Originally designed to celebrate the tenth anniversary of M_NUS, the Contakt shows became known the world over as a genre-defining, cutting edge spectacle, bringing together the very best of the M_NUS sound together with unparalleled visuals and lighting. Performing with a truly enormous LED screen as an integral part of the experience, the Contakt shows will go down in history as being a true breakthrough in the performance of electronic music.
Just a few short months later, it was recently announced by the M_NUS crew that Richie Hawtin will be reviving his Plastkiman moniker for a world tour. Speculation about the format and style of the series of events has been running rife on the rumour mills, so we caught up with Ali Demirel - the visual designer behind the Contakt experience who will be working on the visual side of the Plastikman shows - to get the lowdown on the past, present and future of multimedia performance.
What's the creative process like when you're initially planning the huge audio-visual interactive M_NUS shows? Is it always the case that the audio inspires the visuals, or is there some kind of feedback loop between the two?
Music is the main inspiration but I always design my visuals based on an artistic concept. This is usually developed with our conversations with Richie Hawtin. Our shows are always integrated, so the feedback is always present, and it is on a higher level at our more integrated shows like Contakt and Plastikman.
London was the only city in the world which was given two Contakt shows, albeit almost a year apart. Why did you choose to come back to London? Were you unhappy with the original SeOne show?I can't say that we were unhappy with the first London show - it was an amazing crowd and party. However, after that show we were thinking how great it would be if we had a better venue for such a performance! SeOne had some spatial limitations for this type of an event and Brixton Academy was perfect for everything we needed. Also we were looking for an opportunity to make a preview screening of our documentary
Making CONTAKT when we finished the film, and the ICA in London was a great location for this. These two combined together made London a good option for us and both the screening and the event proved that we were right!
What did you learn from the Contakt shows which will feed directly into the Plastikman shows later this year?We tried lots of new technologies in various ways: LED visualization systems, computer-generated image tools like Quartz Composer and Processing which allowed real-time manipulations and interactivity between music, audience and image. We achieved most of the things that we aimed to and also learned how to improve them. We also saw the things that were not working exactly how we wanted. For Plastikman live, we decided to work with Derivative's Touch live visual software, which allows us much more control and interactivity. Now we are ready to make a totally designed show!
http://vimeo.com/2027755 from Ali M. Demirel on Vimeo.
The Contakt shows were showcases with different artists coming into the mix over a long period of time, but the Plastikman shows have been announced as being just an hour in length - what different challenges does this present?
Contakt was mostly based on improvisation. There were 3 live acts and 3 DJ acts. Live acts were also mixed in a different way by DJs. So even though I knew what the live acts sounded like, they were mixed differently on the fly. And I didn't know most of the music that the DJs were going to play - and it was different at each Contakt show. I also added new visual materials and manipulated my existing materials through the year. But now with the Plastikman live show we are designing each visual look precisely with the corresponding track, in a very detailed way. Plastikman shows will be very condensed, intense experiences.
What was the idea behind making a documentary about the Contakt shows? Was it to demystify the process somehow, or was it precisely the opposite?Most of the people who came to a Contakt show don't realize exactly what was going on in the background. One of the aims of the documentary is to explain those technical and visionary aspects of the show. Before we started the tour, we also decided to document the off-show process of the Contakt tour without exactly knowing where it would lead us. In the end, the whole adventure built a very interesting story - with its ups and downs and different experiences in each city! So we decided to edit a documentary movie with this material, combining those two elements.
M_NUS are without doubt pushing the boundaries of stadium-sized electronic music shows, but what do you think the smaller venues can do to embrace new technology in their events?Such hi-tech designs for electronic music shows require a big budget to realize. That's why they're usually only applied at bigger events and venues. However, it is totally possible to realize such concepts in a smaller venues - probably even cooler in certain ways! Something between an art installation and a music performance. If you think that the [bigger size] shows we are doing now evolved from and were inspired by our earlier smaller scale shows, I hope that the bigger scale shows we are making now will inspire smaller clubs to think about realizing such concepts!
http://vimeo.com/2223777 from Ali M. Demirel on Vimeo.
And how about larger existing venues? Do you think that we'll see more of them incorporating visuals into their setup, or will it be a case of waiting for a new generation of clubs (like matter) with a more elaborate infrastructure?I am positive that all large scale existing venues will realize the importance of visual elements and will start to incorporate visual technologies. But if this is taken into consideration at the design process, new generation clubs might offer amazing new possibilities.
In your work with M_NUS, you've arguably redefined what it means to integrate a multi-sensory experience with live electronic music. Where do you want to push things next?Our senses are extended by means of new technologies - they are not limited to only sound and image. My aim is to explore and implement those extensions into my designs. The answer to the question "what's next?" will be answered after our experience with the Plastikman show. Because right now that's the next thing!
Are there any emerging technologies - with proven track record or otherwise - that you're looking to embrace in the near future?I would like to work with intelligent systems and augmented reality in the future.
Check out www.plastikman.comfor the latest details about the Plastikman tour. The Making Contakt
DVD is available to buy now from www.m-nus.com