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Nocturnal: Vol. 1

Tacoma Artists Collective puts on local multimedia festival

Nocturnal: Vol. 1 will feature multimedia film shorts and live music. Photo credit: James Allan Tucker

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As the daytime heat transitions from enjoyable to unbearable, people may be tempted to return indoors and seek refuge in fans and air-conditioned establishments. Thankfully, the up-and-coming Tacoma Artists Collective (TAC) is bringing nighttime summer entertainment to the community with its immersive event Nocturnal: Vol. 1.

Evident by its name, Nocturnal: Vol 1 is a multimedia film festival that will take place in the evening. Beginning at 8 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 19 at 11th and Market Street in downtown Tacoma, the event will feature live music, spoken word performances and various audio presentations on a small stage as a prelude to the film portion of the event.

As twilight approaches, the projection will power on to reveal animated shorts, experimental visuals and music videos for local bands. The visuals, which range from 30 seconds to five minutes long, will have accompanying audio and will be projected from a theater-grade projector.  These impressive shorts will run until roughly 1 a.m., so guests are granted the pleasure of viewing them more than once.

If interesting multimedia content and a heavy community-centered vibe isn't enough to entice attendance to Nocturnal: Vol. 1, perhaps the method of viewing will be: Rather than projecting visuals on a typical screen, as many film festivals do, the TAC plans to utilize a 100-foot building wall as the background for its visual goods. Making use of a preexisting establishment for the sake of art is a perfect representation of the TAC's ideology.

"The mission is to bring a new and revived element of artwork, to reconfigure the art scene from insertion to integration," explained TAC founder and visionary James Allan Tucker. "I don't want to put a sculpture on every single corner to make the area pretty. I want to make the front of every building a sculpture.

"When I saw that wall -- at least one hundred feet wide and sixty feet in the air -- there was no bigger location in Tacoma I could think of," enthused Tucker. "You'll be able to see that wall from miles around. Even people who don't physically attend Nocturnal (can) still see it."

Tucker was raised in a military family, alternating between overseas destinations and Fort Lewis during his youth.

"The Seattle/Tacoma area has always been my home," he recounted.

Affiliated with a plethora of local art groups within the Tacoma area, Tucker saw a need to bring people together to create a unified, diversified group of artists.

"The purpose of artwork is to spread ideas and concepts. The Collective is meant to be an embodiment of these purposes in an environment that has none," he explained. "I couldn't find an organization that wanted to be an ‘umbrella,' so the Tacoma Artists Collective is meant to be that umbrella. No one is doing what the Tacoma Artists Collective is going to be doing."

Future plans for the TAC include a possible Christmas event, a second volume of Nocturnal, and long-term hopes of becoming a nonprofit.

For now, the immediate intrigue of Nocturnal: Vol. 1 will serve to appease enthusiasts hungry for art, music and aesthetic lovelies to be enjoyed in the Tacoma area.

Tacoma Artists Collective, Nocturnal: Vol. 1, 8 p.m. to 1 a.m., Saturday, Aug. 19, 11th and Market St., Tacoma, free, facebook.com/events/1569496816396941/?ti=as

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