's called small wonder, uh, Delaware, and uh, you know, I always uh wanted to do this thing but uh, you know, I couldn't really get there. But then I started, I started making films, I started doing stuff on my own as a do it yourself type of artists, and it's always kind of that DIY approach has always been a part of where I come from and what I do. So after I started making some films, I started doing these like video installations, and I started working with video projectors as a tool to light up spaces and I kind of fell in love with the idea of transforming space and doing creating video work. That was large.
Ricardo Rivera:I just kind of got frustrated with the screen with. Tv screens or video screens, and this was in the late 90s. So this is like before. Even you know the terrible thing that's known as a phone screen that dominates all of our lives. Now I'll get to that later.
Ricardo Rivera:But, you know. So I just started playing with. You know, I started working with projectors and using projection and video and I kind of leaned into. You know, I started creating work that was more about space and, just like this large projection idea, I started performing video, creating video live as an accompaniment to live music or music that was being played out, uh like by djs, etc. So I started visualizing music on the fly and that became a big part of what I did. And then so eventually in 2003, I started clip collective, which was kind of a way for me to kind of have a business that surrounded my vision of, of transforming, and then at that time I'd really kind of really developed projection mapping as a tool which is, if you don't know, projection mapping technique, where you can project onto a space and really kind of shape the projection to the object or space by kind of shaping the pixels that are going through it onto that space, uh or object.
Ricardo Rivera:And I, you know, I like, I think I have like seven patents on it now um, not that I force them at all, it's just like kind of a cool bragging right, yeah, um and yeah, so that I started in 2003 with clip collective and then, you know, kind of uh went from there. I am the creative director and founder of Klip. Since then we've evolved to end up doing this. So, for Time Loop, I am kind of, like you know, the creative director artist behind Klip that helps produce and create this amazing experience that's here at Hidden in the North Forest and Crystal.
Beth Bobbitt:Bridges. What does the name mean?
Ricardo Rivera:Time Loop, and talk to us a little bit about the inspiration and how it came to be um, well, time loop, uh, all the pieces are kind of they have an element of a meditation on time. Every piece is kind of a weird meditation on time when I, you know the inspiration of the piece. All our work, almost all our work is site specific. Um, I really believe in that methodology of art making. I think that's what we do, is what I do best is go into a space, get inspired by it and then come in and bring it to life in a different and exciting way. Um, but that's just part of the process. Once you know, I kind of envision how I can illuminate and bring the space to life using different technologies and techniques. But then there's the underlying like what is you know? What is it that we're trying to express here? And one idea I've had for years that's a big part of a lot of my work, is the notion of time, because it's a time-based medium. I love that a lot of the work is created to be experienced in a specific time and place. For example, there are moments that we're creating that you have to be at this place at this moment to experience these nuanced moments upon moments upon moments that are happening. Um, so I I've been thinking a lot about time over the years and what that means to this medium and our lives and being present. Um, and I'm, you know it's a it's a great thing to think about, so I use that as inspiration for a lot of things. And then you know the actual. So it's like time and space. The space part is implied, but that's what the the loop is. The loop is physical and also linear in time in the sense that all the pieces loop. Uh, we're constantly looping over time.
Ricardo Rivera:Um, you know, one of the biggest techniques that I use as a video artist over the years, over 25, almost 30 years that I've been doing this is a technique called video feedback, where I take a you know, if you ever take a a video camera. This is much more. This is a trick much more common years ago. Um, it's not so common anymore, but I remember, like as a kid. I remember first time I saw video feedback. I was like I went into like a sears or montgomery ward or something and a video camera hooked up to the tvs where you just like see yourself and like showing that the how the cameras. But then what I did as like a weirdo kid is, I turned the camera back at the tv to see itself upon itself and upon itself, and it created this like crazy infinity loop right here and that's basically video feedback.
Ricardo Rivera:So I use a lot of that in my artwork. Uh, so it's in a lot of the pieces in this exhibit, um, and that's basically a loop, um, so, and it's also in music. So the time loop idea was just a big part of you know it's, it's something the loop is part of a lot of the work that we do. Um, and uh, it, you know, made sense, because when I walked the space, it was literally a loop.
Ricardo Rivera:So right, yeah, it's funny when we were trying to name the show. We had all these other names, but we were like. You know, there's this obvious name called Time Loop, if you want to call it that.
Beth Bobbitt:And then, of course, they were like we're calling it Time Loop Sometimes the simplest is the best, most descriptive. That's awesome. Well, yeah, talk to us a little bit about the process, the time you spent in the forest.
Ricardo Rivera:Well, yeah, talk to us a little bit about the process, the time you spent in the forest, kind of how you, you know, gathered that information for inspiration. Well, I mean, like I said before, our work is very site-specific. So when we were asked to come and look at the space to talk about doing something in there, I remember walking the space with Alejo Benedetti, the curator, who's awesome. I really loved working with him and we're, you know, as I walk through that space.
Ricardo Rivera:It's actually the most important part of the process is that moment when I go through the space the first time, because that is, you know, I'm seeing it for the first time and I have learned that this is a very big part of my process where the voyeurism is very acute. It's the first time you walk through space. I've learned to listen to those things when I do that. So the first time I went through, I'm like looking around and I'm like and I just basically it's great. I always have, like you know, key members of my team with me and my producer and everyone's like writing things down. It's kind of wild Cause. I'm just like I just start firing off ideas as I'm going through.
Beth Bobbitt:I'm like oh, this is what we should do here.
Ricardo Rivera:We should do this here. This could be cool and wouldn't it be great if we did this? We should put a projector here and create a portal here and then over here like, oh, this would be great if something like this would happen. And I just kind of like spitball all these ideas and kind of mash them all up. And then there's a site specificity part of it, like how do I fill the space? How can I time this as we're walking through it? Where do I want to see these things discovered?
Ricardo Rivera:I always talk about like these experiences are designed, kind of like a like an editing system or a timeline on a on a video player. You know, like there's like a little line that moves through time. That that line that's moving through time on your video player is you walking through the experience, and that's kind of like how I want to create this. I want to create a series of moments that you pass through and and that's kind of the storytelling, that that opportunities, uh, are there. So that's like, for example, when I'm going through space. That's what I'm thinking about. And then there's like the level of a pragmatism of, okay, we have a budget, uh, we have this type of equipment like what do I, and you know, with crystal bridges is really great.
Ricardo Rivera:They had two other exhibits that was there prior and they had like all these, all this equipment from the other shows that were there, right. So I had a, I had a list of that and this is, you know, this is the type of work I do. So I was like, oh, we have all these lights, we have all these projectors, let me see how I can move and use this. So, basically, you take the, the time we have to do it and budget, and when you take the equipment that's there, and then the space, and it's like cooking. This is like, this is the kitchen, these are the pots and pans I have, these are the ingredients, what can I make? So, you know, that's like a sandbox for me. So then I kind of take all that information, process it, and as I'm walking through, I'm like, oh, we can take those projectors that they have and put them over here. Oh, there's lights and let's do that. And that's literally that's kind of what happened. And then I, we kind of take all that information, we distill it down, we start, you know, I start pulling examples, I started creating mock-ups, and we start, you know, and I always show, whenever I present these exhibits, when I like do speaking engagements, and I want to describe, uh, an experience that I've created to people, I always show the map.
Ricardo Rivera:That's the first thing I show them, because the map is like, it's kind of like your table of contents. It's like these are, these are the pieces, and I'm going to walk you through all these pieces we created as people move through them, and all of them have different peaks and valleys. Some are like you know, and that's the beautiful thing about doing multi-installation exhibits for me as an artist, as a creator, it's like I have all this range. Now, you know, I'm not limited to just this one thing yeah, you know it's a lot.
Ricardo Rivera:It's a lot like what's happening with, like you know, the the how tv. So different. Now the Sopranos changed everything because it wasn't just like a sitcom they were telling. Basically it was like a movie that was like 80 hours long. Yeah, it's kind of the same thing. I have all this room now to let things develop so I can make a piece that's really understated and subtle, and that's okay, because the next piece is like in your face and crazy, so that there's like some type of timber peak and valley to the experience, so that it's not just one tone, that there's range. I really believe in that and it really gives me a big opportunity to really explore a lot of these ideas. Yeah, and you, I don't even remember, okay go ahead.
Beth Bobbitt:Well, no, you're doing great. You talk a little bit about ingredients and I just I'm curious about you know, nature, the native plant life, like, how did those ingredients factor into this experience?
Ricardo Rivera:I think that's a great question into this experience?
Ricardo Rivera:I think that's a great question. I mean, the nature and the natural environment are obviously a big part of the work, and how they manifest and infest themselves into the work. I mean the first piece you see in this piece, endless Overture, is like a 450 to 500 foot wide landscape, forest landscape that we illuminate with moving lights, colored lights, projection and sound. I mean, when I immediately saw that landscape, I wanted to bring it to life, to kind of set this all and majesty and tone for the whole piece. And that piece will change over time by the by the way, like as the seasons change and the leaves fall, the landscape will literally change and the whole piece itself will look different as we move through the seasons.
Ricardo Rivera:Um, but we even recorded the birds and crickets that you hear throughout the work were actually recorded there on site by Julian Grieve, my music designer, sound designer and even, like you know, nature is such a big part of what because it's there, like the three sculptures of Life Cycle. You know, they're all based off of nature. One's a pine, cone or seed, one's a fruit and one's a fungus.
Ricardo Rivera:It's all kind of part of nature, but I'm augmenting them heavily with our vision, even the repeater piece, which is these light stocks that are coming out of the ground, that are dancing to the music and are, you know, almost dictating time by its kind of repetition. They're coming out of the earth, they're part of, and that's the whole idea that it's like. You know, it's just like technology and illumination that you know that is coexisting with nature when it really doesn't make sense, and that that kind of binary opposition is something that I'm always kind of kind of messing with, if you will, yeah, and exploring um and the loop itself go ahead I'll just say that nature is like in all ways.
Ricardo Rivera:Uh, in this exhibit is kind of a part of it.
Beth Bobbitt:Yeah, and so it's about a mile around.
Ricardo Rivera:I think Roughly yeah.
Beth Bobbitt:What would that for a first-time visitor, someone that's never even been in the forest like? What might they expect? What do?
Ricardo Rivera:you hope happens. Well, I always tell people to linger and get lost. I might you know you should, don't you know? My advice to everyone going through these exhibits is just don't feel rushed and don't be afraid to go back and forth. It's a non-linear experience to go back and forth. It's a non-linear experience. It's meant to be experienced and I mean that, like, don't go through and just take a picture, each one for the gram, and then move on.
Ricardo Rivera:Like so much of the subtlety and beauty of this work is is spent, take, you know, spending time with it. Like, spend the time with the work. There's so many moments that we've created that happen over time that you know you might not notice for the first time. And we, we take, we, we spend a lot of time and energy putting that into it. Um, you know, several times I have so many stories of people like you know where I have an installation of, and I come back and like I really like what you did. That's new, and I'm like I didn't do anything new. Like, really, I'm like, yeah, you just haven't spent enough time yeah see all of it.
Ricardo Rivera:There's so many little moments and beautiful like little little moments and beautiful like little little moments within moments, within moments that people can experience. You just kind of have to look for it, if you will.
Beth Bobbitt:I love the idea that it's nonlinear and that we can zigzag around and you know, as a parent, I hear you the linger aspect and and I also think, huh, I wonder if maybe I need to go through it twice. I mean you might, yeah.
Ricardo Rivera:I mean it's funny. I mean I'm a parent too. Most of the time kids are like either kids are going to be like they want to move through. But even so, like I remember, it was like during one of the previews I was walking through and I'm always just like no one knows who I am previews I was walking through and I'm always just like no one knows who I am, so I'm just like walking around listening to people and it was really great. There was this kid and it was this young. This boy is like nine or ten and he's watching one of the sculptures and dad is like come on, there's more to see here. He's like no. The kid's like no, no, I want to wait. I want to wait till it loops. I don't wait till I see everything. I was like see dad listen to love that son right, listen to your son right now, listen to your son right now.
Beth Bobbitt:That's true. That's true. Sometimes our kids are noticing things we're not. What was installation like? How long did it take?
Ricardo Rivera:Hot. It was hot and humid and very sweaty. I feel bad for most of my team that was stuck in the day crew. It was okay, it was long.
Ricardo Rivera:It was what was what was really interesting and and this is a big kudos to the crystal bridges team is like I don't know if anyone knows, but there was a huge tornado that went through the north forest prior to our installation, so, uh, it took out a third of the trees that were supposed to be there. So it was terrifying. We went. When I found out about it, I went back immediately. I flew back into Bentonville to look at it to see how much it would impact our plans, and it was awful, like it was a total mess. I mean I cried but then all of a sudden I realized like, oh, this actually might make this better and it did. It kind of opened up opportunities for certain pieces to breathe more, if you will, in the space, and yeah, so it was very hectic, like while we were installing, because the Crystal Bridges team was working really hard to make the trails, because the Crystal Bridges team was working really hard to make the trails safe for everyone and to clean up the debris and get us what we needed.
Ricardo Rivera:So it was about one month long and then so for like two weeks I have a lot of the infrastructure and lighting and video teams going in and just laying out all the groundwork and getting everything kind of in place and all the computers and all the sound, everyone, everything's getting in place and then, and then I come in with my, my team, we start doing our night shift where at night we go through each one because I have to work at night um, to see what we're doing, because it's it's light right and uh, yeah, they're like vampire hours yeah, I don, I didn't think about that.
Ricardo Rivera:Yeah, we don't start working until like 8.30, 8 pm and then we're not done until like 3, 4 am, sometimes 5 am, and then you rinse and repeat. Thank God there's good coffee shops in Bentonville.
Beth Bobbitt:Yeah, this is true. Well, that was my next question. Did you spend any time in Bentonville? Did you get?
Ricardo Rivera:to walk around. I did I really. Yeah, I walked around, I did, we did some stuff. I uh as a world traveler and like being around the world, like doing stuff everywhere. I really enjoy exploring spaces and uh getting to know them and I was pleasantly impressed with this Bentonville.
Beth Bobbitt:Good.
Ricardo Rivera:Very, very cool place.
Beth Bobbitt:Yeah, it's awesome. Yeah, I really enjoyed, enjoyed it so good, well, we we welcome you back anytime and I can't wait to come back.
Ricardo Rivera:Are you coming back?
Beth Bobbitt:will you?
Ricardo Rivera:I mean is there anything left?
Beth Bobbitt:to do in terms of de-installing, there's nothing left for me to do no, I mean, and de-install can happen without me.
Ricardo Rivera:I mean I might be back. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know, we'll see, yeah um, but uh, uh I am looking forward to any excuses to come back. Very, I mean, I'll probably come any excuses to come back.
Beth Bobbitt:Very cool, I mean.
Ricardo Rivera:I'll probably come back just to come see the exhibit again.
Beth Bobbitt:Yeah, I mean, like you said, it's going to change in the winter and so you'll have to experience it then?
Ricardo Rivera:Yeah, I think it's important. I am going to come and take a look at it. I want to experience it myself. Yeah, I think it's important and it's part of the journey, for me.
Beth Bobbitt:Yeah Well, you know we, we typically ask our guests. I don't want to put you on the spot, but depending on how much time you spent in Bentonville, you may or may not know what a dream day in Bentonville might look like for you. But describe some of the things that you did or saw, or would like to do in this community.
Ricardo Rivera:I had a great time there. Yeah, I mean, I have colleagues from all over the country where I'm like go. And then I tell them I'm like, okay, stay at 21C so that you can experience the great work that's there. There's lots of great artwork. Breakfast is great there. I would walk to Onyx Coffee after that and get a cortado, because they that's a great coffee shop. I also like heroes as well. I vacillated between heroes and so much good coffee. Which one do I like better?
Ricardo Rivera:I don't know um uh, I would go mountain biking if you have the time because it is really nice. It's what I love about the biking situation, but obviously, like it's known for its trails etc and there's all, there's a million places to rent bikes, which is great. But you know, like all skill levels, like you can, you can go with the group and like if someone wants to stay on the paved trail, they can, and if someone wants to get adventurous, they can just like veer off and go crazy for a little bit and then come back.
Ricardo Rivera:True Do it, it's great. I did it, I got caught in the rain in it and I had the most fun.
Beth Bobbitt:So I'm impressed.
Ricardo Rivera:And then and then for dinner. I mean I, there's so many good dinners I had. I mean I really liked, like the flying fish. If you want some like fish fry, yeah, great place, super like low-key, love the vibe, um, and the food. The food was great, uh. Or if you want to get fancy, go to barclita. Um, thought that was a really nice experience as well. Um, and I really really like the burgers at that truck shop, truck stop stop, what was it called? What was the burger place called? Oh my God, it's right across the street from Witching Hour, the Witching Hour. It's right across the street from one of the heroes coffee places. It's like a little truck. It's got a horror movie theme.
Beth Bobbitt:Oh yes, I do know where that is Okay. Well, I haven't tried it.
Ricardo Rivera:The burgers are great there.
Beth Bobbitt:Good to know, amazing yeah.
Ricardo Rivera:And if the only late night kind of drink spot is a place with a really expensive painting, what's that place called?
Beth Bobbitt:Oh, is it the-.
Ricardo Rivera:Lady Slipper. Lady Slipper.
Beth Bobbitt:Okay, yeah, yeah.
Ricardo Rivera:That's the spot.
Beth Bobbitt:Great bartenders Good, yeah, yeah that's the spot.
Ricardo Rivera:Great bartenders, good bar yeah, well, you did a lot you did a ton I mean, I spent a lot of time there yeah, you know great you know well like I said when I, when I travel, I like to like totally absorb yeah, I mean I'm a foodie. I mean I'm from philadelphia. A lot of people don't realize this, but philadelphia is like kind of foodie heaven, so I like to enjoy the eats, if you will.
Beth Bobbitt:Yeah.
Ricardo Rivera:You know, and I you know there's there's a lot of culture in Bentonville that I didn't expect to get. I mean, obviously the nature is beautiful and that's the great thing about the mountain biking thing is like you get to kind of experience all of it through mountain biking, which is kind of great.
Beth Bobbitt:Yeah Well, so what's next for you? You talked about a project you're currently working on.
Ricardo Rivera:Anything you can tease related to Klip Collective. I mean, we just finished part of a music festival here in Philadelphia. That's at a revolutionary war fort, but it's an electronic music festival, but I do all tons. It's like you can't go to this festival and not see what we do, because we just totally light up the whole place with projections and light.
Ricardo Rivera:Um, we, literally that was this last weekend, so I'm surprised I have a voice, um, but, uh, that was really great. I'm really happy with how it turned out this year. It was a a huge success and I'm really proud of the people I work with on that and, uh, and it's a true labor of love. It is completely out of love that we create this thing. Yeah, um, I'm working on a very, very large, high profile project that I am unable to talk about or say on the record where it is yet out, or say on the record where it is yet um, but it is a historical space on the east coast. Uh, it has both a garden experience and a very large projection mapping architectural experience. Uh, tied into history. Um, so just stay, stay tuned, that's. That's a great tease.
Beth Bobbitt:Well, all the more reason that we need to keep track of you. So how do we do that? What's the website? Social?
Ricardo Rivera:yeah, just the best thing is follow us on Instagram, which is just clip. Collective is one word, k-l-i-p. Collective. You know, we post stuff on there all the time, see the wide range of crazy stuff, oh my gosh.
Beth Bobbitt:Yes, it's not boring, that is for sure. I'm definitely not bored that is not something that I have any, I can't wait to be bored, but.
Ricardo Rivera:I also go crazy when I get bored, so I don't really stay bored very long.
Beth Bobbitt:Yeah, I could see that. Well, I hope you do make it back to Northwest Arkansas and Bentonville and let us know if you pop back in. But thank you so much. You've been so generous with your time and stories, so thanks for being here today with us.
Ricardo Rivera:My pleasure. Yeah, I can't wait to come back and experience time loop again myself. It's great.
Beth Bobbitt:Thanks, Ricardo. So it sounds like we need to rush out and get tickets, and Crystal Bridges members do get a discount and under 10 are free. So make your plans to see Time Loop this fall. And don't forget Visit Bentonville is here to help you navigate things to do, where to eat and stay and what's going on in our new American town. Give us a follow on social media, sign up for our newsletter and check out our website at visitbentonvillecom. Thanks for listening.