BLUEDOT FESTIVAL

The festivals main stage stands next to one of the worlds largest radio telescopes, the Lovell Telescope. To mark the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, Bluedot Festival invited Bluman Associates to create a special interactive installation. Bluman Associates created reactive projection-mapped visuals onto the telescope to accompany a live Moonbounce hosted by Illuminos and Tim O’Brien. Notch Designer Kyle Reseigh shares his design story:

“We received individual briefs from various artists performing on the mainstage at Bluedot – Kraftwerk, Hotchip, Halle Orchestra and Illuminos were headlining. Each act needed visuals for the mainstage LED wall, as well as visuals which could be projected onto the Lovell telescope during their performance.

“We wanted to create a medley of designs that suited the individual style of the performing artists while fitting with the overall aesthetic of the festival.”

“The Moonbounce’ was an interactive installation in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing. This activation encouraged the audience to phone in ‘messages’ to be sent to the moon via the Dwingeloo Telescope in the Netherlands. We worked in collaboration with Tim O’Brien and Illuminos to create custom looks for the telescope.”

“We used audio reactivity to drive the animation of the projection design. Noisebox Productions managed the sound for the show and gave us access to a radio link which was the send and return. The audio input signal was a mixture of live and pre-recorded signals, all of which created a unique visual reaction which was visible on the telescope.”

“We were able to pre-visualize the end result within Notch and disguise, allowing the clients to give us instant feedback at every stage of the process. This workflow became even more valuable when we were on site. We were able to adjust content in real-time while it was being projected onto the 250ft diameter of the telescope.”

“For Hot Chip’s performance we used Volumetric Procedurals to create convincing cloudlike effects that bear a lot of visual resemblance to space nebula. Working in real-time gave us confidence that our design would look good on-site. We were prepared to customise the Procedurals to map effectively onto the telescope.”

“Notch was essential for the Moonbounce. This would have been a very long-winded process without real-time generation. We could sample live audio easily and dynamically control the effect was, allowing us the flexibility we needed onsite. We used basic geometry to create a NASA inspired look – a cross between a 90’s computer and a radar effect.”

“We used bold imagery of the Earth and Moon for Halle Orchestra’s performance. We were able to composite a Particle System straight onto the UV of the telescope’s girders to create a starfield effect very easily.”

“We had a great reaction to the Moonbounce, the audience loved the interactive element of the festival this year. I feel we created visuals that complimented the audio signals which were being bounced off the moon. When we work in Notch our designs always turn out as we imagine because we can view and update in real-time.”