Pointes for SKALAR MX Immersive Art Installation

Pointes for SKALAR MX Immersive Art Installation posted: 20/12/2019

Light artist and designer Christopher Bauder and composer / music producer Kanding Ray brought their epic immersive kinetic light / sonic art piece SKALAR to Mexico City for a 5-week installation, which also featured seven live shows in Fronton Mexico, on the Plaza de la Republica, right in the heart of this massive vibrant megalopolis. Ninety Robe Pointe moving lights plus 65 x double-sided mirrors each with a perimeter ring of 180 addressable pixels and suspended on 195 x custom WHITEvoid motors were at the core of the work.

SKALAR premiered at Kraftwerk in Berlin last year. The former turbine hall of the derelict old power station provided a dramatic, charismatic, industrial cathedral-like backdrop for this powerful piece. It was a huge success, and Christopher's ambition was always to tour it to other cool places around the world.

Fronton Mexico offered similar installation and spatial parameters for the lighting, mirrors / kinetic winch system and audio set-ups, but being a black box space, it was a completely new environment in which to present the immersive SKALAR experience.

These challenges appealed to Christopher, David Letellier (Kanding Ray) and production manager Martin Kuhn who has worked with Christopher on several projects and is based in Germany and Mexico.

Whilst essentially the same show, some of the soundscape and lighting cues were reimagined for Mexico. While nothing needed radical changing, Christopher and David took the opportunity to finesse their intricate collaboration with the experience and information gained in Berlin, to work even more coherently and with additional impact.

SKALAR juxtaposes technology and imagination in an invigorating headspace engaging the mind and soul as guests lose themselves in a visual and sonic atmosphere that generates the very human reactions of profound emotion.

Based on Plutchik's wheel of emotions', audiences experience the full range of eight primary emotions - Anticipation, Anger, Disgust, Fear, Joy, Sadness, Surprise and Trust - during the live SKALAR show - with Kanding Ray playing and Christopher operating the lights. The looped version of the installation which played every day touched on the six primary emotions.

The opportunity of taking SKALAR to Mexico City was initially explored by the project's production manager Marin Kuhn - also a lighting designer and programmer in his own right.

Martin put the idea to promoter H ctor Mijangos, who is well-known on the Mexican electronic music scene, and he was extremely interested. A series of connections and happy coincidences led to the show being booked and installed into the Fronton venue.

This work was totally unique and ground-breaking in Mexico, stated Hector, and all of us involved were extremely keen to be part of something so fresh, innovative and different.

Martin and local production manager Jose Pepe Cuevas coordinated all the local suppliers which included LED Project who supplied the Robe Pointes with support from Robe's International team - having supported the original installation in Berlin as a technical partner - together with Robe's Mexican distributor, Showco.

LED Project has one of the largest stocks of Robe moving lights in Mexico and owner Sergio Serrano has been instrumental in establishing the brand in the country. He commented, I am very honoured to have been part of SKALAR Mexico, it's been fantastic to work on something of this scale with a fantastic international team and to see spectacular results.

Martin and local production manager Jose Pepe Cuevas coordinated all the local suppliers which included LED Project who supplied the Robe Pointes with support from Robe's International team - having supported the original installation in Berlin as a technical partner - together with Robe's Mexican distributor, Showco.

LED Project has one of the largest stocks of Robe moving lights in Mexico and owner Sergio Serrano has been instrumental in establishing the brand in the country. He commented, I am very honoured to have been part of SKALAR Mexico, it's been fantastic to work on something of this scale with a fantastic international team and to see spectacular results.

SKALAR optically is all about the relationship between the real beams coming from the fixtures onto the mirror and the virtual secondary' beams being created and bounced between the mirrors and the various endpoints around the room.

The different resonance, tonality, texture and quality of the light beams and the viewing angles and proximities affect perception and therefore everyone's reactions and resulting sensory experiences.

Each mirror was controlled by three winches giving 7 metres of up / down movement plus pan / tilt, so they can move incredibly smoothly on XY and Z axes making their kinesis three-dimensional and fluid. The mirror movement is controlled via Art-Net by KINETIC LIGHTS' proprietary KLC software platform and the whole system is networked.

When it came to selecting a light source for the original installation in Berlin, Christopher wanted something bright, precise and intense in output.

He also wanted a dynamic fixture with many options to modify the beam, plus something small and accurate in terms of cue repeatability across distances. The frost and the strobing function with its adjustable frame rate are also present in SKALAR, and in fact, several Pointe functions are utilized across the looped SKALAR show and during the live concerts.

The Pointe beams pierced the darkness beautifully, paired with the mirrors gracefully gliding into different formations, occasionally jolted by a searing white-out and backed by Kanding Ray's mesmeric, rhythmic soundtrack that has a compelling calming effect.

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