These interactive portraits were commissioned by Microsoft and directed by Carlo Van de Roer.

Microsoft commissioned Carlo Van de Roer and Satellite Lab to use new filmmaking technology to capture four musicians in a moment of creating sound. The artist portraits capture forward-thinking artists—Matthew Dear, Alan Palomo of Neon Indian, and Josh Carter and Sarah Barthel of Phantogram—who push the boundaries of the live music experience with technology.

The resulting images are interactive frozen moments in which the viewer can explore these frozen past moments through moving light.

TECHNOLOGY

An 80 ft arc of DynamicLight was installed in a large studio in NY, under which these frozen moments were captured with light sources moving many times the speed of sound.

This footage was then turned into interactive content in which the viewer could control the position of the light sources, both online and in an exhibition installation.

EXHIBITION

These portraits were installed in a physical exhibition in Seattle. Viewers of the work were tracked within the exhibition space using Microsoft technology, so that their position could affect the position of the light source within the image.

In this way a viewer’s point of view in front of the work changed this past moment. Our goal going into this project was to use technology as a conduit between artist and audience and this exhibition was a wonderful place to have ended up.