Marshmallow Laser Feast trio Memo Akten, Robin McNicholas and Barney Steel talk about their processes, going from concepts on paper, to funded, realized ideas in the commercial arena.
Using two recent projects as case studies: the Sony Playstation Projection Mapped Virals and a Quadrotor driven, techno-ballet light show, they discuss conceptual and creative development, the technical challenges encountered along the way and their experiences of dealing with and selling ideas to various clients.
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Biographies
Memo Akten
Memo Akten is a visual artist, director, musician and engineer working at the intersection of art, technology and science. Developing and appropriating new technologies, he explores the processes of visualizing the invisible, extracting and amplifying the unseen relationships within images, space, movement, sound and time. Driven by the urge to make the seemingly impossible possible and to awaken our childlike instincts to explore and discover new forms of interaction and expression, he invents new ways of creating and performing images and sound.
His work ranges from live music/dance/theatre performances, large-scale immersive interactive installations and music videos, to online works and mobile applications.
Selected exhibitions and performances include the Victoria & Albert Museum (London), Royal Festival Hall (London), Queen Elizabeth Hall (London), Creators Project (New York, Sao Paulo, Beijing), Holon Museum (Tel Aviv), Garage Center for Contemporary Culture (Moscow), Sydney Biennale, Design Miami, Aldeburgh Music Festival, Edinburgh Film Festival, Mapping Festival (Geneva), Yota Space Festival (St. Petersburg), Glastonbury Festival and more.
Twitter: @memotv
Robin McNicholas
Robin McNicholas is one third of Marshmallow Laser Feast and co-founder of Flat-e. He has worked within the convergent digital arts for over 10 years, focusing on live performance.
As a director he has worked on a number of large-scale audiovisual spectacles for such entities as the Vimeo Festival + Awards, Rambert Dance Company, Aphex Twin, Ron Arad and The Creators Project. His commercial reel includes campaigns for Sony Playstation, Land Rover, Vodafone and Warp Records. His adventures in the Marshmallow Laser Feast universe has resulted in flying quadrotor light shows, projection-mapped kinetic staging and arena tours. He loves his job.
Twitter: @robinmcnicholas
Barney Steel
Barney Steel is a visual artist who has been working within convergent digital arts for over 12 years. He began his career as one of the D-Fuse collective and went on to found The Found Collective(FND). More recently he continues his adventures as a founding partner of Marshmallow Laser Feast.
Driven by a desire to explore ways of experiencing content, his work breaks away from traditional formats and engages with new technologies as a means of creating unique experiences.
As a director, his work spans Photography, Live Audio Visual performance, Music videos, TV and Film to large-scale shows and immersive interactive installations.
Throughout a diverse career he has directed Music videos for the likes of Depeche Mode, Pendulum and The Wombats. Traveling widely throughout Asia and Europe he has produced a body of work that has been performed and exhibited around the world in such places as the V&A (London), Onedotzero (Rotterdam), the Seoul Film Festival and British Council (throughout Asia).
His commercial clients include: Ron Arad, Depeche Mode, Warner Music, Sony, UBS, McLaren, Orange, Vodafone and more.
Twitter: @foundcollective
Twitter: @marshmallowlf