Paul Magnuson, “Chief Imagineer,” of BIG ART will be in Houston opening night Thursday, Sept 5 from 6 – 8 pm to talk about his work.

It’s been a long hot summer in Houston, but the light at the end of the tunnel arrives on September 5. That’s when Discovery Green Conservancy presents the latest temporary art installation designed to excite, engage and inspire.

The TUNNEL by BIG ART is a 12-foot-tall structure arranged to form a 100-foot long tunnel of magical light that beckons you to explore. This interactive art installation was created by the Canadian group BIG ART and the tour producer is Creos.  It will be in Discovery Green from Sep 5 through Oct 6.

Paul Magnuson, “Chief Imagineer,” of BIG ART will be in Houston opening night from 6 – 8 pm to talk about his work. It’s also the perfect opportunity to learn more about Discovery Green’s Art Lab as the two inaugural Fellows will be announced that evening.

Before his arrival, Magnuson took some time from his day to give a sneak peek into the themes behind his work and what he thinks about as he creates. The following Q and A has been edited for length and clarity:

Discovery Green: We’re so excited that you’ll be bringing The TUNNEL to Houston and that you’ll be here opening night on September 5 to speak about it.

Paul Magnuson: I’m very excited! It will be my first time in Houston

DG: Get ready. It’s still going to be very hot in September.

PM: The traditional, cold Canadian response is “I’ll take it!” I’m looking forward to it!  

DG: You have the best title ever, Chief Imagineer at BIG ART, but you also describe yourself as an “artistic charlatan.” Where does that term “artistic charlatan” come from?

PM: We’re very careful using the “A” word in our studio. Because it’s a term that scares people we like to work with. Our job is to come up with ridiculous concepts. Then we challenge the people in our network – people who are carpenters, welders, or other certified technicians. These people are high-capacity thinkers in other disciplines. They come to work with us on a project having never established themselves, or identifying as, artists first.

What we’re good at is giving them problems to solve. Every piece of this artwork is a problem to solve. A lot of the technical minds in our world love problems to solve.

I make the impractical out of the practical, and all the engineers we work with love it because they work on very rigid projects all day. To see the finished work at the end, which is something so different from what they’re used to, it creates a lot of pride.

DG: I guess the obvious question is why the impractical? Why make weird things happen? What’s important about that?

PM: Routine is the death of us all. That walk, or drive, you take every day to your job, becomes white noise.

That little moment of joy to break up that routine has a massive impact on mental wellness, creativity and inspiration… These moments are important because they remind us that we’re alive.

Let’s use The TUNNEL as an example, Discovery Green visitors may walk that pathway a hundred times a year, then one day, The TUNNEL shows up and it’s 100 feet and contains more than 10,000 LEDs. That little moment of joy to break up that routine has a massive impact on mental wellness, creativity and inspiration. So, this transformation is good for us. These moments are important because they remind us that we’re alive.

My whole job is to create inspiring moments. When we do it in a public space and break up the routine where we get that “tunnel vision” to get to work and get through the day. This is why ART LAB loves free. We love public art installations. We would do it all day every day.

DG: In the description of The TUNNEL, it says that visitors have the opportunity to be “pilots” for the artwork. What does that mean?

PM: At BIG ART we love interaction, or reaction. When we talk about pilots, we mean the public can control something on a large scale. In this case it’s the inside of the tunnel. When you push the button and a light shoots 100 feet, that sense of control and engagement is something you don’t see every day. It’s still unprecedented in public art, but we like to create pieces where you push a button, and something happens. When that something happens on a grand scale, it’s engaging and entertaining.

DG: That interaction with art is something visitors to Discovery Green love as well. It’s fun because a lot of times you bring kids to the museum and all they hear is “don’t touch.”

PM: I think we’re trained to “look don’t touch,” but I don’t think, in 2024, that’s the kind of art I want my 5-year-old around and involved in. I want to encourage play and curiosity.

At BIG ART, we follow this very made up and very fun thing:  It’s called BIG ART’s “hierarchy of wants.”  There are four layers to this pyramid. At the bottom layer, is scale. Scale could mean it’s loud. It could be fire breathing. It could be blinky or very bright. After that, we work on interaction. After you’re attracted to one of our installations, there’s some type of interactivity that will keep you there. The next level is intrigue or engagement. People want to stay because they’re curious about how the installation is reacting to their input. The top of our pyramid is inspiration, and all our projects are built for this purpose. We want to inspire what’s next.

Kids are the most curious, ambitious and brave. A lot of adults are so reserved when it comes to art. We want the natural curiosity of children to spark that joy, that inspiration.

DG: Let’s talk about community and public art. At Discovery Green we have launched a new program called Art Lab. One of our goals is to establish Houston as a groundbreaking community for these highly interactive, temporary public art installations. My question for you is what does it take to build a community to make art like yours?

PM: That’s a big question. I would start by saying building this art creates community. When we make an installation and we put it in public, we attract others and that’s important. It pulls people into its gravitational pull, right?

Also, it leads to inspiration. If we can inspire someone and engage them, that’s the third level of our pyramid. They can talk to us and then it’s a matter of helping people find the resources to build, coaching them, training them, or pulling them into our teams. We want to do our best to build that community by giving back in a mentorship role. So, what you’re doing with Art Lab is awesome.

DG: Thank you! We are so excited to have you speak at the opening on Sept 5. You will meet some Houston artists there.

PM: I’m excited! I want to see the landscape and meet some other artists.

Discovery Green’s Art Lab is co-curated and co-administrated by Weingarten Art Group. You can learn more at www.discoverygreen.com/artlab.

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