Make like Pac-Man in this a-maze-ing month-long concert series.
Transforming their venue from an empty gallery space to a walkthrough puzzle of music, sculptures, performing arts and even video games, Sam Hillmer and Laura Paris have created an art labyrinth in the Secret Project Robot gallery of Bushwick.
“I still get lost in the maze, and I made the floor plans,” said Paris, co-creator of the artistic duo “Trouble.”
Concert-goers can walk through a maze made of thousands of feet of industrial twines, getting a meshy view of live musicians Laurel Halo and the Jack Quartet, among others — a huge improvement over the solid walls used in 2009.
Bands can be seen from any point, but daring music lovers will have to explore the maze’s corridors to get the best views — a task that can confuse even the finest navigators.
But great music isn’t the only reward in this sensory overload for adventurous art-lovers. Babycastles, an indie-game developing company has placed three maze-themed video games in treasure chests across the labyrinth. The group selected games designed by other developers that can take players up to an hour to complete.
The art project looks to challenge the conventional concert process by introducing a maze that rewards intrepid fans and encourages exploring.
“For the last 30 years, there’s been a constant reinvention of music, there’s new sounds coming out all the time, but attending a concert hasn’t changed at all,” Hillmer says. “We wanted to put a crowd in the middle of a maze to challenge that idea.”
You Are Here Trouble Maze at Secret Project Robot (389 Melrose St., between Knickbocker and Flushing avenues in Williamsburg), Thursdays, Fridays, July 20 to August 4, 8 pm, $10. For scheduling: www.troublemaze.com/ny-calendar.html
