Given on 11/10/21,finished on 17/10/21. This was the first brief, although a very small one, of the Curation,Exhibitions and Events module. It was as follows:
You have been approached by Glastonbury to pitch a creative concept for a new stage area in 2021. The budget is £50k. Create spaces for social interaction and community, creativity and participation. You have 45 –60 minutes to develop ideas, you’ll need to include: 1)Title and curatorial concept 2)Visual identity (Moodboard) Your homework this week will be to develop the concept further and come up with ideas for: 1)Art installations / scenography 2)Creative uses of new technologies (from reading this week) 3)Programmed acts and performances 4)Draft budget This will be presented at next week’s class, please be creative in how you share your ideas. You may wish to built a prototype, diorama or video pitch to illustrate the concept.
Research Glastonbury in itself, I found that almost anything could be possible, they have had very diverse lineups, concepts and stage designs so the possibilities are endless.
IDEA & PROGRAMME
I decided to call it the “Wave Stage”, a place where all the musical subgenres that have “wave” included in their name are showcased (over 20). The stage would have a huge LED grid which would broadcast the live soundwave of the artist performing. Every artist must have a different soundwave design
Researching this idea, which is in itself a meme, I found such an astonishing diversity on the music that all these genres have, along with representative artists. This is a short list.
- Vaporwave: Nmesh, Vektroid, Daniel Lopatin, George Clanton.
- New wave: The Cure, New Order
- Darkwave: Veil of Light, Somos la Herencia, Stadt
- Coldwave: Filmmaker
- No wave: Moor Mother, SWANS
- Minimal Wave: Linear Movement, Near Paris
- Trillwave: DJ Smokey
- Ethereal wave: Cocteau Twins, Love Spirals Downwards
- Chillwave: (no specific artists, mostly mixes)
- Synthwave: Gunship, Perturbator, Windows 96
- Sovietwave: Kofe, Permsky Kray
This is a moodboard I made to define the fisual identity and showcase some of these genres.
All of this has something in common. They are all alternative, usually underground with a steady cult following, and usually born as a direct product of the internet, using digital aesthetics.
Since the variety is very large, there are genres like Chillwave or Ethereal wave that are more subdued and ambiental while Coldwave of Darkwave are more upbeat and danceable. This means that the genres that would not match the energy of a massive main stage could still be displayed in other community or transitional spaces.
STAGE
Following with the “wave” theme and the digital aesthetics it carries, I thought that a very fitting way of displaying this concept would be with having a massive LED grid to broadcast, with an aesthetic matching the given performance, the live soundwave (or sound spectrum) of the band playing on stage. I don’t believe this would be too ambitious given how advanced and cheap LED technology has become and the past stages that Glastombury has worked with. This was my concept:
Along with this I made a short animation illustrating how this would roughly look like, along with the second song of the first Vaporwave album ever recorded: “A2 (Eccojams Vol1) by Chuck Person”
CONCLUSION
Very fun and interesting first brief, although the final product can’t be something that great with one week of work, the idea is feasible and could be expanded upon in the future. Thank you for reading.
NAMENOTFOUND// 