“Arcade were commissioned to make a visual accompaniment to Stravinsky’s masterpiece. The project was produced by the Groninger Forum for the Timeshift festival in Holland, to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the controversial first performance of The Rite of Spring. Our response was to construct a virtual architecture from laser beams, transforming the music into a dynamic forest of sound and light. 50 lasers were installed in the auditorium, each one connected to an individual instrument. Custom-built electronics allowed them to react the musicians’ performances; the louder the musician played, the brighter the beam. At certain times mirrors would be moved or unveiled to direct the beams to different areas of the auditorium, creating new abstract forms in space to compliment the different movements of the piece”. – Excerpt from James Aliban’s website.
[Media from James Aliban’s website]