As co-founder and Creative Director of Marshmallow Laser Feast & co-founder of creative collective Flat-e, Robin McNicholas has experienced working on large-scale performances and live music events for artists such as U2, Lenny Kravitz and Aphex Twin. His desire to shift the audiences’ role from passive spectators to active participants has been realised with projects such as a live performance with Professor Richard Dawkins on internet ‘meme’s using integrated digital platforms and capabilities.
A project for Saatchi & Saatchi – Feel the Reel (2014) – involved a screening made up of films by 18 new directors as part of the Cannes Lyon Film Festival of Creativity 2014. The performance generated was integral to the screening experience as the physiological changes of individuals’ emotional response was monitored and broadcast through a colour changing bracelet, so that boredom, excitement, fear, sadness were made visible to everyone participating. In this way the audience use digital and technological innovations to reflect upon the contemporary prevalence of digital culture through translating it into a live, physical participation.
Robin has been developing his own artistically-driven practice under the alias ‘Abberapippum’ and is currently working on a performance using 3D virtual reality film for the Oculus Rift, motion capture of a dancer/aerialist, a virtual set and a physical film set.