New media artist Caleb Hawkins sculpts with light

Some artists use paint or clay as a means of expression, but Caleb Hawkins works with architecture, technology, algorithms and light. As a design director at MASARY Studios, he creates luminescent, large-format artistic installations.

Stepping into MASARY’s space at Fort Point is like looking behind the curtain of The Wizard of Oz. The interdisciplinary designers, programmers, musicians and animators working here conjure up inspiring multimedia experiences using sound, light and tons of technology.

In the darkened basement, Hawkins pointed to some of the tools they were using. “As you can see, we have two laptops, a monitor, three light fixtures with four different reflector lenses,” he said. On the day of the reporter’s visit, he and his teammates were testing new programming software and a reflector that looked like a small cannon.

Hawkins switched lenses to project huge purple and green circles onto a brick wall. “Light is such a powerful, cosmic, natural element,” he said, “that holds many wonders within it.”

Caleb Hawkins makes changes to the light projector while testing at MASARY Studios for an upcoming project. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

Before working with light at MASARY, Hawkins studied architecture at Wentworth Institute of Technology. But his inner tech artist and rebel urged him to switch gears. Early in his career, he also had difficulty finding black role models in architecture. “I saw great people doing great work, but no one looked like me,” he said.

Therefore, Hawkins decided to continue his studies at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. Then tragedy forced him to do some serious soul searching. His father – a New Hampshire pastor – died in 2018, shortly before Hawkins started design school. This loss made him reflect deeply on his path and purpose. He remembers saying to himself, “I want to work in a profession that doesn’t exist yet.”

Hawkins’ father always told him to find his own way. It didn’t take long for serendipity to step in.

“I was at a digital art event in a loft in Chinatown with projections on the walls, performances on a long dining room table, and an entire room dedicated to virtual reality works,” he said. As Hawkins looked around the room, he spotted MASARY co-founders Ryan Edwards and Sam Okerstrom-Lang.

Caleb Hawkins discusses light projection concepts with MASARY Studios co-founder Sam Okerstrom-Lang while testing an upcoming project. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

“I recognized who they were,” he recalled, “and I walked up to them and just started talking.”

From there he began the Okerstrom-Lang story. “He knew everything about us and our studio,” he said, “and gave us the opportunity and the position.”

Hawkins started as an intern five years ago, and Okerstrom-Lang said he quickly took over their multidisciplinary practices. He already had experience with projection, 3D modeling, coding and drums. Ultimately, the MASARY team created a design director position for Hawkins. The 30-year-old currently manages the studio’s growing list of complex site-specific projects in Boston and beyond.

“He does computational design in 3D software and a lot of measurement – he always has a laser gauge or compass with him – to achieve accuracy while maintaining poetry,” Okerstrom-Lang said of the talents Hawkins brings to MASARY. “It has really elevated our studio.”

Caleb Hawkins talks to a group of participants as part of a tour of the new artwork “Memory/Diffusion” at the Boston Arts Academy. (Courtesy of Aram Boghosian)

Hawkins said he always starts by questioning the essence of any project. “And you turn it over, you stretch it, you pull it, trying to expose it.”

He worked on MASARY’s first permanent work at the Boston Arts Academy. It was also his debut project outside the field of architecture. “Memory / Diffusion” is a responsive multimedia wall installed next to busy stairs. Hawkins designed the graphics, which include artificial intelligence software that recreates “memories” of school activities captured by cameras over time.

“We used the term ‘hidden interaction,’” he said, “where a freshman can come in and interact with the artwork in their first year, and when they leave (in) four years, they can see themselves as a freshman in the artwork.”

Caleb Hawkins works on the installation of “Eclipse,” part of “SOLSTICE,” at Mount Auburn Cemetery. (Courtesy of Aram Boghosian)

The first work that Hawkins designed himself is one of the immersive, nighttime installations at Mount Auburn Cemetery’s “SOLSTICE” winter event. His “Eclipse” combines an ethereal soundscape with a bright ring of light, 3 meters in diameter, placed in a forest hollow.

“With mist and fog pumped into the environment,” Hawkins described, “which makes the disk glow and appear to be floating.”

The effect is mesmerizing. However, Hawkins’ most personal work can be found in the chapel at Boston Children’s Hospital.

“This hospital saved my life,” he said, sitting in a quiet space. “When I was one year old, I had heart surgery. This was to treat coarctation of my main aorta.

Caleb Hawkins and Rabbi Susan Harris examine the “Refraction” installation in the Boston Children’s Hospital chapel, which Hawkins designed. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

Rabbi Susan Harris, director of spiritual care at the hospital, likes to share the designer’s interactions with patients because, she said, “it’s always touching.”

He remembers how MASARY won a commission to create graphics for a non-denominational chapel. At this point, she was unaware of Hawkins’ history. The two then had long conversations about creating a sculpture that would provide comfort to anyone who needed it.

Finally, Hawkins created a three-dimensional painting titled “Refraction” that floats several feet above the viewer’s head. “It looks like a waving crescent coming down from a coffered ceiling,” he said.

“Refrakcja” consists of 263 opalescent acrylic pendants illuminated by natural and artificial light. “The palette of lights changes depending on the season, and I find that very moving,” Harris said, “and it speaks to how people experience their time here.”

MASARY Studios’ installation “Refraction” in the chapel of Boston Children’s Hospital uses both natural and programmed lighting based on the four seasons of the Northern Hemisphere. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

In the weeks before his father’s death, Hawkins spent hours in another hospital chapel down the street. She hopes visitors to Children’s’s light-filled space will find comfort, even affirmation, when they look at “Refraction.”

“There are people who come forward for all sorts of reasons, from something minor to something very, very serious,” Hawkins said. “I think this piece of art can give someone something, and for me it’s that it raises your head. “

For him, light brings optimism. Now – as a technician and nerd at heart – Hawkins has found his place, creating new media art and exploring its endless possibilities.

“It’s a very authentic sense of who I am,” he said. “And that’s something I’m definitely proud of.”