behind the scenes

Discover artwork that combines light, space and technology to create otherworldly scenes.

It’s often difficult to convey the energy, hard work, and dedication that our participating artists and Fairgrounds St. Pete team put into creating the work you get to now enjoy!

Here is a behind-the-scenes look at how “The Everglades Arena” was created by our internal art team.

As with all of the artwork at @fairgroundsstpete “The Everglades Arena Projection” has a story.

Sit and take a moment to soak in the views of the Everglades and the Mermaid Star Motel facade. This experience is anchored by a 50-foot projection-based digital landscape made by Fairgrounds St. Pete in collaboration with Olivia Sebeskey @oliviasebesky

To see the “Everglades Arena” – get your ticket today, and join our Insiders Club for the latest Fairgrounds St. Pete news.

It’s often difficult to convey the energy, hard work, and dedication that our participating artists and Fairgrounds St. Pete team put into creating the work you get to now enjoy!

As with all of the artwork at Fairgrounds St. Pete CENTCOM has a story.

CENTCOM is an amalgamation of Florida references. It pays homage to Twisty Treat, Futuro houses and Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base. Check out our tech team’s invented touchless buttons and be sure to play with the talk tabulator. Meow!

Inside CENTCOM you’ll experience:
Eddie Lohmeyer’s 3-channel video installation, Topographia Chlorophobia
Interactive Touchless Buttons
3-D printed buttons
Talk Tabulator
… and more

Escape Reality at Fairgrounds St. Pete – get your ticket today, and join our Insiders Club for the latest Fairgrounds St. Pete news.

It’s often difficult to convey the energy, hard work, and dedication that our participating artists and Fairgrounds St. Pete team put into creating the work you get to now enjoy!

As with all of the artwork at Fairgrounds St. Pete CENTCOM has a story.

CENTCOM is an amalgamation of Florida references. It pays homage to Twisty Treat, Futuro houses and Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base. Check out our tech team’s invented touchless buttons and be sure to play with the talk tabulator. Meow!

Inside CENTCOM you’ll experience:
Eddie Lohmeyer’s 3-channel video installation, Topographia Chlorophobia
Interactive Touchless Buttons
3-D printed buttons
Talk Tabulator
… and more

Escape Reality at Fairgrounds St. Pete – get your ticket today, and join our Insiders Club for the latest Fairgrounds St. Pete news.

Discover artwork inspired by the Florida mer-culture we all love as Fairgrounds St. Pete celebrates Mermaid Month

It’s often difficult to convey the energy, hard work, and dedication that our participating artists and Fairgrounds St. Pete team put into creating the work you get to now enjoy!

Here is a behind-the-scenes look at Liz Dimmitt sharing the process of making Mermaid Dressing Room.

As with all of the artwork at Fairgrounds St. Pete Mermaid Dressing Room has a story.

Inside the intimate quarters of the Mermaid Dressing Room you’ll find an intricate mosaic seashell wall with many mes-mer-izing elements to take in created by Liz Dimmitt, her mom Vevie with the support of her husband Piers and the Fairgrounds St. Pete internal art team.

A closer look at the Mer-mazing vanity located in Mermaid Dressing Room reveals:

Mermaid Magic Nail Polish
Youthful Scales Lotion
Sparkly Eyelashes
Mermaid Seashell Crowns by Iona Parris Seashell Queen
…and more!

Escape Reality at Fairgrounds St. Pete – get your ticket today, and join our Insiders Club for the latest Fairgrounds St. Pete news.

Discover artwork that explores the relationship among natural and human-made landscapes.

It’s often difficult to convey the energy, hard work, and dedication that our participating artists and Fairgrounds St. Pete team put into creating the work you get to now enjoy!

Here is a behind-the-scenes look at Eddie Lohmeyer’s Topographia Chlorophobia, a 3-channel video installation is located within CENTCOM.

As with all of the artwork at Fairgrounds St. Pete, Topographia Chlorophobia has a story.

Topographia Chlorophobia explores the relationship among natural and human-made landscapes, focusing on the material excitations that exist within natural and computational ecologies. Here, Nintendo 64 and PlayStation games have been corrupted and meticulously arranged in mask layers. The layers are played in continual loops of glitch patterns. A virtual camera hovers and zooms in upon each channel to reveal uncanny arrangements of pixels, tiles, and color palettes. The video channels are accompanied by a soundscape of birds, flowing water and electrical noise played in surround sound. These strange energies that exist below the surface of game worlds are designed to resemble aerial views and satellite imagery of the Everglades through fragmented rivers, deltas, and swamplands, playfully exploring tensions among Florida as an ecological paradise and commercial hub for simulation and tourism industries.

Eddie Lohmeyer is an Assistant Professor of Digital Media at the University of Central Florida. He received his Ph.D. from North Carolina State University in Communications, Rhetoric and Digital Media. His research explores aesthetic and technical developments within histories of digital media, with an emphasis on video games and their relationship to the avant-garde. Additionally, his art explores processes of play and de-familiarization that unveil normal attitudes and perceptions of technologies. Using deconstructive approaches such as glitch, physical modifications to hardware, assemblage, etcetera, his installations, sculptures and videos have been exhibited both nationally and internationally, most recently at 1308 Gallery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Ground Level Platform (Chicago, IL), Visual Art Exchange (Raleigh, NC) and the Yeltsin Center in Yekaterinburg, Russia.

To see more of Eddie’s work at Fairgrounds St. Pete, – get your ticket today, and join our Insiders Club for the latest Fairgrounds St. Pete news.

Did you know our iconic Mermaid Star Motel Sign was designed and made by our talented Fairgrounds St. Pete Team?! ⁠It’s often difficult to convey the energy, hard work, and dedication that our participating artists and Fairgrounds St. Pete team put into creating the work you get to now enjoy!⁠ Here is a behind-the-scenes look at the process of making our Mermaid Motel sign.

This behind-the-scenes making-of-video features:⁠
Production Team Enclosing and Hanging
⁠Tech Team Programming & Wiring
⁠Scenic Artist Painting
⁠…and more!⁠

Stay tuned as we continue to reveal exciting, never-before-seen footage! There are more videos like this coming soon…Have you experienced The Mermaid Motel Sign yet?

Escape Reality at Fairgrounds St. Pete – get your ticket today, and join our Insiders Club for the latest Fairgrounds St. Pete news.