Today I visited Tom Beg's Masters of Arts installation at the LV21 Lightship moored at Gillingham Pier and wanted to share my experience. What an extraordinarily un-rectangular, idiosyncratic venue! Once on board the bright red ship - which looked almost surreally radiant under the fierce glare of the midday sun - I had to descend into the bowels of the boat, my curiosity piqued by the enticing blue glow from below...
What awaited me were a series of softly undulating projections comprising vibrant colour, caustic-inspired textures and LV21-centric data expressed through pulsing lines of morse code. At times it was like being in some large tropical fish tank - somehow submerged and floating amongst shoals of vivid fish. There is something inherently magical about projection mapping, the way complicated surfaces and spaces can become precision-engineered canvases for moving imagery. The photos below can't really do Tom's efforts justice, because they can't convey the sense of 'aliveness' coming off the otherwise inert objects and their surfaces.
What's clear is that Tom is now moving into some fascinating territories, not only in terms of animation and image-making, but in regard to the ways in which audiences encounter his work. A while ago now, Tom was awarded UCA's Grossman Scholarship in recognition of his creative potential - the likelihood that he would go onto design, produce and execute new work that was speculative and exploratory. Well, on evidence of Tom's successful transformation of LV21's dusty, forgotten corners into bejewelled, micro light shows, I'd suggest it was money well invested!
Congratulations Tom, and best of luck for the closing stages of your MA.
Congrats Tom! It was fascinating! so glad to have come and seen it ! :]
ReplyDeleteThanks for dropping by J.J (Michael too!)
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