ILLUSTRATION FOR FLAG MAGAZINE

2006
Designed by Chris Allen

ILLUSTRATION FOR SLEAZE NATION MAGAZINE

1999
Designed by Chris Allen & Andy Flywheel

ILLUSTRATION FOR STRAIGHT NO CHASER MAGAZINE

1997
Designed by Chris Allen & Andy Flywheel

ILLUSTRATION  FOR MUSIC FANZINE

1997
Designed by Chris Allen

COLLAGE FOR ECLECTIC MELT 2000

remix album artwork, 1997
Designed by Chris Allen & Andy Flywheel

In 2006 the legendary Rolling Stones used some visual samples from The Light Surgeons short film Thumbnail Express for the visuals for their global tour. All the visual content for the tour was curated by onedotzero industries.

Original film directed by Christopher Thomas Allen & Jude Greenaway

The Light Surgeons have had a long standing relationship with Cornershop since 1996, creating visuals for their live performances and Tours as well as promo videos and contributions to artwork on some of their releases.

Directed by Chris Allen & Andy Flywheel

Thumbnail Express is The Light Surgeons debut documentary short film and was commissioned by onedotzero festival in 2000. This is the first chapter of “Gilligan’s Travels”, a series of experiemntal short films based around an interview with the Venice Beach street philosopher Robert Alan Weiser and his travels across America.

This landmark project combines Super 8 and DV footage with motion graphics and has been screened as part of the onedotzero festival internationally.

Co-Directed and edited by Chris Allen and Jude Greenaway
Camera work by Chris Allen, Jude Greenaway and Andy Flywheel
Location Production by Andy Flywheel
Sound design by Scanone
Audio track “Unfair Weather” by Kinobe

Reel 9 is an audio visual mix created for Addictive TV’s Mix Masters series in 2000. The video was made from sampling and filming the various pieces of equipment and technical processes employed at the surgery, along with samples from an old archive 16mm film. Unfortunately due to sample clearance issues the piece was never aired or released.

Directed by Chris Allen, Jude Greenaway & Andy Flywheel
Audio track by Scanone

“Stealing Beauty: British Design Now” brought together a collection of British designers who were searching for a new method and meaning in design. This cross disciplinary exhibition was curated by Claire Catterall for the ICA in London in 1999, in 2000 it was toured to the Mead Gallery in Warwick.

The Light Surgeons exhibit drew its inspiration from the old secondhand analogue equipment that had become their trade mark for their visual displays in 90′s club culture. The resulting installation was a mixed media piece which combined film, slide, video, collage, print making and sculpture.

The piece used recycled old film and slide equipment, dyeline print artwork and 16mm film collages. These were fused together with an array of different projections to form an elaborate deconstruction of their processed based approach to image making; blurring the boundaries between design and art.

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Collaborating Artists: Chris Allen, Andy Flywheel, Rob Rainbow & Jude Greenaway.

Visual production began for U.N.K.L.E. with the UK and Ireland NME & Carling Premier tour in 1999. The tour featured James Lavelle and the Scratch Perverts performing a live DJ remix of the “Science Fiction” album, with a multi screen visual TLS production using video, slide and 16mm film projection. This show also contained artwork by Futura 2000 along with amazing animated contributions produced by award winning promo directors Shynola, this collective fusion of visuals went on to be used at countless other U.N.K.L.E. gig’s and DJ appearances at venues such as Fabric overr the following years.

New visual production was commission in 2002 to promote the release of the album “Never, Never Land” with a blow out two night performance at London’s ICA as part of the After Dark festival. “Never, Never Land” also contains an audio sample of Robert Alan Weiser taken from TLS’s APB performance in the opening track “Back and Forth”.

Visual Direction by Christopher Thomas Allen & Andy Flywheel
Animation by Shynola, Jude Greenaway & Kate Rogers
Documentation edited by Tim Cowie

The first live AV performance created by The Light Surgeons took place at the Lux Cinema in 1998 and was commissioned by the London Film Makers Co-Op.

The show consisted of many sampled scenes and fragments from different cult sci-fi and thriller films which together formed a Frankenstein narrative. A feeling of suspense and tension was built during the show as a time code slowly counted down to 00:00.

This use of a visual time code was also key to the syncing of the music and the visuals by giving queue points for the live musicians to start tracks at specific points. All the music was performed live by the band the Herbaliser, with additional soundscapes from Dynamic Syncopation, both artists on Coldcuts Ninja Tune label.

The show formed the opening event for the Lux Cinema in Hoxton Square and was run in collaboration with the Blue Note club next door where there was a big after show party curated by The Light Surgeons with a line up of DJ’s and audio visual artists.

Sadly both venues no longer share the address.

See flyer for details:

The Performance went on to be shown at the Rotterdam Film festival in 1999.

Visual Artists: Christopher Thomas Allen, Andy Flywheel, Andy Firman & Mark Blackburn
Musical Collaborators: The Herbaliser & Dynamic Syncopation

A cut and paste promo for the Herbaliser’s “Wall Crawling Insect Breaks” release, completed in 1998 for Ninja Tune Records.

The video shoot involved recording various 16mm film loops from our analogue archives and layering them with 35mm slide projections in camera. This material was then mixed with a studio shoot with Ollie Teeba scratching and taken through post-production on an Avid at Clear Cut Pictures.

Directed & Edited by Chris Allen & Andy Flywheel

Visuals produced for the Sneaker Pimps US tour in 1997 using 16mm film loops and slides collaged back onto video.

Produced & Directed Christopher Thomas Allen & Andy Flywheel
Edited on Avid at Clear Cut Pictures
Music: Sneaker Pimps