Light & Pixel

WRITERS/REPORTERS: Kyan Baker, Jack Calloway, Nathaniel Eves, Kylar Flynn, Eliza Gould, Ella Hyman, Lydia Kitzel, Sammi Dostart-Meers, Jane Merkle, Berta Muza, Lilah Richman, Kylie Sebastian, Eve Sloan, Zadie Winthrop (FROM: International High School, Marin Academy, Marin Catholic, Marin School of the Arts, Redwood High, San Domenico, San Rafael High, St. Ignatius Preparatory, Terra Linda High, The Menlo School, Urban School of San Francisco)

Nestled among the shipyards, artists’ lofts, coffeehouses and tech firms of San Francisco’s Dogpatch district lurks a revolutionary force working to create multimedia art that defies limitation.

Its unassuming exterior cloaks a vast inner workshop/laboratory/studio where light and pixel are the clay by which an innovative team of designers sculpt 21st century art. This isn’t, in other words, your average Bay Area media firm. This is Obscura Digital, and in the realm of modern media it is a world unto itself.

One recent afternoon, we explored this unique world, one in which visual art and cutting-edge technology are combined in a wholly new way.

ON LOCATION - December, 2017

FastForward Visits Airbnb

Airbnb began in 2008 when struggling college grads Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia turned their San Francisco loft into a bed and breakfast by buying a few air mattresses and advertising the place online. They called their mini-hotel AirBed and Breakfast. Although the idea at first was just to “make a few bucks,” they snagged three international customers right away as the Industrial Design Conference came to town and hotel rooms were at a premium. With another partner, Nathan Blecharczyk, the team created a website offering short-term rentals, and with that the Airbnb concept was born. Next, they raised money for their new venture by developing two special-edition breakfast cereals, Obama O’s and Cap’n McCains, to cash in on the presidential race between Barack Obama and John McCain. This brainstorm alone netted the company over $30,000, and before long the Y Combinator startup-support firm was offering the fledgling company training and funding ideas. By 2009 Airbnb was listing homes, boats, tipis, private islands, and more for short-term rental, and today Airbnb is a $25 billion company with properties in 65,000 cities and 191 countries.

FastForward Visits Simraceway

By Ben Auerbach, Ethan Herron, Kent Middle; Christian Hee, Mark Day School; Oscar Labovich, San Rafael High; Jane Merkle, Marin Waldorf; Rachel Richman, Marin Academy; Zoe Shulman, Alaina Wehrly, Urban; Kylie Sebastian, Mark Day School; Jack Nieker, Tam High; Jack Watson, Hall Middle; and Regan Widergren, Saint Isabella

A loud cacophony of popping, whirling engines greeted us as we approached the famous Simraceway Performance Karting Center, nestled in the beautiful rolling hills of Sonoma County, California. A part of the larger Sonoma Raceway, which hosts a variety of heart-pounding races each year, the Performance Center is focused around the sport of Go-Karting, a in which racers driving small karts accelerate and drift around the various curves of the track in a form of racing that’s exhilarating to watch, but even more so to do for a living. On a scorching summer day, we were given a chance not only to learn about the joys of this sport, but to also take the karts for a spin ourselves. Eager to get in the driver’s seat, we arrived in the parking lot and made our way to the visitor’s center, where our interview soon began.