Within Katla

Merging projections, dance, motion-capture, sound, music, osc instruments that translate movement to modulation, and live data from sensors on Katla, this production sought to create a cohesive expression of a story.

Conceived as a single entity with each part developed in tandem it seeks to create a new benchmark for collaborative instruments and performance, merging digital and analogue systems in new ways that can be built anywhere.

A key element was to utilise the room we had - a vast warehouse, so we had a rare opportunity to use the space in creative ways. We built an effective room within a room and also placed speakers at each end of the larger space.

This allows sonic parallax meaning I could augment Leah's movements by projecting sound through the screens into the distance. We could then create an effective 'inside' and 'outside', a 'here' and a 'there' which is one of the USPs of building environments as opposed to stages.

Ed built the scripts bringing in live data from Katla. He organised the thresholds so that if a sizeable event occurs during a performance we would hear it as a tonality change. The data coming in is an oscillation, so using that to drive the panning between the two most distant speakers - the sound would then move between the two ends of the room in real time - referencing the movement of the earth and providing a real world volcanic heartbeat to the piece.

As it was a live performance both for us and the volcano - we could instantly react to it if changed its activity.

The audience for this piece walks amongst Leah and between the screens. As such my view of her could become occluded. So I asked Ed to build a way for Leah to control certain aspects of my performance, ensuring accurate realtime modulations to compensate for any loss of sight line.

As with Pulse, designing a show with three conceptual points of contact enables a cohesive experience even when one of the routes is not operating optimally.

It's a necessary contingency to make deployment and enjoyment by an audience much more robust.

The two worlds were thought of differently. The Glacier Level is mainly airy, and built around lighter elements like wind song. The Volcano Level is more viscerally material and hissy - whispers, distortion. Katla exists between myth, character and landscape.

When the levels collide they infuse each other, mass increases.

The choice of facing screens means that, while you have a choice about where you look and where you stand - because of the three points of contact, at no point are you missing key information. This hopefully avoids overwhelm and 'switching' because it was constructed as a singular structure with a coherant focus strategy.