When Beast 1 rolls out of Ai Design’s Tuckahoe studio workshop where it, along with its identical twin, Beast 2, has spent the past two years being transformed from a 2015 Cadillac Escalade into a virtual Carnegie Hall on Wheels, it will be equipped with one of the world’s most sophisticated sound systems. To achieve this, Ai Design founder and CEO Matt Figliola, the artistic and engineering brains behind the groundbreaking accomplishment, set out on a journey beset with unprecedented challenges, surprises and joy.
Inspired by Yoko Ono’s iconic performance piece “Cut Piece,” which Ono premiered in 1964, “Cut Piece for Pants Suit” uses ten women actors to make its quiet but powerful statement about violence to women. As in the Ono performance, audience members are invited to singly cut a piece of the suit as the women sit wordless, their faces inexpressive and their bodies absolutely still.
The original car became unrecognizable as the wheels, doors, glass, hood, bumpers and interior, including the seats and floor, were removed and refashioned in order to install and accommodate the newly custom-engineered parts—speaker, amplification, power supply and media source. The individual components, which make up these sections were completely engineered and fabricated in-house at Ai Design, while any of the shelf gear had to be greatly modified in order to achieve the required high level of sound.
Ai’s unique in-house machinery, which includes a floor-to-ceiling 3-D printer that can replicate the singular sculptural demands of the Ai engineers and designers, a 1968 German leather splitter that can mold material in order to meet the design, fabrication and technical requirements of the re-conceived environment, four different kinds of sewing machines to accommodate the various strengths and different stitching, a myriad of metal and wood smithing machines were called into action. The creative imaginations and technical skill of Ai Design’s cutting edge team of technicians, artists, carpenters and sound experts were all put into service. The enthusiasm in the shop ran high. Everyone was eager to find new ways to meet the demanding artistic requests of the client.
A means had to be created to make his personal music collection, comprised a thousands of cd’s, accessible through the server located at his Los Angeles home. To achieve such wizardry, a complicated WiFi system with four bonded modems was installed in the cars. The music is available to both car and to the house itself.
The client also asked for access to Spotify; but given the sound resolution limitations inherent in digital compression, a special DAC system had to be installed that would convert the weaker digital music file into a more authentic and robust analog sound. To give greater warmth to the sound, the client asked for a tube-based pre-amplifier, as well as a 3-way satellite speaker system be installed in each of the car’s four side doors. The speakers and their vital passive crossovers mandated a six-month search for the exact combination. Each candidate was thoroughly tested in the car.
Like any classic work of art whose creative effort is hidden, all of the circuitry, the miles of wiring, the modems and custom-designed speakers were rendered invisible so that bespoke interior of the car betrayed none of the magical electronic skeleton that made possible the immersive, radiant sound.
BACKGROUND
Matt Figliola’s twin passions–music and cars–began in his parents’ Hartsdale basement, where, as children, he and his brother began building model airplanes and cars. At age 9, Matt decided that the sound from his newly acquired clock radio would be greatly improved with a speaker system. To achieve this, he dismantled the insides of the clock radio, went to Radio Shack for the necessary parts that he needed to install in the inside radio to make it speaker-friendly. And finally, he designed and constructed cases for the speakers out of the leftover balsa wood from one of his model airplane projects. He then painted the speaker boxes the same shade of white as his Panasonic clock radio. Thus the nine year old created his first stereo system.
Matt Figliola’s twin passions–music and cars–began in his parents’ Hartsdale basement, where, as children, he and his brother began building model airplanes and cars. At age 9, Matt decided that the sound from his newly acquired clock radio would be greatly improved with a speaker system. To achieve this, he dismantled the insides of the clock radio, went to Radio Shack for the necessary parts that he needed to install in the inside radio to make it speaker-friendly. And finally, he designed and constructed cases for the speakers out of the leftover balsa wood from one of his model airplane projects. He then painted the speaker boxes the same shade of white as his Panasonic clock radio. Thus the nine year old created his first stereo system.
His first car, a Malibu station wagon, a hand-me-down from his parents, was followed by a brand new white and grey Chevy Blazer, which he purchased with his own money earned working in a garage, right after his high school graduation in 1985. In 1992, after working at S&I Electronics, Auto Concepts and Utltrasmith, each of which contributed greatly and distinctly to his growing vision, he opened Ai Design as a small garage specializing in automotive video and audio systems and security devices. Figliola’s restless imagination, curiosity and creativity concerning cars, design, electronics, in general, and sound, in particular, led him to expand the services Ai offered until 25 years later it became a nationally recognized leader in the field in all of those areas.
Beast 1 and 2 are one of Ai Design’s many and varied projects that reimagined and transformed a car according to its owner’s most fantastical dreams. Over the course of Ai Design’s 25 year history, it has re-created the legendary classic 1932 Ford Roadster for a retired stock trader. For a die-hard Biggie Smalls fan, Ai Design turned a Lexis SUV into a visual and audio tribute to late rapper. Figiola built award-winning rally car driver Alex Roy’s BMW M5 so that it could handle the car’s increased high speed and the varied demands of the long distances Roy would drive it. These included a greater fuel range and an ultra-sophisticated communication system. Among its many current challenges, Ai is now in the process of turning music promoter’s 1970’s RV’s interior into a mobile home with a custom-designed sound system, a bespoke kitchen, living-room, sleeping space and bathroom suffused with a Zen-like atmosphere.