Geelong After Dark: Field of Beams
Subscribe
X

Subscribe to Forte Magazine

Geelong After Dark: Field of Beams

Geelong After Dark returns this year, and with it comes the interactive music and technology experience, ‘Field of Beams’.

Created by artists and business partners Glenn Schmidt and Ian Priddle (of Codeacious – a boutique software company), the duo have prepared a unique installation to reflect this year’s festival theme, ‘The Sound of Light’, which will see the city turn into a pop up night of the arts, transforming the streets, laneways and venues of Geelong’s CBD.

Fast approaching the illuminating night, Priddle says Field of Beams is where individuals enter an invisible light field of infrared beams and move their bodies to control synthesisers, fat beats, and robotic lighting in real time, in turn creating their own 80’s dance floor hits.

“For this project we are combining a range of technologies that we’ve been working with and experimenting with to produce essentially an interactive art installation,” Priddle explains.

“We’re calling it ‘Field of Beams’ and what we’re doing is combining musical technology with game development technology, theatrical lighting systems, and virtual reality hardware. You [participants] will be standing in a literal field of beams, using light sensor controllers and you will be able to interact with sound objects in the room to affect the live musical composition with lighting to match. You’re controlling the lights as well as the musical composition.

“Basically, you will be walking into a room that looks a lot like a nightclub, the music won’t be playing, but people will walk into a designated area and start building their own musical composition in 80s electronic.”

Powered by custom software written specifically for the event, the duo were inspired by their theatrical background, with Schmidt having a history in lighting design, and Priddle being a qualified audio engineer and have since been playing around with the technologies in their office. “Along with our backgrounds, the thing that really inspired us was actually the theme of the event this year being The Sound of Light. This is almost, almost, a very literal translation and interpretation of that theme,” he says.

“We’re hoping that people should be able to play the room and almost DJ the room, and gather crowds essentially – that’s the goal.”

This will be their second time participating in the annual event, which Priddle says is a unique opportunity to showcase what Geelong’s artistic community can create and share in an open space.
“It just seems really cool. We have done it before in a different way and through a different group in a previous year where we assisted with a magical theatre performance. We really just like showing off what Geelong can do, artistically, creatively, and technologically.”

With surprises around every corner, the city will be overrun with edgy art, interactive performances, spoken word, projections, illuminations, live music, sound-scapes and exhibitions. The Field of Beams installation will be located at 113-115 Little Malop Street, in Market Square.

When & Where: Geelong CBD – May 5 from 6.00pm to 10.00pm.

Program highlights and event info at geelongafterdark.com.au

Written by Talia Rinaldo