Michael Goldberg is the Founder and CEO of Something Special Studios, a creative agency building brands, campaigns, and experiences designed to shape culture. He joins to discuss his multifaceted career and a recent creative endeavor, Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy, a spectacular second showing of the world’s first art amusement park.
Michael Goldberg:
We purchased 44 shipping containers, sight unseen. We had no idea what shape all of the artwork, what condition all of the artwork was in, and I can tell you that I definitely was beyond anxious. I think I was a bit green when we opened up those first containers.
Curtis Fox:
From the TED Audio Collective, this is Design Matters with Debbie Millman. On Design Matters, Debbie talks with some of the most creative people in the world about what they do, how they got to be who they are, and what they’re thinking about and working on. On this episode, Michael Goldberg talks about an obscure 1980s art project called Luna Luna.
Michael Goldberg:
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I saw these images, and I was immediately just blown away.
Debbie Millman:
Imagine an amusement park designed by artists. Imagine, say, Salvador Dali creating a surrealist fun house, or Jean-Michel Basquiat decorating a ferris wheel with his drawings, or Roy Lichtenstein fashioning a glass labyrinth, and Philip Glass providing the music. Well, fantastical as it may seen, such an amusement park actually once existed briefly in the late 1980s. It was called Luna Luna, and it was the brainchild of an Austrian artist by the name of André Heller.
Luna Luna shut down several months after it opened, and the exhibit spent decades in storage. More recently, they’ve been back on display, having just finished runs in Los Angeles and New York City. Michael Goldberg is the founder of Something Special Studios, one of the companies that is behind the resurrection of Luna Luna. He’s here to talk about that and about his multifaceted career. Michael Goldberg, welcome to Design Matters.
Michael Goldberg:
Thank you, Debbie. Great to be here.
Debbie Millman:
Michael, is it true that you have a particular fascination with bucket hats?
Michael Goldberg:
Wow, you did your research. I was not expecting to start here. I did at one point in my life have a fascination with bucket hats. I like to have a bit of a uniform, and I went with the bucket hat one day, and it stayed on my head for about three years. It was definitely a phase, and I’ve since grown out of it.
Debbie Millman:
You grew up in Florida, but your whole family was originally from New York. That duality, sort of being from one place, but feeling tied to another, how did that shape your perspective early on?
Michael Goldberg:
Growing up in Florida was always one of those, “I need to get back to New York the second I can.” Both my parents, growing up here, I have older sisters, the youngest, my oldest sister’s nine years older. My middle sister’s eight years older, and they came back to New York right after college. For me, New York has always just been a place of most of my family being here, and wanting to get back. I interned here every summer. I think the day I graduated, was on a plane, and I’ve been here ever since.
Debbie Millman:
Talk a bit about your younger self. Can you describe who you were as a young boy?
Michael Goldberg:
I’ve always been somebody that when I’m into something, I’m truly very, very into it. Growing up, I was obsessed with primarily rap music and basketball, and I got into a phase growing up in Florida where I was quite obsessed with working out. There was a period of time where it was really sports and music took up the majority of my life. Going to college, I immediately found ways to always keep myself busy.
Basically, the first day, I went to the bars that people were going to and realized very quickly, if I’m going to be going out every night, I might as well be getting paid for it and figure out a way to gain some experience. I’ve always been a bit entrepreneurial, and I worked throughout college and haven’t stopped since. Like I said, I’ve always been somebody that finds things that I’m interested in, and really dedicates myself as much as possible, applies myself as much as possible to those interests.
Debbie Millman:
You talked about the many internships you’ve had. You went to school at the University of Central Florida, but every summer, you made your way back to New York to intern. That’s a lot of internships. What were you majoring in, and what kind of internships were you getting?
Michael Goldberg:
I majored in marketing. The first couple years, they were pretty much odd jobs that would get me out here, so I interned for a ticket broker one year. The internship that had the biggest impact on me was going into my senior year. I interned for a hospitality group that owned nightclubs in the Meatpacking District. My very first day of the internship, my job was basically, we were doing an event, and Kid Cudi was performing.
This was in 2009, and Kid Cudi was one of my favorite rappers at the time, and my job was basically just to look after him. I came out of that night and basically decided I was going to be the first person in the office and the last person to leave at four in the morning every night. I soaked up everything that I could. I thought that I knew a lot more than I did, and I went back to college, and tried to apply what I learned in the internship.
As I mentioned, I worked throughout college at the local bars, and one of the people who I worked with, they were actually only a couple years older than me, and they were opening up a bar in a movie theater. I convinced them to turn that into a nightclub, where I began to book DJs from Miami, and started to work out a little bit of a route where we would book house music DJs, and we’d book them at FSU and then University of Florida. Then I picked them up in Gainesville and drive them to Central Florida.
We were bringing in talent from New York as well. I got a ton of experience not only working with artists for the first time, but also managing a staff, and working with a wide range of people in that job. I took a lot out of it, and it made me more confident coming to New York and immediately starting to work in a similar field.
Debbie Millman:
Michael, what was driving you so hard at that time?
Michael Goldberg:
Great question. I don’t know if I could pin it to one thing, other than I wanted to figure out what was next, and I didn’t feel like I was necessarily getting that from school. I didn’t feel… I look back, and I wish that I was more proactive of searching for classes that aligned with my interest, but I didn’t really do that, and I kind of searched for that outward in the world, and was really just looking for business experience to kind of figure out what was next.
I knew then, nightlife was 100% not what I was interested in, but I saw nightlife as an opportunity that I could meet people and kind of figure out what was next. When I moved to New York, I very quickly started working for a hospitality group where I was the assistant to the director of marketing, and the person who I was working under left the company. I said to the people that I was working for, “I could do their job.” They said to me, “You’re 12 years old, you graduated yesterday. There’s no way can you do this job.”
I was very insistent, and it wasn’t that they fully believed in me, but they didn’t end up hiring anybody, and I slowly but surely was doing the other person’s job. Eventually, they gave me the job title after a couple of months. I became the director of marketing for a well-established hospitality group in New York that I would say-
Debbie Millman:
That was One Oak, right? That was One Oak?
Michael Goldberg:
That was, yeah, exactly. I got so much experience wearing 10 different hats, and I learned so much from that experience. The entire way through, I knew I very quickly wanted to make an exit out of nightlife. It was always kind of looking around and thinking about what I could do next. Eventually, after working there for six years, I decided to start Something Special. That was in 2016, but really in 2017 when I fully left my job.
The experience that I got in my life, really, I learned a ton from, learning the value of relationships and really taking care of people. I think the other part was a work ethic and persistence to making sure that you deliver on something. If you don’t properly promote a party, you feel that very, very heavily. You walk in and it’s uncomfortable, because nobody’s there.
What I took from that in terms of applying that to Something Special and to the practice that I run now, is ensuring that you’re setting things up for success, ensuring that you think through things. Another big thing that I took from nightlife was how to curate and how to think about pairings, that one plus one equals three kind of mentality. I took a lot of really valuable lessons that I was able to apply to my agency, things that I still practice today.
Debbie Millman:
I read that you stated about making that transition to a different type of career, that you said, “I was loving what I was doing until I didn’t love what I was doing.” What do you think changed that led you to that realization?
Michael Goldberg:
I was 21, maybe 22 years old when I moved to New York, and I think I was very wide-eyed, and just so excited to be here, and it was the only world that I knew. For a period of time, I loved it and I loved the people that I was around and the people that I was meeting. It was a way to be close to musicians who I really admired, and a way for me to connect with them. I had something that I was able to offer in terms of let’s book a party, or let’s do an album release party.
We were showing up in, whether it’s Paris Fashion Week or Art Basel, we were doing events all around the world. It was bringing me places that I hadn’t otherwise, I hadn’t been before. Then I realized there’s other ways to be here, and there’s other ways to connect with people. I felt that there was way bigger opportunity outside of what I could see at that point. Since I left nightlife, I don’t know if I’ve been to too many clubs since. I think that says a lot.
For me, one of the things that I loved working about nightlife was giving people opportunities and creating platforms for artists that I believed should have them. I feel I’m able to do that in a more impactful way in what I do now than what I did then.
Debbie Millman:
Did you go straight from working in nightclubs, in the nightlife and so forth, to starting your own agency?
Michael Goldberg:
I did, yes.
Debbie Millman:
Now, you had never worked in that field before, ever.
Michael Goldberg:
I had never worked in that field before. I joke around when people, as an example of the way that I started, somebody would say to me, “Let’s kick off this project, please send us the scope of work.” I was on Google searching, what is the scope of work? What does that entail?
Debbie Millman:
I heard you didn’t even understand what the word RFP was, which is request for a proposal, which is how you get the work.
Michael Goldberg:
That is exactly right. I did not know any of those terms. I very much was figuring it out as I went. I have to say, some of the earlier projects, I couldn’t be more proud of. I look back at what we were able to accomplish. We were just so thoughtful and so intentional about everything that we were doing. I still look back at the time, and I never want to lose sight of that. It’s something that I still encourage my team.
It’s like, we have to still operate like we’re this small agency and we should never change that that way. We’re not that big, but it’s always trying to treat every project like it’s your first, and ensure that you over-deliver for any client that you’re working with.
Debbie Millman:
Michael, what gave you the sense that you could do this? Did you get startup funding? Were you on a bootstrap budget? How did you get started? How did you open the door?
Michael Goldberg:
I definitely didn’t have any funding, that is for sure. I kept things very, very, very lean to start. We were taking on big projects. The very first event that I did was at the Brooklyn Museum, and we did a closing party for Tom Sach’s Boombox Retrospective, and we brought in Party Next Door and did his album release party and just blew it out. There was a massive turnout. The next event that we did was with Beats by Dre at Art Basel.
I look back at the budget that we had, and I laugh and smile because it’s pretty wild that I was able to, A, that I took that on, but B, that we were able to make what we made out of it. That event, we ended up having Travis Scott and Asap Rocky, Virgil Abloh DJing. It was just an amazing-
Debbie Millman:
I saw that, Virgil.
Michael Goldberg:
It was an amazing event that you could just, it was so raw for a brand experience, and it felt so special. I think anyone that went to that event knew how this was like this once in a lifetime type of party, and the project that I really look back on as being the thing that kind of kicked everything off.
Debbie Millman:
Then somehow, your path led you to Luna Luna, a forgotten Art Fair Ground from 1987. As I mentioned in our intro, it was the mastermind of the Austrian pop star turned artist, André Heller. Can you share some of the history about the first iteration of Luna Luna, and more about what it actually was before we start talking about how you discovered it?
Michael Goldberg:
Yes. André came up with the idea for Luna Luna really in the late seventies, and he was driven to try to bring art to as wide of an audience as possible. He started to narrow in on this idea of taking a Luna Park. Luna Parks originate from Coney Island in the early 1900s, and they’re essentially traditional amusement parks, or fairs, or carnivals that we all have grown up knowing.
The twist and what differentiates our Luna Park from typical Luna Parks is he wanted to invite the greatest artists of the time to each design their own rides, games, and pavilions. He came up with this idea in the late seventies, but it wasn’t until the mid ’80s that he got funding for the project from a magazine called Neue Revue. He immediately came to New York and started to recruit artists. It was through an amazing introduction from Andy Warhol, who connected to him with Roy Lichtenstein, and then Keith Haring.
Then it started to snowball from there. Through those introductions, he then went on to meet with Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Kenny Scharf, David Hockney, eventually before flying back to Europe and starting to recruit some of the European artists, Rebecca Horn, and Monika Gilsing, and Erich Brauer, amongst a number of others. Luna Luna fully came to fruition in the summer of 1987. It opened on June 5th and ran until the end of August.
André always had a big vision for what he believed Luna Luna could be, and spoke about a global tour even before the first iteration of Luna Luna opened up in Hamburg in 1987. After it showed in Hamburg, he was driven to take it on this world tour. He had a couple of deals that ended up falling short and not going through. Eventually, at this point, a couple years had went by, and he was really strapped for cash. He talks about being on the verge of bankruptcy, and eventually he got a call from a foundation that was based in the US, and they wanted to show it in San Diego.
They started to negotiate terms, and came to an agreement. Eventually, they tried to back out of that deal, and it ended up in litigation from 1991 to 2007. So much time went on, and eventually, André won the litigation, the lawsuit, and he transferred 44 shipping containers to this foundation who now is under new management. They don’t know what to do with it. They have a ranch in Texas, in rural Texas, and they end up parking it there with no plans to show it ever again. Yeah.
Debbie Millman:
300,000 people ended up seeing that first iteration in Hamburg. Jean-Michel Basquiat designed a ferris wheel. Were people actually allowed to ride in it?
Michael Goldberg:
Yeah, so that is a very specific point that we try to make clear in the exhibition, the experience that we have running right now in New York, Luna Luna wasn’t a art show with the theme basing it around an amusement park. It was an amusement park, so people were fully riding the rides, playing the game, stepping inside of it.
You have 300,000 people that truly interacted in every which way with the park. That would’ve been the attention for it to continue if it continued to tour. Unfortunately, 35 years went by before Luna Luna saw the light of day again. At this point, safety standards don’t allow us to let people, and…
Debbie Millman:
Safety standards, who would want it even be able to let somebody-
Michael Goldberg:
I was going to say-
Debbie Millman:
… Touch a Jean-Michel Basquiat ferris wheel?
Michael Goldberg:
And the fact that we want to preserve it for as long as possible, the combination of those two things, the reason why we don’t allow people to ride the rides at this point, but we do let people step into any of the pavilions, the Salvador Dali Dali Dome, or the David Hockney Enchanted Tree, the Roy Lichtenstein Labyrinth.
Debbie Millman:
Yeah, I saw the exhibit in Los Angeles when it first opened, and went through everything, and even got married again in the little chapel, which we have a certificate for, and got the little ring and the blow-up Luna Luna moon, and the replica of the Jean-Michel Basquiat Ferris Wheel.
Michael Goldberg:
I love to hear that. You have to come check it out in New York. It’s a new and improved show. It’s a big evolution from LA. There’s a new commission by a duo called Poncili Creación who were inspired by the original performers that roamed the park and engaged with all of the guests. They’ve created a new cast of characters that are roaming the experience. Then we also have a dedicated area called Poncili Land, which is really designed for kids, but also adults are more than welcome, where people could kind of engage and interact and create their own fantastical characters.
You could even try on some of the elements that they’ve designed. There’s also a new soundtrack that we’ve developed for this iteration, which features such incredible musicians, David Byrne, André 3000, Jamie XX. Then it also features some of the original music by Philip Glass and Miles Davis. We’re super excited about this new iteration. There’s also expanded storytelling, so definitely recommend coming and checking out the new iteration.
Debbie Millman:
I love that Jean-Michel Basquiat insisted that the musical accompaniment to the Ferris wheel was Miles Davis. Michael, how did you discover that Luna Luna even existed? It was in a storage facility on a desert ranch in Texas for 35 years.
Michael Goldberg:
It’s a night that I’ll never ever forget. I have such specific memories of this, but essentially, somebody on my team, I ask people on my team always, “If you see things that are interesting, share them with me. I want to learn, just take in whatever you guys are viewing at the time.” Somebody had sent me a article on a website called Minniemuse, and I had never heard of Minniemuse.
Just out of curiosity, I went to the homepage and I started to scroll through the website, and at the very bottom, there was this article about Luna Luna. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I saw these images of the Basquiat Ferris Wheel. Also, there’s this aerial photo of the overall park, and I was immediately just blown away. I opened up a new tab and I searched Luna Luna, thinking that there would be like 10,000 results like there are for most well-covered historic art events like this.
Two results popped up on my screen: the website that I was on, Minniemuse, and this guy, André Heller, who I never heard of, his website. I clicked on André Heller’s website, and I started to look at some of the other projects that he had put together, and I was immediately blown away by those as well. There was the Fire Theater that André put together in 1984 where he blew off fireworks at the Reichstag so that people on both east and west side of the Berlin Wall could experience the flying sculptures that he flew all around the globe.
The next day, I went into the office, and on the way in, I walk every day. I called four people that I respected in art, and in all different ages purposely, and I said, “Have you ever heard of Luna Luna?” All four of them said, “No, what are you talking about?” I said, “Don’t worry about it, nevermind.” Hung up the phone with them. I gathered my team in the office and just immediately was like, “I think I found something last night that we need to try to figure out how to bring back.”
At that time, in 2019, social media was obviously exploding, and so many brands were coming to us and asking us to do stunt for stunt’s sake. It’s like, “Can we fly a hot air balloon with our logo on it, or can we do…” A lot of these things, I just felt, lacked depth. Luna Luna was this unicorn in that you have this nostalgic format that’s so relatable. Everyone kind of understands immediately just the format of an amusement park, a Ferris wheel, or a carousel, but designed by some of the greatest artists of our time.
I just immediately fell in love with the idea. After a couple weeks, if not months of obsessing over Luna Luna and thinking about how we could bring it back, I decided to write an email to André Heller, the subject line being Luna Luna 2.0. Just to read that letter, I basically said, “Dear Mr. Heller, my name is Michael Goldberg, and I’m the founder of Something Special Studios, a creative company based in New York City. About six months ago, I became aware of Luna Luna, and instantly fell in love with the project. It is such a captivating and timeless exhibition that I strongly feel should be given the opportunity to exist in today’s world.”
“I truly respect and admire what you created, and I’m reaching out today to explore your interest in potentially recreating a contemporary Luna Luna for a new generation to experience in the US. Something Special Studios could help in funding and handle all production operations, et cetera. We wanted to gauge your interest in a project like this, and then from there, hopefully discuss the next best steps. Thank you in advance for your consideration, and I hope to connect soon. Sincerely yours, Michael.”
Debbie Millman:
How did he respond? Did he respond right away? Did it take some time? What was the response like?
Michael Goldberg:
I sent a couple of emails, and then eventually, his receptionist or assistant reached back out to me to schedule a call. The first call that we had, it’s funny to look back on, because it’s just so obvious to me now that I know André, he was just like, “Who is this guy?” He had no idea who I was. I don’t do a ton of press, at least not prior to Luna Luna. I’ve always been a bit behind the scenes, and my name is Michael Goldberg, so there’s 1 million of me. You search Michael Goldberg, there’s going to be a lot of things that pop up that aren’t me.
I don’t think he had any idea who I was, or my company, or what I could potentially do or not do. The call was a bit short and brief. He wasn’t dismissive or passive, it was just more kind of like, “I don’t know what to do with you.” I kept calling him. I think that first email was in October, and I think I probably followed up a handful of times before getting on another call with him, maybe in late November. This part I’ll never, ever forget.
He said to me, “Look, I don’t know. You don’t know me. Come to Vienna. Let’s look each other in the eyes, and we’ll decide if we want to do business together.” I don’t know about you, Debbie, but people don’t say stuff like that to me that often. There was something so charming and almost romantic, kind of like old school about it, that he was asking me in such a sincere way of like, “Come, and let’s have a real conversation and decide if we even like each other.” I booked, I was planning to come out in early March of 2020, and of course, we know what happened in March of 2020.
COVID hits, and now I basically have every single project that I’m working on get canceled or get postponed. I’m sitting in my apartment, wondering if I have a company anymore, but I couldn’t stop thinking about Luna Luna. I felt like Luna Luna was such a perfect project that when the world opened back up, this is a project that could bring all different types of people back together. It’s a project that’s filled with inspiration, it’s filled with dreaming. It was the type of project that I felt we really needed at a point like that.
I kept calling André, and I kept calling André, and following up and writing emails, and eventually, I don’t know why or how, but I got connected to his son, Ferdinand, who’s the exact same age as me. If it wasn’t for Ferdinand, I really don’t know if we would’ve ever gotten too much farther in the conversation. It’s really important to give him credit. Him and I built a little bit of a rapport, and he eventually encouraged his dad to get on a Zoom and have a proper conversation with me. We set up a Zoom in January of 2021. That’s how much time-
Debbie Millman:
Wow, yeah.
Michael Goldberg:
… Almost a year had gone by, and it was the first time that we saw each other face to face, and we were on a Zoom for about an hour and a half, and he walked me through everything, how he came up with the idea to create Luna Luna, the experience of this tragedy, the way that he described it was he talks about mourning it for the last 30 plus years, and knowing that he had something so special and letting it slip out of his hands.
It was almost a miracle of the timing of everything, because he said that he had recently started to think about Luna Luna, and he was working on bringing it back. He said to me, “If I’m successful in figuring out how to bring it back, I’ll contact you, and maybe there’s a role for you. We could get you involved in the creative or the marketing.” I said, “Great, sounds good.” I wasn’t totally confident. Time was going by, and I wasn’t really sure if he was going to come back to it-
Debbie Millman:
He was 75 also, right?
Michael Goldberg:
Yes, exactly. I just was like, “Look, I’m going to try to figure this out myself, and if I can figure out a way to bring it back, great. If he figures out a way to bring it back, great.” I just wanted to see the project come back, and have a return, and have a second life. I started to take some meetings and started to just continue to think about how we could bring Luna Luna back. One of the very first meetings that I took was with DreamCrew, and I met with Anthony Gonzalez, who I’ve had a good relationship with, I believe, since 2015.
We’ve always, we met first when I was working in nightlife, and then continued to be friends when he was in New York or I was in LA. We would meet up, and we met at the DreamCrew office in LA. I was living there for a couple of months at that point, and I brought the book with me, and I’m so lucky that Anthony immediately got it. There’s some people that you talk to about Luna Luna, and it takes a second for them to understand what’s so special, the magic behind it.
It took two minutes. He immediately saw the project for what we believed it could be. I left that meeting that day feeling really optimistic that something was going to come out of it. He called me the next day and he said, “Can we buy it?” I said, “Yes, 100%.” The next call was immediately to Ferdinand. I said to him, “Do you know who Drake is? He said, “Do I know who Drake is? I live in Vienna. I don’t live under a rock. Yes, I know who Drake is. What are you talking about?”
He was like, “What’s wrong with you?” I said, “Look, I took a meeting with him and his company, and they’re interested in buying the collection. Can we have a real conversation?” We set up a meeting and Anthony pulled in the team. It took a little bit of time, but eventually, we were able to go forward with the deal, and a group of us came together to form a new entity with DreamCrew leading the way as a lead investor. We purchased 44 shipping containers, sight unseen.
We had no idea what shape all of the artwork, what condition all of the artwork was in. I can tell you that I definitely was beyond anxious. I think I was a bit green when we opened up those first containers. We are very lucky that everything was stored in Texas, because for the most part, everything was in incredible condition and held up as well as it possibly could from being stored for that long of a period.
Debbie Millman:
Now, just so my listeners understand, Drake is part of DreamCrew, is that correct?
Michael Goldberg:
Yeah, so DreamCrew is Drake’s production and entertainment company. They’ve produced, they’re behind Euphoria, and Top Boy, and a number of other more recent great documentaries and TV shows.
Debbie Millman:
They, along with you and this team that you put together, invested $100 million to acquire the work without seeing it in person.
Michael Goldberg:
I’m not going to confirm that figure, but what…
Debbie Millman:
That’s been what I’ve read everywhere. You don’t have to, that’s absolutely okay, and who knows? It is what it is, but you’ve spent a lot of money to acquire something, you had no idea what the condition was.
Michael Goldberg:
That is exactly correct. I said to them several times, “What happens if the art’s not in good shape?” They, I think, were a little bit more comfortable with the risk than I was. I was so concerned. Worst case, we would’ve had a great story to tell, a great documentary or something of the sort. I think we’re in a way better spot now that everything was, and for the most part, in incredible shape. That’s really when the work started.
It was like on one hand, you’re celebrating because you’re actually able to see this artwork that we’ve been thinking about. For me, I’ve been spending years obsessed over, and now you’re seeing it in real life, and you’re able to understand the scale of it, which was something that I don’t think I truly understood. That was really when the more difficult task at hand faced us head on, which was figuring out how to reassemble all of these works.
It’s not only a matter of figuring out how to reassemble, get them to stand upright, but how do you get them to mechanically run again? For a work like the Basquiat Ferris Wheel, that Ferris wheel is from the 1930s. When André was putting together Luna Luna, he didn’t have a huge budget, and he was really trying to maximize that budget. He purchased some of the rides were vintage in the ’80s.
Now, fast-forward 35 years, our incredible team had the tall task of trying to figure out how to get these rides to mechanically run again, which is something that I can tell you now is not something you’re just hopping on YouTube and looking up instructions. It was something that really took a ton of time. I will also say that these shipping containers weren’t like, they didn’t come out with instructions. It wasn’t like organized in a way that was set up for us to just unpack everything and start to reassemble.
It was an incredibly difficult task, and we had such an amazing team in LA that they loved the project and they bought into it, and they were so passionate about bringing it back to life. There was so much love and care with such a wide variety of experts in different fields coming together to build this park, reassemble this park again. We got possession of all of the artwork in late January of 2022, and we opened Forgotten Fantasy in Los Angeles in December of 2023.
The team worked very, very quickly, and we showed Forgotten Fantasy in Los Angeles, actually in the studio, the warehouse right next door, where we unpacked everything. It definitely was an extension of the studio and the team. It was amazing to see all of that work. It wasn’t until we actually showed Forgotten Fantasy in Los Angeles that we saw all of the artwork fully built back up again, because our studio that we were unpacking everything, the ceiling height didn’t allow us to build all of the rides to their full height.
It was amazing, when we’re putting together the show, some of the works we hadn’t even seen fully constructed yet. It was really special to open up the doors to Forgotten Fantasy in LA, and be able to share that experience with the LA community.
Debbie Millman:
What gave you the sense that the world of 2023 would be interested in an artistic fairground made in 1987, made from vintage machinery from the twenties, thirties, forties, and fifties that they couldn’t actually even ride?
Michael Goldberg:
If you’re interested in art, you’re seeing some of the greatest artists of the 20th century doing something that they’ve never done before. There’s only one Basquiat Ferris wheel. There’s only Keith Haring carousel. This is a group of artists coming together and doing something that none of them have ever done before, which to me, anyone that’s interested in art, that’s going to intrigue them, and they’re going to want to go check that out and see that for themselves.
On the other hand, you may not know who David Hockney, is or who Salvador Dali is, or who Sonia Delaunay is, but there’s this incredible story of somebody chasing a dream for almost 10 years, and finally figuring out how to bring that to life, and showing it for this very short period in one specific city, and then that dream basically evaporating out of the history books, really for the most part, aside from two articles on the internet, not existing online, there’s this lost and forgotten tale to be told.
It speaks to an art audience. It speaks to somebody that just really appreciates an amazing story. Especially with the show that we have currently running in New York, there’s a whole performance component. The performers are engaging with all of our guests. There’s a music, there’s a soundtrack. When you look at all of these things working together, and you have the rides turning on at a specific moment as the songs change, as the lights start to dance and do their thing, there’s this choreography that when you look at it all as a whole, it’s moving.
It’s been incredible to watch people. I go to Luna Luna probably too much, and I go often with my son, who’s two and a half, and it’s just been so amazing to see somebody at his age learn and appreciate art in this way. I love seeing not only a young audience, but also an older audience connect with the experience, and everything in between. It’s something that, again, if you love art, there’s something for you. If you don’t know about art, I feel really confident you’re going to walk away leaving Luna Luna with a big smile on your face.
Debbie Millman:
I think there’s something almost poetic about Luna Luna disappearing before the digital era, and now being able to come back and really be appreciated via a digital experience as well as a in real life experience, because you can still see the magic in all the photos on Instagram and TikTok.
People seem to be so engaged in sharing their experience with Luna Luna with the world. I know the original book about Luna Luna has been republished. Where will the exhibit continue traveling? Is there going to be a life beyond LA and New York City?
Michael Goldberg:
Absolutely. We’re getting ready for the next city. We’ll be announcing that soon. Luna Luna Forgotten Fantasy will continue to tour. Eventually, our hope is to bring it up fully around the world and eventually have a permanent home for the collection, as we get ready to also look forward in terms of creating contemporary experiences with new artists. There’s a new podcast that also tells a story, and we’re really excited. Helen Molesworth leads that.
She hosts the podcast series, and she does such an incredible job of telling the backstory, and interviewing some of the central figures that are a big part of the original Luna Luna, but also its return. To date, it’s been limited. Aside from our merchandise offering that’s available worldwide, the experience has really been exclusive to people, obviously, in New York and LA, and we’re really excited to have the podcast as a vehicle for people around the world to get to learn about the backstory of Luna Luna and the magic behind it.
Debbie Millman:
Tell us the name of the podcast and where people can find it.
Michael Goldberg:
Luna Luna Forgotten Fantasy, hosted by Helen Molesworth, and it’s available on Apple Music, Spotify, and probably wherever else you get your podcast.
Debbie Millman:
My last question today is about your agency. You’ve built Something Special Studios into an agency that doesn’t really feel like an agency. It’s also a cultural force that doesn’t chase trends as much as help shape them or identify them. What’s next for you and your team?
Michael Goldberg:
What’s next for us at Something Special is partnering with artists whose work we admire, and connect with brands who share our vision and values of engaging with culture in an authentic and meaningful way.
Debbie Millman:
I look forward to seeing what you do next. Michael Goldberg, thank you so much for making so much work that matters for bringing Luna Luna back into the world. Thank you for joining me today on Design Matters.
Michael Goldberg:
Thank you, Debbie. Appreciate the time.
Debbie Millman:
To learn more about Michael Goldberg, you can go to SomethingSpecialStudios.com, and to learn more about Luna Luna, you can go to LunaLuna.com. This is the 20th year we’ve been podcasting Design Matters, and I’d like to thank you for listening. Remember, we can talk about making a difference, we can make a difference, or we can do both. I’m Debbie Millman, and I look forward to talking with you again soon.
Curtis Fox:
Design Matters is produced for the TED Audio Collective by Curtis Fox Productions. The interviews are usually recorded at the Masters and Branding Program at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, the first and longest-running branding program in the world. The editor-in-chief of Design Matters Media is Emily Weiland.