Future Clubbing with Marshmallow Laser Feast

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Picture the scene: Last Thursday night, beneath Blackfriars’ Bankside Vaults in a re-modelled underground club, the future of nightlife was unleashed on London's clubbers.

Eerie lights, LED wall projections and thumping music – only Marshmallow Laser Feast (MLF), the London-based light designers behind Lexus’s latest outdoor's installation could pull this off.

Known for their unrivalled skill and ability to manipulate light, the experience – put together with Absolut and music collective R&S Records to launch the limited-edition bottle, Absolut Electrik – did not disappoint.

Mixing the metaphysical with the physical, the directors-cum-production company used VR, audio and motion-sensitive visuals. DJs Leon Vynehall, Lone, Space Dimension Controller and Moiré filled out the Electrik rooms with their mix of electronic beats. Revellers could enter new worlds by putting on a VR headset and being transported into a five-minute-long experience that immersed individuals into the sounds of music, by using sensory graphics and reimagining beats with volcanic explosions and colourful tidal waves.

Robin McNicholas, director at Marshmallow Laser Feast spoke to shots about creating such a complex experience and why the team felt particularly drawn to the project.

How did you get involved with the event and what was the brief behind it?

Absolut and Protein simply got in touch and said, “Guys we've got a gig. It's with R&S records – do you want to get involved?”

The brief was: Imagine the future of nightlife and go crazy. We split the venue into three different rooms to represent three different experiences; the main room is ‘mass’, the blue room is ‘group’ and the silver room is ‘individual.’

What was the process behind creating the personality of each room?

‘Mass’ (below) has a 360-audio-reactive wall wrapped in LED screens that listens out to the music and reacts to the different frequencies. We made different designs to go with each of the acts, so the performers each have their own set of looks. There's a 3D-depth camera that watches the musicians and creates animations of their movements, which is then translated onto a hologram image, giving the DJs another presence. Everything is in real time and live. All the elements are dynamic, so it's a surprise what comes next.

The future of nightlife = VR rooms with 360 visuals. There's still real vodka, though: https://t.co/KOC3AF9z2F pic.twitter.com/7nUS9EdwE5

— The Creators Project (@CreatorsProject) November 20, 2015

'Group' has a kinetic, hanging sculpture that people can walk around and enjoy.

And the 'Individual' room has six VR headsets. We thought about current clubbing experiences – where you go out to hang with your friends and socialise – and thought that it could be interesting to make an individualistic experience. Hopefully, this combination triggers lots of interests and gets people talking.

When thinking about the brief, what influenced MLF?

One thing we agreed on was that collective experiences and celebrating music is something that will always be of cultural relevance. We [as a society] can’t get enough of it; everyone has always been jiving away to some sort of beat.

There was lots of open briefs for us, lots of embracing ideas and letting people run with them. The creative process needs that… and trust. The theatricality of it all works.

How important was working in a 3D space for you?

It gave us a lot more freedom. We’re kind of bored of working with regular rectangular screen visuals; we find it much more interesting to create 3D landscapes that give the impression that the environment is changing.

From a design perspective, it was a nice challenge for us and hopefully it was immersive for the visitors too.

You mentioned that for the 'Mass' room, you created different styles for each of the DJs. What was the design process like? 

We did listen to their music [to create each musician’s accompanying artwork] but there were also a lot of happy accidents. There’s always happy accidents in the creative process. We embraced these but we did also have quite a clear vision of where to take it in the first place. It’s rare that you ever get a canvas like the space in the Bankside Vaults club. What I like about the it in particular, in terms of London, is that it’s really easy to get to but not many people know about it.

It’s funny because we started our careers doing audio-visual work, but then departed from it because we lost interest. But VR and real time tech has caught up over the years and we feel there’s very interesting live experiences that can be presented. We’ve had lots of ideas that we’ve accumulated and wanted to express, so this was the perfect opportunity to exhibit these. I hope it’s a unique experience – it does feel very futuristic.

Tonight is just a one-off event. How does it benefit you to occupy it as a temporary space? 

To be honest, I wish the night could stay open all year, as so much effort and energy goes into just one night. But, there's a beauty about the uniqueness of that. I love the fact that someone's first time using VR could be at this event, and that it’s in this context.

How did you play on the different senses in each of the rooms?

There's still an unexplored territory to be had with touch, and haptic sensory tech is great [the VR experience had vibrating chairs to bring it to life]. We're very sensitive about using tech for tech's sake. We like to involve a human element in the process to enhance characteristics and remove some of the associated sterility that is packaged with technology. It can be rigid and precise, so it’s quite nice to rough it up a bit.

What's the ideal experience that people could take away from this event?

It’s very simple – we just want people to have a really good time.

The event was about unveiling the new Absolut Electrik bottle design (below). Was there any comprise to be made in order to fit with Absolut's brand or style?

No, which was a good thing. Certain brands are a good fit with us and we're absolutely (pun intended) willing to embrace ideas. It's been cruise-y.

So, what’s next for MLF?

We're very ambitious; we've got our own high standards internally, although we actually we feel like we haven’t even scratched the surface. 360 and VR are unexplored territories as nobody is really an expert… yet. In a world, that is super saturated with media, images, sounds and short-attention spans, it's quite fascinating to see a new medium emerge without experts, as this just creates an open door for lots of creativity.

For more information about the night, use the #ElectrikLondon hashtag or visit the Facebook page.