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Volume: an audio visual experience Reported by Adam Symbiosis / Submitted 17-01-07 23:31 It’s an oft discussed topic here. Diversification. Is this just a music website? Should we only discuss topics of a musical nature? Should we be exposed only to items musically inclined? It’s with these thoughts in mind I considered making a review of Volume for you. It’s not a party, or a single, or even a flyer, but should you still go and see it? Officially only art, hidden away at the Victoria & Albert museum in London’s South Kensington, Volume is the creation of Robert Del Naja aka 3D from Massive Attack, his long time co-writer Neil Davidge and design collective United Visual Artists. You’d be hard pressed to find someone who would argue against the importance and impact of Massive Attack to dance music but again I find myself moving back to that word, diversification, as this is not a song but an experience. The blurb on the V&A website states, “Volume responds spectacularly to human movement, creating a series of audio-visual experiences. Step inside and see your actions at play with the energy fields throughout the space, triggering a brilliant display of light and sound.” So would this prove a highlight for Del Naja? As we walked through the high brow confines of the V&A, little visited compared to its cousins the Natural History and Science museums just down the road, we passed casts of classical vases and busts and great arches, until we emerged into the sheltered courtyard in the centre of the building known as the John Madejski Garden. Occupying the centre and surrounded by a small group of people stood a collection of columns set out in rows of 7, 6, 7, 6, 7, 6 and 7. Each column stood around 2 and a half metres high, with hundreds of LEDs covering the front facing surface. Speakers atop the columns completed the scene, while around the courtyard high on the surrounding building spotlights strategically placed added to the colours of the scene. And what a scene. The area was bathed in a myriad of colours, an otherworldly glow with each column producing its own noise, seemingly random yet beautifully in time. A sequence of colours and lines ran up and down across each column like futuristic lava lamps, while people walked in and around and about the installation, all the time tracked, I assume, by cameras on the building or by floor sensors so as somebody walked past a column it sprung to life adding to the clamour of noise and lights. My expectations of the interactivity were dented though. If I stood still the column would turn off, if I moved it would turn on. Simple — but maybe it could have been much more, perhaps reacting to more subtle movements, like having the lights follow a wave of the hand, for example. Every now and again the columns would stop and fall silent, leaving the courtyard dark and quiet before something extra and unusual began. The first time each column became like a flash bulb, impersonating or imitating the cameras that surrounded the piece, as if turning the watcher into the watched, photographing our every move and look of wonder before they returned to their random symphony of bells and chords. The next time they acted in unison, flickering, flashing and pulsating like a heartbeat. Only as you stepped back and listened to the static playing from the speakers you realised it was like a large scale untuned TV, picking up static or the buzz of the background radiation from the big bang. Then again, lines the length of the columns moved across from right to left as if we were looking out of a window from a fast moving vehicle, the landscape rushing past accompanied by sounds reminiscent of dragonflies or just simply air rushing past. Another time, each column radiated a white, bright light, while a chorus sang in unison, as in a church, suggesting a religious experience, the ephemeral nature of an near death experience. In the imposing ancient classic surrounds of the V&A courtyard, Volume finds itself an advanced technological masterpiece juxtaposed. Like an enchanted electronic forest of whispers, chimes and light best experienced at night, each computerised tree beckons you to weave your way though their branches of light. While as I’ve said it’s not strictly anything to do with dance music or clubbing and I was left slightly disappointed with its lack of direct interactivity compared with other digital artworks I’ve seen, its links with Massive Attack, underlying beauty, intrigue and wonder mean that anyone with slightly more enlightened interests than just getting wasted should by all means go to see this even, if it’s just to enjoy the light show. Volume is on now and continues till the 28th of January 2007. Late night showings are held on Fridays. Adam Symbiosis Share this :: : : : Follow HarderFaster :: Other Features By Adam Symbiosis: Godskitchen Xmas Party: Reviewed The Big Chill: Reviewed Tiësto at Victoria Park: Reviewed Lilly Allen: Reviewed Digital Society May 2009: Reviewed The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable. Comments: From: Winter phoenix on 18th Jan 2007 12:55.18 From: ravechick on 18th Jan 2007 13:10.52 another interesting read Adam x From: Cerberus on 18th Jan 2007 17:39.01 good stuff old boy......I see lights, lots of them, flashing at me, blink blink blink......

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