It’s now Wednesday morning, and Waves is in situ in Southend. It was a pretty smooth setup, aided by the unexpectedly clement weather and our fantastic production technician. Running from about 6pm to 11pm each evening, the installation is attracting exactly the diverse and inquisitive crowd that we – and the commissioning body DanceDigital – were hoping for. On Monday night, when we were there to see the launch, we heard a great reaction from the passers-by who found their normal walk home interrupted by this dramatic intervention: kids wanting to know how it worked, and why Southend was getting something like this in the first place; office workers experimenting with throwing shapes in the street on their way home; cyclists bemused and intruiged by the trails they left as they pedalled past. We also saw a lot of texting, twittering and mobile phone cameras in action, so we’ll see how the word-of-mouth news on which a piece such as this relies kicks off over the next day or two.

We’ve put together a minute or so of video from the first night, which can be seen on the Waves page or in full HD glory on our Vimeo page.

T-20 hours.

It’s Thursday morning, and the calm before the storm. Waves, out latest kinetic light installation, opens in Southend, Essex on Monday night, and given all the rigmarole of putting on one of these events, today marks the last full day that I’ll have to tweak the software. It’s another piece written entirely in Max/MSP/Jitter, and an opportunity to put some of the development work that’s been going on behind the scenes into practice. Specifically, looking back at ‘Flock’ and ‘The Hive’, I’ve come to the conclusion that the most engaging types of projected environment are those where there is a more fluid interaction between bodies in the space, and the imagery they create. If the light just responds to you in the same way, whatever you do, it quickly becomes predictable: if you can introduce virtual physical environments that the lights appear to inhabit, you can open up a whole new level of discovery and engagement for the participants.

In the past, I’ve used newtonian physics, some elements of magentic behaviour, and very basic fluid dynamics to create models for these environments, but on a large scale, the processing required to run these simluations at a good resolution becomes pretty intense. Fortunately, for the brave, Jitter allows you to use the power of the graphics card to take the strain off the computer’s main processor. Graphics cards and their GPUs, pushed forward in development by the demands of the gaming and scientific industries, have leaped ahead of CPUs in terms of speed when dealing with large blocks of data. In ‘Waves’, I’ve begun to harness this power to create much more detailed simulations, and, I hope, more engaging environments for the participants. The proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the projection onto 100 sq. m of pavement in Southend. We’ll see what happens…

We’re just finishing a week of rehearsals with Tom Sapsford for his new dance theatre work. In between exploring the local Bath and Bristol ales and Tom’s fine home cooking, we’ve nearly completed work on the projections. The piece is a portrait of Elizabeth I: in Tom’s own words:

‘Fusing dance, drama and video, Regina explores the many faces of Elizabeth I. Powerful woman ruling in a man’s world, an ageing queen famed for striking looks, a monarch dying without an heir to continue her legacy, Regina examines the tensions inherent in Elizabeth as both an individual and icon.’

Regina will be premiering in three weeks’ time: more details, including tour dates, can be found on the Regina Facebook group here.

Whilst we sort through some of the footage we took from the performances of Flock in Liverpool on the 10th and 11th July, we’ve thrown together some of the raw footage to give a sense of the event. Watch in glorious HD here

This Friday and Saturday (11th and 12th July) Flock (our ‘virtual’ Swan Lake) is in Liverpool as part of Big Dance/ Liverpool City of Culture. It’s on between 10 and 11pm each night in Williamson Square. If you’re going/were there, we’d love to hear from you. There’s a Facebook Group for that very purpose here.

After an Antipodean excursion, the new work by Lloyd Newson and DV8, “To Be Straight With You” has begun touring in the UK. KMA worked closely with Newson on the piece, producing all the projections that accompany, enclose, reveal and augment the action on stage.

“Newson and his designers have beautiful surprises up their sleeves” – The Times
“Don’t ask how it works – it just does” – StageNoise
“Staged with vivid imagination, daring and technological skill” – The Australian

You can see the work as it tours during 2008 – forthcoming UK dates include:

Salford, Lowry: 27th – 28th June
London, National Theatre: 30th October – 9th November

Due to popular demand, we’ve now put some short videos of some of our installation work online. Although all are in High Definition, please bear in mind that all of these pieces took place after dark and accept our apologies for any eye strain caused by their viewing. Follow www.vimeo.com/kma/videos to take a look.

KMA’s installation Flock has recently appeared in the following publications;

Bright: Architectural Illumination and Light Installations (Hardcover), Frame Publishers, Claire Lowther (Editor), Sarah Schultz (Editor), How Soon Is Now: 60 Years of the Institute of Contemporary Arts (Paperback) by Ekow Eshun (Editor), Pamela Jahn (Editor), and (!!!) Dorling Kindersley’s, The Gadget Book: How Really Cool Stuff Works (Hardcover) by Chris Woodford (Author), Jon Woodcock (Author)

Our latest public installation, The Hive, opened on Friday night in Dublin’s Grand Canal Square. The piece is one of our most site-specific works, picking up on the science-fiction theme established by the angular architecture and bold Spiers & Major permanent light installation. Commissioned by the newly opened Science Gallery at Trinity College, which opened its doors to the public this week, and supported by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority, The Hive will be encouraging passers by to brave the cold and the gales every night from dusk until 10pm until the 9th February. There are a few photos on our Flickr page – more to follow imminently…