RAC used to stand for 'Remix Artist Collective'. These days it's the solo project of Andre Allen Anjos. Originally known as a remix artist, RAC has blossomed to a full band on the road. For the latest club tour, lighting designer Marc Janowitz employed High End Systems SHAPESHIFTER C2 fixtures for dramatic illumination and effects.　　Janowitz explains, "The artist wanted to present something visually stimulating and unique for his fans.  Prior to this album (Strangers) and the subsequent tour he hadn't had a live vocalist, instead relying on his remix tracks to carry the vocals. This routing presented a step up in venue sizes and he wanted to present a show that had visual impact. Further to that, he wanted to show that he had a band and a singer, and that RAC had evolved to being more than electronic music and tracks.  I felt right from the start that a design that relied heavily on some type of LED display would offer the right vibe for the music and enough possibilities and versatility. Andre shared a logo design that he had used for a music video.  Ultimately, after going through a few variations we settled on an array of custom LED strips that created a pattern out of that array (engineered and fabricated by 1212 Studios in New York City).  Where each module met the next, there was a gap left between.  The gap became the perfect home to lay in the Shapeshifter C2. ”　　Lighting vendor for the RAC tour was Christie Lites.  Marc adds, "Chris McMeen was our Christie agent, and as usual, went above and beyond to make sure that the design was implemented successfully.  There was no vendor crew on the road.  My Lighting Director Teddy Sosna was also responsible for the system.  One of the backline team served double duty as a lighting assistant.  Overall, it was really a team effort on a daily basis with all hands on deck. Andre Anjos, the artist behind RAC, was the first one to grab a case off the truck at rehearsal load in!"
　　Janowitz placed four SHAPESHIFTER C2s at the nexus points of the LED sculptural pieces. He says, "The LED sculpture has strong diagonal lines, and placing the SHAPESHIFTERs at the nexus points between the panels gave the set a third dimension. In a sense, I was trying to get the lines of light to continue outward, in order to emanate from and through the band. At times we used the fixture as a wash fixture with a big fat beam.  Other times we'd set the flower petals in motion as a sort of faceted abstraction of the actual set design."

　　Asked how SHAPESHIFTER fits in his designer toolbar, Janowitz comments, "The fixture is really quite unique in its mechanics.  It looks and functions like nothing else out there. The way the petals physically split the beam into parts is my favorite feature. Also, the macros were quite helpful.  Our programming time was limited and the macros allowed us to access some of the more complex possibilities of the fixture while saving time in the 'trial and error' phase."