Joanna Dudley ‘WE WILL SLAM YOU WITH OUR WINGS’ – Ferens Art Gallery, Hull

Photo by Ferens Art Gallery

Lumen Arts were happy to be invited to work alongside Adam Long of TG Events and Gavan Eckhart, having previously worked with Gavan on William Kentridge’s ‘Thick Time‘ at The Whitworth Gallery. We were asked to install Joanna Dudley’s video artwork ‘WE WILL SLAM YOU WITH OUR WINGS‘ at the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull as part of the Freedom Festival. An interview with the artist about her work is here.

Photo by Lumen
Photo by Lumen
Photo by Lumen

The piece featured 7 portrait mounted 4K screens with 4 channel audio through 4 speakers. With the video being feed from 8 synchronised Brightsign media players outputting at 4K.

Photo by Lumen

Fitting the amount of required equipment and cabling neatly behind in each screen was no mean feat!

Photo by Lumen

The end result of this install was superb, with the screens providing an exceptional quality sat in juxtaposition to the Ferens gallery’s permanent collection of paintings.

Photo by Lumen

Lumen Arts feel privileged to be continually invited to work such exciting and challenging projects such as this audio visual installation.

Installation by Gavan Eckhart, Adam Long, Stuart Bannister, Michael Bryant and Joe Osborne, August 2022.

PASS! SHOOT!! GOAL!!! – Touchstones Gallery, Rochdale

Photo by Ward & Gabie, 2022.

Lumen Arts were very happy to be invited by Touchstones Gallery in Rochdale, to install artists Neville Gabie & Alan Ward‘s new audio/visual installation PASS! SHOOT!! GOAL!!! This was our first gallery installation since the pandemic and the abrupt closing of Elizabeth Price’s A LONG MEMORY at The Whitworth, Manchester.

Photo by Ward & Gabie, 2022.

The exhibition featured a four screen, surround sound audio/visual installation showing a contemporary interpretation of an early 1930’s football song recorded by Rochdale’s iconic Gracie Fields, performed by different communities currently living and working within the Borough.

Photo by Ward & Gabie, 2022.

With its diverse soundtrack emitting from different directions within the gallery and four screens for the different song performances, it was an exciting installation to both work on and experience. It also required a bit of head scratching to distribute 8 channels of audio into a 4 speaker surround system and subwoofer, with limited and compact space for the equipment to be placed.

Brightsign media player board with audio/video distribution and subwoofer. Photo by Lumen Arts, 2022.
Opening night. Photo by Ward & Gabie, 2022.

It was very rewarding to work on an exciting gallery installation again after such a long time being unable to due to the pandemic. Particularly where the artwork was of a very high quality and very enjoyable to experience that really worked within the gallery space.

Installation by Stuart Bannister, Michael Bryant and Joe Osborne, May 2022.

Ultimate Thunder – The Tetley, Leeds

Installation in the city workshop, The Tetley, Leeds.

Ultimate Thunder‘ is a musical audio/visual installation that was installed in The Tetley, Leeds in January 2020. The installation is part of Lumen’s ongoing research and development around creative application of digital technologies for immersive re-presentation of performance work, and is funded by Arts Council England and Leeds Inspired. The project was made in collaboration with Pyramid, artist Andrew Abbott and curator Yanni Ma.

Press release for the installation below, which outlines more about the project.

‘This installation re-presents a performance by ‘Ultimate Thunder’ – a Leeds-based band featuring six artists with learning disabilities and one without – at their Pyramid Of Arts base on a light industrial estate in Holbeck. They meet fortnightly and make very loud, semi-improvised rock.

The lives of people with physical and learning disabilities tend to be structured around the provision of support staff and transport, and are sometimes restricted by this provision. This lack of flexibility can often mean that they are unable to engage in the traditional band and gigging format. Usually, any change to their regular timetable of weekly activities needs to be agreed at least two months in advance if they are to be able to get the staffing support to make it happen. On this basis, the work of Ultimate Thunder does not get the audience that it easily could, in Leeds – a city where there is still an appetite for the kind of experimental, DIY, noisy music that they make. Their performances are in fact just rehearsals, within the four walls of Pyramid’s base, on a light industrial estate in Holbeck.

Sites like Pyramid’s base have been historically created by the transformation of day-care provision in the city. As local authorities shut their many day-care centres, they used the money saved to fund organisations to provide substitute activities. While this change has allowed for a much wider range of activities to be offered, it also means that light industrial estates like the one where Pyramid are based have replaced the day care centres of old, with the same issues of ghetto-isation and relative invisibility for the artists who perform there.

This installation, produced by Lumen Arts, allows the music of Ultimate Thunder to reach a wider audience, and also invites that audience to experience the kind of spaces where that work is produced – loud, warm, exciting, welcoming, inclusive music being created behind the closed doors of cold, utilitarian, concrete, practical spaces.

The Virtual Reality experience is a 360 degree video documenting a workshop led by Alan Courtis – an Argentinian artist and musician working with arts and disability – held at Pyramid of Arts in April 2019.

The installation is part of Lumen’s ongoing research and development around creative application of digital technologies for immersive re-presentation of performance work, with funds from Arts Council England and Leeds Inspired.’

Pyramid, Holbeck, Leeds.

Eighteen months ago, Lumen & Pyramid came up with an exciting way to re-present a musical performance using audio/visual equipment. The idea was to capture a groups performance using video and audio, and recreate it on different display formats and through different methods of sound reproduction, in order to create an immersive audio/visual installation.

The group we chose to work with, ‘Ultimate Thunder’, is composed of seven members – six with learning disabilities and one member. This was great for the band as they do not get out to gig very often and so this installation would act as a type of gig for them, with their performance being re-created through audio and video.

We thought of as many interesting ways as possible to recreate the video and audio of the band. Ideas of different monitors in different configurations, large projections, projections on different sorts of surfaces, VR headsets, wireless headphones and different types of speakers were all proposed for the installation. Then we set about to capture the bands performance in the spring of 2019. We setup in Pyramid of Arts space in Leeds, where the band rehearse regularly. We arranged many of their props and art in the space, setup lighting and used five different cameras to capture the video. The audio of each instrument was recorded in multitrack to go with each video of each band member.

Over the following months we started to compile the video footage to get a sense of what we would need to do to make it work well with our different screens. We choose one song out of six recorded to work with. The audio for that song was then mixed to sound like a powerful performance, whilst retaining a strong sense of the energy of a live performance. Matthew’s vocal performance was also sent through lots of different effects to add another layer of energy and act as a centre piece to the song.

The videos were then processed and edited – video cropping and the adding of effects, whilst making sure everything was kept in synchronisation. Each video was then exported of each performer with their individual track of audio embedded.

Brightsign media players were chosen for playback and were encoded and then extensively tested in the Lumen office with their respective display and audio speaker. For the singer Matthew, his video was split into there separate parts (head, torso and legs) and played back across three 21″ JVC CRT monitors, which were stacked on top of each other. His vocals then came out of a wedge speaker monitor on the floor in front and a smaller audio monitor on top of the CRT’s played back the effected vocals. The overall impression of it was really great, especially as the centrepiece to the installation. Individual sound systems were used for each intrumentalist to create ‘point source’ audio and each with their on video display system. So, the drummer was projected on a large 10 foot screen, making him and his drum kit life-sized, with the drum sound coming from a pair of full range speakers in stereo. The bass player’s video was projected onto the front of an Ampeg 8×10 speaker cabinet, with his sound coming out of the speaker cabinet itself. The guitar player was shown on a 50″ screen mounted in portrait, with his playing coming out of a Fender guitar combo amplifier. The percussionists were projected on a wall with their sound coming from the right side of the drummer speakers. And the keyboardist was displayed on a 42″ screen in landscape orientation with his sound coming from a small RCF speaker.

Lumen then installed the equipment in the City Workshop at The Tetley in Leeds. With all the videos in perfect synchronisation and the sound levels balanced with the space, the overall effect really was like a gig, with the sound coming from different locations, rather than simply out of a stereo pair of speakers and the visual elements coming from different locations and displays. Andrew Abbott also installed virtual reality headsets, which featured a 360 degree video documenting a workshop led by Alan Courtis – an Argentinian artist and musician working with arts and disability that was held at Pyramid of Arts in April 2019.

Young man enjoying Andrew Abbott’s virtual reality workshop.

We had the sound turned up quite loud for the private view. We got some excellent feedback and the band and their friends loved it.

Private view
Video of the installation

It was a very rewarding project to work upon and gave a lot of satisfaction to all of those involved. We would like to thank Arts Council England and Leeds Inspired for their help funding the project, the band themselves for creating a hugely inspiring and energetic piece of music, and The Tetley for hosting the exhbition and providing such a suitable platform to showcase the work.

Video complilation of footage from the Ultimate Thunder installation

Ultimate Thunder are Alex Sykes on keyboards, James Heselwood on guitar, John Densley on percussion, John Greaves on bass, Matthew Watson on vocals, Stuart Illingsworth on percussion/harmonium and Scott Anderson on drums.

Installation by James Islip, Stuart Bannister, Joe Osborne, Kathryn Gray and Andrew Abbott. Video editing by James Islip, sound by Joe Osborne, VR by Andrew Abbott.

Elizabeth Price ‘A LONG MEMORY’ – The Whitworth, Manchester

Elizabeth Price: A LONG MEMORY, exhibition at the Whitworth, 2019-2020. Photography by Michael Pollard. Images courtesy of the artist and The Whitworth, The University of Manchester.

Lumen were invited by the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, to install Turner Prize winning artist Elizabeth Price’s new exhibition, A LONG MEMORY. An exhibition which includes multiple, large audio/video works across two large galleries with a large central gallery between them featuring other works by the artist.

One of the galleries features three separate, synchronised video works (The Woolworths Choir of 1979, K and At the House of Mr X) running from two synchronised Blackmagic Hyperdeck Studio Pro decks, remote controlled by a tablet for easy control of playback. Each video work has its own sound, so multichannel audio is extracted from the video feeds of the Blackmagic decks and into a Allen & Heath Qu-16 digital desk for DSP and signal distribution to the three pairs of speakers. The sound is an important factor of the works, so the two larger pieces each feature a pair of Yamaha DBR12’s. They are a much larger speaker than typically used in art installations, so coupled with a subwoofer, the sound is very immersive, playing an equally important part of the artwork as the video.

Elizabeth Price: A LONG MEMORY, exhibition at the Whitworth, 2019-2020. Photography by Michael Pollard. Images courtesy of the artist and The Whitworth, The University of Manchester.

For the video projection, four professional Pansonic DLP laser projectors were used giving excellent results as always, even though their power output was scaled down somewhat for the very dark gallery. They were flown from a large truss system, designed for the show.

Elizabeth Price: A LONG MEMORY, exhibition at the Whitworth, 2019-2020. Photography by Michael Pollard. Images courtesy of the artist and The Whitworth, The University of Manchester.

There was also a final video feed running through the entire gallery, through a wall, to a small wall mounted, digital signage screen. This screen displays a ‘countdown timer’ of when each video will start playing.

The opposite gallery also features three separate, synchronised video works (The Teachers, Felt Tip and KOHL), but is very different from the works in the other gallery. Two works each feature four separate suspended screens, making up one complete image each and one work features two screens on top of each other to create one complete image.

Elizabeth Price: A LONG MEMORY, exhibition at the Whitworth, 2019-2020. Photography by Michael Pollard. Images courtesy of the artist and The Whitworth, The University of Manchester.

Each set of four projectors (a combination of Epson’s and Vivitek’s) were mounted in portrait, on a custom made Unistrut system that was attached to the wall. One of which was high in the air. The custom made rear projection screens were suspended and weighted into position with magnets.

The third piece of work, ‘Felt Tip’, features two screens on top of each other with front projection from truss mounted Epson projectors.

Elizabeth Price: A LONG MEMORY, exhibition at the Whitworth, 2019-2020. Photography by Michael Pollard. Images courtesy of the artist and The Whitworth, The University of Manchester.

Due to the nature of the screen orientation in the three artworks, it was very tricky work to line up each projected video on each screen to a high standard, whilst at the same time not overshooting. As even a fraction of spill would show up on the other side of the dark gallery space and even on an opposite facing artwork.

The installation in this gallery was powered by thirteen, synchronised Brightsign media players, again with three separate audio feeds into a Allen & Heath Qu-16 digital desk for DSP and signal distribution to the three pairs of Genelec speakers and subs. Again one video feed was sent through the walls to a ‘countdown timer’ screen in the central gallery space.

Elizabeth Price: A LONG MEMORY, exhibition at the Whitworth, 2019-2020. Photography by Michael Pollard. Images courtesy of the artist and The Whitworth, The University of Manchester.

The sheer amount of cabling in this entire installation and concealing it very neatly was staggering. A rough guess would be around 500 metres in total. All the cabling was hidden either in trunking that was mounted under the Whitworth’s old cornice, on a truss or under the gallery shadow gap. It was no mean feat fitting 30 metre lengths of XLR cable under the small shadow gap, for then a carpet fitter to cut through one…as this writer knows…

The exhibition has already been gathering excellent reviews in the press and really is a sensory experience, complimented with the further artworks and books that give historical context within the central gallery.

It was a pleasure to work with Elizabeth Price and Rose Goddard to achieve the best result for them and we thank curator Mary Griffiths and Whitworth A/V Technician Tristan Clutterbuck for having us work on this exciting exhibition with them.

Installation by Tristan Clutterbuck, Kathryn Gray, Michael Bryant, Mark Rhodes, Stuart Bannister, Ben Gwilliam, Joe Osborne and James Islip.

William Kentridge ‘Thick Time’ – Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester

Credit: William Kentridge, in collaboration with Philip Miller, Catherine Meyburgh and Peter Gibson. The Refusal of Time, 2012. Film Still. 5-channel video projection, colour, sound, megaphones, breathing machines. 30 minutes. Courtesy William Kentridge, Marian Goodman Gallery, Goodman Gallery and Lia Rumma Gallery. Image courtesy of Whitworth Art Gallery.

Lumen were asked by the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, to install William Kentridge’s ‘Thick Time’ – a large scale, audio-visual multi-installation.

The exhibition features no less than 23 projectors, from small 4000 lumen XGA projectors through to large 7000 lumen laser projectors and multiple sound systems, from stereo through to 8 channel surround, across 5 very different installations, with bespoke attachments and custom built sets. With such a large scale installation, the planning stages began back in December 2017. Before installation commenced in August 2018, there were 3 weeks of video encoding and testing at Lumen HQ, to ensure all of the video artworks played back correctly on the respective Brightsign media players, Blackmagic Hyperdeck studio pro 2 and on the multiple different models and types of projector in the exhibition.

Credit: Photo by Lumen.

5 weeks later, after many projectors and speakers being attached walls, hundreds of metres of cables laid and lots of tweaking, the exhibition is now open and well worth a visit. Lumen were also invited to the dinner after the opening, where William Kentridge remarked on the quality of the technical work and Whitworth director, Alistair Hudson, said ‘…this show is really about the technicians!’. We are humbled.

Credit: William Kentridge, in collaboration with Philip Miller, Catherine Meyburgh and Peter Gibson The Refusal of Time, 2012. Film Still. 5-channel video projection, colour, sound, megaphones, breathing machines. 30 minutes. Courtesy William Kentridge, Marian Goodman Gallery, Goodman Gallery and Lia Rumma Gallery. Image courtesy of Whitworth Art Gallery.

Credit: William Kentridge 7 Fragments for George Méliès, Day for Night and Journey to the Moon, 2003. 9-channel video installation with sound 16 mm and 35 mm film based on live-action, video and animated drawing, transferred to video, colour. Courtesy William Kentridge, Marian Goodman Gallery, Goodman Gallery and Lia Rumma Gallery. Image courtesy of Whitworth Art Gallery.

Credit: William Kentridge 7 Fragments for George Méliès, Day for Night and Journey to the Moon, 2003. 9-channel video installation with sound 16 mm and 35 mm film based on live-action, video and animated drawing, transferred to video, colour. Courtesy William Kentridge, Marian Goodman Gallery, Goodman Gallery and Lia Rumma Gallery. Image courtesy of Whitworth Art Gallery.

Credit: William Kentridge 7 Fragments for George Méliès, Day for Night and Journey to the Moon, 2003. 9-channel video installation with sound 16 mm and 35 mm film based on live-action, video and animated drawing, transferred to video, colour. Courtesy William Kentridge, Marian Goodman Gallery, Goodman Gallery and Lia Rumma Gallery. Image courtesy of Whitworth Art Gallery.

It was a pleasure to work at the Whitworth again and Lumen feel very privileged to be involved in such an ambitious, large exhibition by a leading international artist.

“It’s been great to have you all here, the exhibition AV was in very good hands, thank you for being so committed and responsive to all the many, many changes.” Curator Poppy Bowers, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester.

Installation by James Islip, Joe Osborne, Kathryn Gray, Stuart Bannister, Ben Gwilliam and Tristan Clutterbuck.

Credit: William Kentridge O Sentimental Machine, 2015. 5-channel video installation with four megaphones, HD video, sound 9.55 minutes. Courtesy William Kentridge, Marian Goodman Gallery, Goodman Gallery and Lia Rumma Gallery. Image courtesy of Whitworth Art Gallery.

Credit: William Kentridge O Sentimental Machine, 2015. 5-channel video installation with four megaphones, HD video, sound 9.55 minutes. Courtesy William Kentridge, Marian Goodman Gallery, Goodman Gallery and Lia Rumma Gallery. Image courtesy of Whitworth Art Gallery.

Sheffield Doc/Fest – Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard’s ‘DOUBLETHINK’

In June, Lumen were commissioned by artists Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard to install their new video work, ‘DOUBLETHINK’, at the 25th Sheffield Doc/Fest. The installation was of two video pieces, titled ‘HOPE’ and ‘HATE’, that were installed inside two long shipping containers. Each container featured a rear projection with bespoke screen and 5.1 surround sound system. The tricky part of the installation was taking a empty shipping container and turning it into a suitable environment for people to experience a video installation. This involved laying carpet, blacking out the whole space with heavy duty material, installing acoustic treatment, constructing benches and building a custom sized, rear projection screen that fit exactly into the almost square dimensions of the container. The results were excellent and presented the artwork in the best possible environment.

Installation by James Islip, Stuart Bannister, Kathryn Gray and Gareth Hustwaite.

Photo by Henry Rees / Helena Dolby, Sheffield Doc/Fest.

 

Flatpack Film Festival

At the end of April, Lumen worked on Birmingham’s Flatpack Film Festival. Flatpack is an eclectic mix of film screenings, performances and assorted film contraptions. This was Lumens 9th year working on festival, if memory serves us correctly. We’ve worked with the festival while it has grown and evolved to require a diverse array of technical requirements each year – from small and large pop-up film screenings, to full live music performances with simultaneous, multiple 16mm projections. It is always a very enjoyable festival with screenings across the whole of Birmingham’s central area, in many interesting spaces.

 

Photo by Jack Spicer-Adams / Haxan with narration by Reece Shearsmith

Light Up Lancaster – ‘Dawn Chorus’ by Graham Tansley

In the autumn, Lumen worked closely with designer Graham Tansley and Niladri, to create an ambitious projection inside the Grade I listed building, Judges’ Lodgings, for Light Up Lancaster, 2017.

Amongst the kit, we used 12 projectors with 12 Brightsign media players, all networked together via Cat5, in different rooms, across 3 floors.

The project had several tricky restrictions, the building had very limited power and we weren’t allowed to touch any of the furniture in the building due to its historic nature.

It has been a rewarding process working with Graham, from advising him in initial discussions, helping provide technical support for previous less complex installations, to this showpiece! There were a lot of things that could have potentially gone wrong with a project as large and ambitious as this, but after a lot of careful preparation, the installation was a success. The final result was very impressive and well received. See the video below.

 

Steve McQueen, ‘Ashes’ – Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester

We recently worked with the Whitworth, Manchester to install Steve McQueen’s ‘Ashes’ in one of the Whitworth’s newly built gallery spaces.

The work is a 2-channel video installation presented in 4K resolution via Blackmagic Hyperdeck and Sony 4K projectors. The audio is 8-channel ‘immersive surround’ via Fohhn Audio DSP system controller.

James Islip and Mark Rhodes were A/V technicians for the project, supporting Steve McQueen’s A/V designer Sue Macdiarmid.

The installation is open until March 2018. Please see The Whitworth for details.

Image: Steve McQueen, Ashes, 2002-2015. Video still.
Courtesy the artist and Thomas Dane Gallery, London and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York, Paris and London.

Many thanks to the Whitworth, Sue Macdiarmid, Samantha Lackey, Leanne Green and the Whitworth build technicians Ben Gwilliam, Gareth Hustwaite & Richard Shields.