Radharany Diaz

How a passion project turned into a traveling art exhibit with the NBA

When it comes to pursuing our creative interests, there’s no such thing as too niche. Ask Calvin Markus, co-creator of Ascension — an immersive five-screen video installation that “explores how greatness can transcend the degradation of time and memory” through film and sound design.

The National Basketball Association, along with Franchise and AMP, debuted its first-ever art exhibition during Art Basel Miami in early December 2019. It later traveled to Chicago for All-Star Weekend 2020. Within the Momentum exhibition were several components, one of them being Ascension, which features iconic NBA dunks along with an original score by Markus.

I talked to him about how a self-assigned passion project transformed into a traveling art exhibit.

RD: Tell us a bit about who you are and your background as a producer/composer.

CM: I grew up in Tempe, Arizona and started learning guitar in middle school. I played in a bunch of bands throughout high school and onward. I moved to LA in 2013 because I was in an electronic R&B band called Dead Times and we wanted to play shows, which we did for a few years, then went on hiatus. After that I found myself wondering what the hell I’m gonna do with my life so I decided to finally commit to learning how to produce music on my own and chase a dormant dream.

I’m now fortunate to make music full time for a variety of projects like movie/TV trailers, documentaries, fashion films, remixes, and personal projects like my EP “Proof” which came out earlier this year.

Ascension was my first time doing sound for an installation and it was easily one of my favorite projects ever. Definitely want to keep exploring that medium.

RD: How would you describe Ascension to anyone who hasn’t had the opportunity to experience it?

CM: Like walking into basketball nirvana. A meditation on the elegance, power, style, and history of the sport. Or, as someone on Instagram described it: “a dope 360-view dunk room.”

RD: Scoring films and writing music is a very specific line of work. What inspired you to pursue it? Did you have any people who influenced you?

CM: Music is very visual to me, whether I’m writing or listening to it. I always watch some sort of video when I’m arranging a track, whether it's a scene or trailer from a movie, or an inspirational Nike ad. It helps me make decisions and exposes what is or isn’t working.

I’m obsessed with the way music can impact and heighten visual mediums. I used to daydream about scoring films as far back as being a freshman in high school, but I always assumed it was a field exclusively for classical music intellectuals, AKA not for someone like me. I wrote myself off before I even started. Now I’m on a mission to bring experimentation and innovation to the field.

Some of my biggest influences are Jonny Greenwood, Trent Reznor, Jon Brion, Mica Levi, and Max Richter.

RD: Although we’re just now getting to view this exhibit, you’ve been writing music to slow-motion NBA clips since 2015. What inspired this idea? Where did it start?

CM: At that time in 2015, I didn’t have any projects or anyone coming to me for music so I just gave myself assignments, one of which was writing music to NBA highlights. I always loved those “Phantom Cam” super slow-mo videos the NBA would put out and I started messing around with adding my own music to it.

Part of me was bored of only seeing basketball highlights with stock sounding beats, so I wanted to see how they felt with a more ambient, cinematic energy. I only had access to the built-in instruments that came with Logic Pro at the time, nothing fancy. I couldn’t afford any of the sexy synths or music software.

I definitely didn’t expect it to lead to anything. It felt so hyper-specific. This was before I even knew about Franchise. I was just experimenting and enjoying the process of combining the things I loved.

RD: Many people have side projects and hobbies that never see their full potential. How did Ascension transform from something you did for your own pleasure, to a traveling exhibit? How did the partnership between you, Franchise, and the NBA come about?

CM: Franchise absolutely took this from a loose concept of mine to a fully fleshed out reality. They had the know-how and connections to make it happen and they absolutely killed it.

I connected with Chris Dea of Franchise a few years ago on Instagram. I was a big fan of the magazine at that point and reached out to him because they had this amazing Kobe poster as part of a project they were doing at the time. He graciously mailed me one for free without hesitation. Super nice guy.

We kept in touch and eventually worked together on some videos that highlighted the 2018 MVP and Rookie of the Year candidates.

I started daydreaming about an immersive installation using the slow-mo basketball footage I had been experimenting with in the past. I thought it would be amazing to present the sport as a form of experiential art.

It wasn’t until this past summer that I pitched the basic idea of what would eventually become Ascension to Chris. The idea seemed super ambitious and improbable to me but I figured it was worth a shot. Months later he called me like, “Hey, so we have an exhibit coming up in Miami during Art Basel and we want to make this happen.” I was thrilled.

We only had a few weeks to put the entire thing together. It was a mad rush to the finish line, but it turned out better than I ever imagined. Walking into it for the first time in Miami was surreal. I remember hugging Clint (co-creator) and saying “Dude…we did it. This was just a file on our computers a week ago and now we’re breathing it.”

One of the highlights of my life. I’ll forever be grateful.

RD: This was a creative partnership between you and Clint Soren. What role did he play in the creation of this exhibit?

CM: Clint is a designer and creative director in Philadelphia. We met each other in high school and have been best friends ever since.  He’s done the artwork for nearly all of my projects over the past decade. We’re generally always up to something, whether it’s a collaboration like this or brainstorming for whatever’s next.

For Ascension, he served as the video editor. He established the style, textural transitions, and pacing of the footage. He has amazing taste and vision.

RD: Why basketball? What does this sport mean to you?

CM: My earliest memory of loving basketball is having a Kevin Garnett action figure as a kid that I cherished. I loved those 90’s Timberwolves jerseys. I used to draw them. I also loved to play HORSE with my friends as a kid even though I was horrible. I’d stick my tongue out like MJ and brick fadeaway jumpers.

Like most people from Arizona, I became obsessed with the Steve Nash–era Phoenix Suns. That team was so entertaining and inventive. Amar’e Stoudemire was incredible. People forget that he was one of the best in-game dunkers ever.

I watch games every single night and have a years-deep NBA group chat with my buds where we send each other highlights and crazy stat lines all the time.

It’s an endlessly engaging, ever-evolving narrative of a sport. Though as a Suns fan it also can be very depressing…

RD: Were you trying to create a specific feeling with the music you wrote for Ascension?

CM: Absolutely. Everyone interprets it differently but I wanted it to feel both peaceful and intense. Like a visceral stillness.

I tried to express that juxtaposition by layering ethereal ambience and church choir drones with rumbling impacts, washed out screaming crowds, and decaying 808s.

A lot of the sounds you hear in the piece are actual basketball Foley samples, only heavily processed. For example, a basketball hitting the hardwood, super slowed and drenched in reverb, sounds like thunder.

I wanted it to feel like some sort of holy experience away from reality, for the observer/listener to lose track of time. There’s no clear structure, no real beginning or end.

RD: Prior to pursuing music full-time, you were working service jobs for about 12 years. You’ve talked about how hopeless those years felt at times since your music ambitions weren’t coming to fruition. You also were only creating when you were “inspired, in the mood,” or when it was “convenient.” It was a chef at one of the restaurants you worked at that told you to “treat music like work.”

How were you able to make this adjustment? Did this have a negative impact on your creative process?

CM: Great question. For a long time, I was stuck in a cycle of frustration. I would get really inspired for a bit, make new music, inevitably be let down when nothing would come from it, then get depressed for months. Rinse and repeat. I had all these voices in my head telling me I was a failure.

Everyone around me was settling into careers and nice apartments while I was still tinkering around in GarageBand, working odd jobs, and sharing a bunk bed in a nasty studio apartment. I wanted to be a full-time musician but the only thing I was full-time with was feeling bad about myself.

I had no formal training, no connections to the industry, and I’m a community college drop-out. I always (and often still do) feel like I’m on the outside looking in. I gave up over and over again, moved back home multiple times, went back to college for a bit intending to get a “reasonable” degree... and yet I kept coming back to give music a go one more time.

So, I was like… alright, well I can’t even succeed at quitting, so I might as well commit to this thing. It’s time to put in the work and stop expecting immediate results. It’s time to embrace the process, be consistent, and make the music I want to make even if no one else likes it.

My friend and amazing musician, Jarell Perry (also known as Yore), once told me to “think of your day job as your investor.” I loved that. I always felt defined by how I made money, mainly because people really do unnecessarily define you by it. My day jobs never aligned with my dreams, which really shouldn’t matter, but the truth is people use it as a way to undermine you. The approach Jarell shared was so refreshing and helpful for me.

The “treat it like work” mentality only allowed my creative process to blossom. I really believe that generating ideas and finding inspiration is a skill like any other trade. Creativity is a muscle you can develop. Nowadays I sit down every single morning to write or edit music. It’s second nature at this point, but it took years of self-will and rallying myself to get there.

RD: You also admitted that you felt as though your music just wasn’t that good back then. It takes a lot of courage to be able to objectively criticize your own work. At what point in your career did you feel like you had begun to master your craft?

CM: I definitely don’t feel like I’ve mastered it yet and don’t know if I ever will. I still have so much to learn and accomplish. I struggle with imposter syndrome often… but I also try to acknowledge how much I’ve grown.

Learning to be objective and ignore my ego has been super important. Accepting that hard work doesn’t always guarantee quality is a tough pill to swallow.

Something that has helped me is actively trying to forget what I was working on by listening to other stuff and distracting my mind, so that when I sit down to work on it the next day, I feel like I’m listening to it for the first time.

For me, there’s two distinct voices – the creator and the editor. It starts with experimenting freely, by exploring any idea that comes to mind, followed by rigorous refinement. Learning to control the chaos in your mind. Giving form to the formless… or something like that!

RD: What advice do you have for someone who wants to turn their hobby or passion into something tangible? Into a career?

CM: It’s crazy to even be asked this because for so long I questioned if it was even worth it to keep going.

I want to give advice to the people who don’t have a financial safety net, who feel like they are starting out “late” in their field. It’s much harder to take the leap when there’s bills to pay and it feels like everyone around you is settling down while you’re starting from scratch.

There’s no real risk if you never have to worry about making rent. You can take as much time as you want. A lot of people have easy access to professional resources and equipment while the rest of us have to save for years to get a sliver of it. That being said, I really believe that having it handed to you isn’t nearly as rewarding as feeling like you earned it.

Which leads me to my main piece of advice: start saving.

I was working at a restaurant 5-6 days a week, while doing any small music gig I could find on the side and saving all of that income. Saving that first $1,000 took so long, but it felt like such an accomplishment.

As my career gained some momentum, I was able to save more and more until I could cut down on shifts, from four a week, to two, to one, to none. This was over the course of three years or so. Having that cushion of savings gave me the courage to take the leap into freelance, it allowed me to go all in. Think of it as your “betting on yourself fund.”

Do your best with your circumstances. Maybe it’s only an hour a week at first, but you have to start somewhere. You have to be consistent. Take that first step and don’t be so hard on yourself. Find the joy in it and try your best not to compare yourself to others.

“I was just experimenting and enjoying the process of combining the things I loved.”

I never studied music theory properly, which was always a big insecurity of mine. Now I try to embrace it as a strength. My techniques are closer to that of a hip-hop producer than a classical composer. I chop and screw samples, I write by ear and instinct – my tracks are rhythm focused. I think our limitations can often be what makes us unique.

Not all of us are wunderkinds, but that doesn’t mean your output isn’t important. We need more working-class people in the arts. A janitor’s perspective and self-expression are just as valid as someone who was born into the industry or got a full ride to Juilliard.

This Steve Martin quote has always stuck with me:

“Thankfully, perseverance is a great substitute for talent.”

RD: What are you currently working on?

CM: At the moment I’m working on music for a short fashion film and lots of custom tracks for trailers. My main focus overall is on my next EP “Relief” which I hope to release later this year.