VORTICES
Creative Direction | Projection Design / Animation | Sound Design
AN INTERACTIVE INSTALLATION ABOUT THE ETHICS OF AIR TRAVEL
Client: Spitalfields Music / Cheltenham Music Festival | Year: 2022
An interactive audiovisual installation combining animated projection, sound design and live audience participation to explore the environmental ethics of air travel.
Commissioned by Spitalfields Music and Cheltenham Music Festival, Vortices invited audiences to reflect on their own attitudes and behaviours around flying. Created as an introduction to Laura Bowler’s Distance – a transatlantic performance connecting musicians in New York and the UK in real time – the installation encouraged a personal investment in the work to follow.
Through a browser-based app, audiences responded to a series of provocations, with their collective answers incorporated into the projections in real time. The app also displayed flight information alongside its environmental impact, reimagining the familiar language of flight-tracking technology to reveal the consequences of air travel.
My role
Creative Director / Designer / Producer
Developed the creative concept with composer Laura Bowler, tying into her piece Distance
Animated visuals and created the sound design
Designed graphics shown on accompanying audience app
Collaborated with creative technologists to pilot a new browser-based app
Researched and fact-checked all flight-related information included in the installation
Operated the installation in London and Cheltenham
IMPACT
Installation ran at both Spitalfields Festival in London and Cheltenham Music Festival
Audiences interacted in real-time, introducing the themes of the live music that followed
National press coverage and reviews
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Co-commissioned by Spitalfields Festival and Cheltenham Festival
Venues: Rich Mix, London and Parabola Arts Centre, Cheltenham
Interactive app platform: Iain Simons
A/V Support: Tim Hand
PRESS & FEEDBACK
“[It] set up an engagement with the ethics of flight and its implications for the environment. In the video-led preamble, an interactive questionnaire invited the audience – via-mobiles – to make a personal investment in the work to follow, examining their consciences.”
The Guardian“The interactive opening was really effective. I enjoyed the experience a lot.”
Installation participant“It really opened up a way in for audiences, helping to contextualise what otherwise could have felt quite an abstract work. It’s been great working with you on this commission.”
Head of Programming, Cheltenham Music FestivalOTHER PROJECTS
