Design Assembly

Two different London shows this weekend displayed how programming and audio-visual technology are finding their place as tools with which to make more artistic statements.

Last autumn, south-west London band The xx released what was undoubtedly one of the best albums of 2009, receiving numerous plaudits for their work in reviews and across the end of year polls.

They make music grounded in dubstep and American r’n'b complemented by an extraordinary talent for affecting lyrics and intimate vocals shared by male/female singing duo Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim while their live performances have, somewhat justifiably, been described as akin to a religious experience. I was lucky enough to see them support Florence & The Machine last autumn and have never seen an opening act garner so much attention and hold an audience so completely in the palm of their hand. Very impressive for a group only barely approaching their early twenties.

So it was with much excitement that I crunched my way through the ice and snow down to Poland Street at the weekend to see how renowned video director Saam Farahmand had physically reinterpreted an album that has already been taken to the hearts of a considerable number of music lovers.

Exhibiting the album in the basement of Soho record shop Phonica as a trio of monolithic audio-video installations that display the members of the group playing the album from start to finish on a continuous loop, the installation is a joint venture between the band, Farahmand and music + art specialists The Vinyl Factory who’ve produced a limited edition version of the album to mark the occasion.

Farahmand explains in the press release that accompanies the exhibit that ” these pop up rooms and spaces should and will become as commonplace as music videos, bridging the gap until we have the technology to stream a 3D experience through our home computer as if it was a Youtube clip.”

To my mind, the installation works reasonably well but only because of the band that have been selected to take part. The xx employ a sound that relies on the space between notes and words; what you don’t hear is just as important as what you do hear. Standing in the space between the three units, the beauty of the music is at once broken down into its component parts and enhanced by allowing the listener to be completely immersed in the sound. It is certainly an interesting concept but perhaps not the mind blowing experience that the music deserves. Farahmand supposedly approached a number of record companies with this concept and it’s difficult to see how an artist or act without the commanding sonic presence of The xx would benefit from such a set up.

You could argue that an event such as this feels like a halfway house between promo video and live performance without the ultimate satisfaction of either. A small thrill comes when lighting installed beneath the audio-visual units responds as a song reaches its crescendo or produces a series of deep rumbling bass notes but this is as close as one gets to being emotionally engaged outside of the sound of the music itself. The units feel like they need the context of a music video to truly engage the viewer. Whether they were to display a more in depth video narrative or be used as set pieces within a full length promo video, it’s difficult not to feel slightly underwhelmed and a sense that these audio-visual units somehow aren’t fulfilling their potential.

The Guardian ran a piece last week (4th January – Buy the music, get a lock of hair…) outlining the various lengths musicians are now going to to promote their wares with deluxe releases and special events. Lady Gaga is giving away her own hair and paper dolls, Mos Def is integrating his latest digital release into a t-shirt design and Mika is running a loyalty points scheme akin to some sickly-sweet pop version of a Homebase card.

Faramand’s venture is clearly positioned in the more high-brow category of maverick ideas for artists and their music and, while it doesn’t completely hit the mark from a creative point of view, it is a tasteful enough idea that will begin to generate a second wave of media interest for a band on the cusp of crossing over from the left field into the mainstream.

If you want to see the installation you’ll have to be quick, it’s open until 7.30pm tonight (Tuesday 12th January) below Phonica, 51 Poland Street, W1.

The V&A opened a small show at the start of December entitled Decode: Digital Design Sensations. It showcases a variety of work split across three categories; code, interactivity and network. The show starts interestingly enough as the entrance is lined with clusters of what appear to be illuminated bull rushes that blink on and off as people pass by. A series of screens and installations follow including work by Universal Everything, Karsten Schmidt, Troika’s digital zoetrope and James Frost’s acclaimed ‘House of Cards’ promo for Radiohead.

There are further nuggets of interest as you delve deeper into the exhibition space (Fabrica’s ‘Exquisite Clock’ complete with iPhone interactivity and Mehmet Akten’s fun if slightly silly ‘Body Paint’) but I would recommend a visit before Decode closes in April if only to experience a trio of the interactive exhibits in the latter part of the show.

It might say something about personal taste (I’m much more of a pencils and pens designer than one who tries to understand the maths of it all), or perhaps it’s a wider indication of the kind of programming necessary to move us on an emotional level but the three parts of Decode that I found most interesting were either rooted in nature or played up to the endless fascination we have with looking at ourselves.

There is something quite melancholic about Simon Heijdens’ ‘Tree’ piece, a projected image of a tree that sheds its leaves as people come closer to it and sways in relation to the strength of the wind outside the V&A. It cuts quite a solemn figure in its poetic shadowiness and the way the workings of a tree have been isolated so starkly makes one understand how much we take nature for granted as we all continue to abuse it on a daily basis.

Daniel Rozin’s ‘Weave Mirror’ is an ingenious creation that creates a shadowy portrait of those who walk in front of it through the combination of motion sensor technology and dozens of oscillating rings that gradiate between shades of white, black and gold. Rozin gives great insight into a blossoming relationship between traditional art and digital media; ” The ability to design an object and infuse it with behaviours and computation is one that is very appealing to me … the computation is almost like a secondary layer that can be added to any object or material to make it more expressive.”

The pick of all the ingenuity on show however is Ross Phillips’ ‘Videogrid’. The concept is simple; touch a square on the screen in front of you so the camera can record 1 second of your movements with who ever else decides to join in. The recording then takes its place in the ever-changing 5×5 grid projected in front of the smaller touch screen. For me, the genius of this piece lies in the fact that human amusement and subsequent happiness is at the heart of the complex equipment that allows us to operate the grid. There is something hypnotically fascinating about watching a 1 second film over and over, especially when it is surrounded by 24 equally silly clips. Decode showcases some fascinating and incredibly complex pieces of work but, for me, there is no better measure of the directions in which this technology is pushing than a piece of work putting smiles on faces and creating the sound of hysterical laughter.

Decode: Digital Design Sensations, until 11 April 2010 at V&A