Rowan joined the Feed Me team as an operator back in 2012. Initially brought onboard to operate the house rigs over the top of the synchronised shows, Rowan was delighted to be asked to submit a design for With Teeth Version 3 upgrade, for which he specified Robe Pointes and CycFX 8s.
"The completely bespoke new set was inspired by Chris Cunningham's All is Full of Love for Bjork, so we needed fixtures that could be fed with video animation... and could also move," explains Rowan.
The show's overall visual design was originated by the artist and crafted for the stage by Netherlands based creative director Auke Kruithof of animation/VFX company Studio Rewind in collaboration with art collective Sober Industries.
The centrepiece comprised of 25 custom video panels making up the 'teeth' of the devilish, onerous grin of the Feed Me character. These were then brought to life by tailor-made animations, individually mapped to the teeth and eyes.
To light the show, Rowan sought out a small and dynamic fixture, and Robe's Pointe fitted the brief. There were limited places in the set where lights could be rigged, but with multi-functionality in the fore, "The Pointes could effectively be four lights in one and were an obvious choice," he stated.
In total 12 Pointes were specified. Six were positioned on the back truss, and six were ensconced in the set. "They gave a massive output for just twelve fixtures, and with such a compact body and light weight," he commented.
For the US section of the tour, the Pointes were supplied by VER.
They also used twenty CycFX 8s, which were pixel-mapped and run with video sources controlling the colour and intensity. "Everyone we came across on the tour was completely blown away by the CycFXs," he added
For control, light and video designs were all synched to the music with Light Sync and Video Sync - custom-made plug-ins designed for use in conjunction with Ableton's dynamic Max for Live platform.
Twenty-five lighting designs were developed in collaboration with Studio Rewind for the tour, all programmed using Ableton Live software by Mattijs Kneppers, the founder of Amsterdam based ShowSync, who developed the specific tools needed as they worked on compiling the show.
Once programmed, the look and feel for the musical numbers was pre-set, although there are options for some degree of live intervention 'over the top' from gig to gig, however this was limited. It meant that everyone in the pool of people involved - including the artist - had to be united and confident about what they wanted to see by the end of the production rehearsal.
(Jim Evans)
