Client: Ramus / Star Entertainment Group
Aerialist: Couture Air / Julie Cameron
Interactive Artist: Reelize / Jobe Williams
Water Feature: Aquatique Show / Norbert Fischer, Thierry Sipp
Location: Sydney, NSW, Australia
Year: 2019
The challenge put forward by Ramus was three-fold: bring together numerous technical elements in a cohesive way to read as a singular artwork, create a show controller that allows tightly choreographed performances to run autonomously, and enable visitors to influence the large-scale installation in unexpected ways to surprise and delight.
The CORE system that was designed and deployed was the largest at the time. Three servers were installed that together control the 8K curved LED panel, linear video fixtures on walls and ceiling, projectors, laser, lighting rig, graphic water feature, audio, house lighting, and building management integration.
We developed an intuitive overall content canvas and layout modes that empowered content creators to easily include diverse outputs for all-encompassing pieces, and gave design direction during content commissioning to ensure capabilities of the installation were fully leveraged. We also provided technical management of the temporary Front of House position, enabling content creators to work efficiently in real-time with the various elements of the installation.
During design and commissioning, we continued to extend CORE's features to achieve more integrated show control, allowing a single system to run the entire show to timecode. Instead of needing a crew of operators we designed the system to run autonomously, a show could be triggered according to a schedule or with a single tap.
CORE Sandbox was installed along with two wide-angle tracking cameras to support a bespoke interactive artwork. We collaborated with the interactive artist to create a multi-faceted responsive experience that reacts to presence and momentum of people in the space as well as close up interaction.
After travelling to France to test the novel graphic water feature we were able to push the technology further, creating completely new effects to astound visitors. Although a new medium for us, our experience with temporal axis graphic algorithms was surprisingly applicable to the way the water feature worked.
It was a pleasure to collaborate with aerialist Julie Cameron and artistic director Bruce Ramus in realising his vision for two live performer shows, The Aqualume Grand Show and The Aqualume Lunar New Year Performance, fully integrating the content and technical elements with the aerialist's performance.
We also had the pleasure of delivering a unique activation, The GIFs of Christmas, a playful collage of ever-changing short colourful animations that filled the space.