We are kicking off our touring live av shows in 2012 with a performance of our new live cinema project Super Everything* at the Unbox Festival in New Delhi, India. Completed in September last year through a commission from the British Council, this project explores the theme’s of identity, ritual and place across a Malaysian landscape.
The performance is on the 2nd of February at the British Council, British High Commission, more info can be found here. We are also giving a talk as part of the festival on the 4th and then going on to present our other live av show LDN-REDUX at venues in Mumbia and Bangalore on the 11th & 12th.. more info on these additional shows to follow..
New compilation of our Chase & Status visuals to round up whats been a very busy year!! moved studio, done shows in Brazil, Malaysia and Indonesia.. looking forward to more adventures in 2012! enjoy.
We are very proud to announce that our short film Schlimazetov!, directed by Light Surgeon Christopher Thomas Allen, has won the Coexist Film Award at The third Insight Film Festival in Manchester last week. The Coexist Award is offered to any film entered into the Festival which best meets the brief of ‘uniting belief’ and is generously supported by The Coexist Foundation, which is an interfaith organisation working to promote, encourage and support engagement between Muslims, Jews and Christians.
The film, which explores the concept of luck, or “Mazel” through a collection of voices from London’s Jewish community, was up against stiff international competition in this festival of film’s about faith, winning the award from a prestigious line of judges including Gary Kurtz the producer of Star Wars and Amanda Rice, head of diversity at the BBC. Mazel indeed! You can watch it there.
SuperEverything* is a new live cinema performance project by The Light Surgeons which explores the relationship between identity, ritual and place through a unique collaborative performing arts project commissioned by the British Council Malaysia and with the support of Canon Malaysia.
The project explores these universal themes using a combination of observational documentary footage, motion graphics, creative programming and original music production to create a poetic audio visual tapestry that forms a rich, kaleidoscopic view of the cultural landscape of Malaysia. The project was filmed on location across Peninsular Malaysia and brings together a collection of Malaysia’s cutting-edge musical and visual artists. Through this process of cultural and artistic cross-collaboration, The Light Surgeons have evolved the project into a new exploded documentary cinema performance in line with their previous works in this arena.
SuperEverything* challenges us to contemplate our shared human story and to ask the timeless question of who we are as individuals and as a society. Through the juxtaposition of tradition and modernity, the project seeks to uncover who we are as human beings and how our complex identities are connected to our every day environments through a multitude of different rituals. It is a journey through Malaysia’s past to understand its present and to reveal a shared social history that looks to our future.
Leading Artists: Christopher Thomas Allen & Tim Cowie
Camera: Christopher Thomas Allen, Tim Cowie, Fauzi Yusoff & Fariz Hanapiah
Editing & Post-Production: Christopher Thomas Allen, Tim Cowie, Fauzi Yusoff, Fariz Hanapiah, Jai Rafferty & Helen Omand
Production Assistants: Jake Dowling & Simon Bertheux
Research Assistant: Annie Kwan
Music Direction: Tim Cowie
Collaborating Composers: Tim Cowie, Chor Guan Ng & Eu Seng Seto a.k.a DJ Flica
Musical Contributors: Hands Percussion & Rhythm in Bronze
Sound Engineering: Shugar Studios
Music Producer: Hardesh Singh
Malaysian Producers: Joanna Lee, Adshrie Yap & Didi Ramlan
UK Project Manager: Alice Ceresole
Online Content Manager: Matt Armitage
Publicity & Marketing Officer: Tan Ee Lyn
We would also like to thank the following people for their help and support during the project:
Southern Edible Oil Industries (M) Sdn Bhd, Southern Group of Companies, Northport (Malaysia) Bhd, Asia Post Press Sdn Bhd, Hospice Malaysia, PUSAKA – Centre for the Study and Documentation of Traditional Performance in Malaysia, ASWARA – Akademi Seni Budaya & Warisan Kebangsaan , Datin Marion D’Cruz, Joseph Gonzales, Tok Dalang Pak Nasir Yusoff, Kamrul Hussin, Colin Nicholas, Phua Sze Ning, Mike Tee, Reita Rahim, Pn. Maznah Unyan & the Pulau Indah Mah Meri community, Adrian Yeo, Yin Shao Loong, the Tan family, the Lee family, residents of the Sri Sabah flats in Cheras, Thean Hou Temple Petaling Jaya, Batu Caves, (location details of: Tapah orang asli village, Kelantan, Kota Bahru, Muay Thai, Kuala Terengganu, Songket Factory, Keropok Lekor, Eddin Khoo, Khairun Niza Zabidi & Maximilian Conrad, Bernice Chauly, Yap Sau Bin, Lim Kok Yoong, Norhadizah binti Azhar (Fifi), Muhamad Kamalrul bin Azman & his lovely bride, Nur Azah binti Idris and family, Emy Falizal, Ms. Farah of Beautrim Salon, Mr. Amirul of HotHotCut, Mr. Lim, Mr. Pallany & Tuan Haji Zahar of Southern Edible Oil Plantation & Factory, Leow Puay Tin and the Department of Performance & Media Sunway University, Reezal Esa, Harjit Chaal, Syarief Nurlette, Robert Yap, Theresa Tan, Ku Chon Tian, Mathan Kumar Balakrishnan & colleagues at the British Council Kuala Lumpur, Reuben Samuel & Azran Zakry of Mile High Sounds, Sharyn Shufiyan, Rathimalar Govindarajoo, Sivarajah Natarajan & the Sutra Dance family, Jerome Kugan, Pang Khee Teik, Lim Chung Wei, Poon Kai Loon, Khor Seng Chew, Yeoh Heng Lian and Meng of the Pudu Community Art Project, Fahmi Reza, Yante Ismail, Ili Farhana, Hasbeemasputra Abu Bakar, Fairuz and Suzy Sulaiman, Fahmi Fadzil & BLAM, Eugene Low & BombShelter Studios, Raymond Yong a.k.a Yellow Monster.
Our greatest gratitude to goes to Joel Mills, Emily Sloan-Wilcox, Grey Yeoh and Sunitha Janamohanan at the British Council…
Without them, there would be no SuperEverything.
“Voyagers” is a permanent audio video installation by The Light Surgeons for the National Maritime Museum’s new Sammy Ofer Wing. The Voyagers Gallery acts as an introduction to the extraordinary depth and range of the Museum’s collections and is dominated by a 20 metre wave-like structure that stretches the full length of the room. Designed by exhibition designers Real Studio, this 3D wave is made up of 26 triangular facets and features a Pufferfish spherical projector at one end.
Using the triangular shape as a design template The Light Surgeons researched and meta tagged over 300 images and films from the Museum’s vast archives and translated them into a series of thematic visual journeys that unfold down the wave. As these designs cascade down the room, the globe projection displays thematic key words relating to each asset in the journey onto a digital navigational device inspired by the museums collection of armillary spheres.
You need flash.
For this technically complex project The Light Surgeons collaborated with media artist James George from New York studio Flightphase to translate their concepts into code based design. The resulting bespoke software was built using open source coding platform openFrameworks and lead to many new ground breaking developments; allowing the design of the installation to be explored in a simulated environment before the gallery was built and then to seamlessly video map the complex geometry of the wave structure upon its arrival. This collaboration also lead to many exciting developments in the creative process including the creation of a totally generative sea of typography and its interaction with the movement of the spherical Puffersphere design.
The resulting experience is a truly immersive one that takes its audience on a audio visual journey through a multitude of different themes explored by the museums collections.
‘Voyagers’ is a commission by National Maritime Museum
Creative Direction: Christopher Thomas Allen
Producer: Alice Ceresole
Design & Animation: Tim Cowie & Dave Baum
Editing: Tim Cowie & Helen Omand
Sound design: Jude Greenaway
Bespoke Software Design & Generative Animation: Flightphase
Technical Direction & Lead Software Development: James George
Software Development: Timothy Gfrerer
A detailed case study on the design and development of the software for this project can be found here.
We’ve just completed a new piece of video production for the exterior of Wembley Arena utilising their huge LED screen. Working with creative duo Greenaway & Greenaway, we transformed this impressive facade into a stunning piece of visual music based on a track by classic British rock group The Electric Light Orchestra.
This project was commissioned by Heart Productions for Barclay Card‘s Unwind Experience. Full documentation coming soon..
The Light Surgeons where very proud to present their latest live cinema performance Super Everything in the Black Box theatre at MAP KL for the KL Design Week in September. This ambitions audio visual project was almost a year in the making and is a new performing arts commission by the British Council Malaysia with some generous support in the way of equipment from Canon Malayisa.
The resulting live cinema performance transported its audience on four separate nights across the Malaysian landscape to explore the relationship between identity, ritual and place. A collection of pic’s from these performances can be found on our Flickr steam here.
Broadcast title sequence for prime time UK TV show “How Hip Hop Changed The World” presented by Idris Elba.
Commissioned by Jamie Oliver’s Fresh One Productions and broadcast on Channel4 in 2011.
Directed by Christopher Thomas Allen
Produced By Alice Ceresole
Illustration By Mitchybwoy
Animation by Tom Wall @ BlinkinLab
