Andy Warhol's Factory is being reborn for digital arts workers in Five Points

by Anthony Sodd
August 19, 2015

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From the 1960s until the early 1980s, Andy Warhol worked out of a series of studios in New York he called "The Factory." The studios were collaborative environments, and a wide variety of artists, filmmakers and musicians worked there. They would work independently, on their own projects, or as part of a larger group of artists producing something that no one-single person could create. It was a way for Warhol to stay inspired, and to produce pop art on an industrial scale. Located off Larimer Street in Five Points, a group of Colorado artists are recreating "the scene" in a modern, digital way.

Lumenati is a group of filmmakers, animators and designers that work out of a collaborative space inspired by Warhol’s Factory. In practice, the space operates kind of like a coworking space, in the sense that people can rent out desks and have access to common amenities like conference rooms and high speed internet. But, unlike a coworking space, where everybody comes in and buries their heads in their own projects, the Lumenati offices are collaborative.

They don’t let just anybody work in their space; you have to be talented and work well with the group. If you’re accepted, however, you’re free to work in the space on your own projects. Should you have any projects you need help completing, it’s generally accepted that you’ll work with others at Lumenati before outsourcing the work. Think of it like a collaborative collective of freelance artists.

The projects coming out of Lumenati’s offices are both innovative and diverse. They’ve recently finished a successful Kickstarter to produce an iPhone case that turns your phone into an old-style Super 8 video camera. They also recently completed a video ad spoofing Coca-Cola ads for the Center for Science in the Public Interest that went viral earlier this year.

Ok, so Warhol’s Factory could get a little… eclectic. The Warhol Superstars, a group of adult film performers, drag queens, drug addicts and just about anybody else Warhol found interesting operated out of the space. It was a well known setting for drug fueled parties and amphetamine use was rampant. Warhol himself was shot at the Factory in 1968 by Valerie Solanas, a radical feminist that advocated for the elimination of men.

I asked Gavin Anstey, a cofounder and producer at Lumenati, if sex, drugs and craziness had begun to infiltrate their working culture. His response: "Not yet."

 
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