With an intricate blend of sonic and visual elements, Vibrance successfully redefines the architectural lines of The City, drawing attention to often overlooked historical spaces.
The City of London is known for its unique intermingling of the old and new. Walking only a few steps beyond its limits, it’s easy to stumble across roman ruins, derelict churches and traces of pre-existence, all lodged between imposing glass skyscrapers. Guildhall Production Studio seeks to highlight this contrast further with Vibrance, a multi-media, multi space light and sound instillation festival. There are five spaces, all within the culture mile, and featuring 12 works from students at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
The first is Phase Align. A large projection is cast onto the façade of the original Guildhall building, manipulating the structure with detailed precision. This inventive cycle of work, which frequently shows the architecture quite literally crumbling down, is accompanied by soundscapes and beat-mixes, which, in sync with the visuals, create an electrifying atmosphere. In one piece entitled Luminata Vocalis, a performer in a white gown emerges from within, and meets the EDM beats with operatic vocal passages, a moment which is suitably weird, again intersplicing the classical and contemporary to great success.
A short walk later, Thresholds takes shape, a piece that illuminates the ruins of St Alphage church with an audience-controlled element. The spectator’s movements are interfaced with the tech and manipulating the sonic and visual landscapes is enjoyable and creative, giving the power to the passerby to redefine this ancient space. Far more subtle than the wall tearing Phase Align, Thresholds speaks more of memory and ghosts, about places lost and found again, and it is beautifully imagined.
The eeriness continues with Echo Chamber in Salter’s Garden, a sound-scape comprised of hidden voices which seem to come from the very ground itself. This is the spot of an ancient roman wall, and the piece alludes to the time between us and them, whispering incoherent passages, as if the past has been awoken.
Array Infinitive takes us back to technology. Donning VR headsets, the viewer is invited to explore the virtual space, assembled within St Giles church. This is fun and inventive, but the experience lasts only for a short time, before anything resembling immersion can be formed. Ambient electronica accompanies this piece, reverberating around the vaulted heights of the church in a displacing yet respectful way.
The final space is Milton Court, the home of the performing art’s school, the façade of which is transformed through projections and visual interference in a piece called Surface Shift. Like Phase Align, digital elements manipulate the contours of the building, creating new environments. The work is well produced, but perhaps too similar in tone to Phase Align.
The creativity across the festival is highly apparent. There is a real sense of looking back into history, of remembering and lamenting the past. The contrasts are very well imagined, and through the sometimes delicate, sometimes outwardly redefining of the environments, something unique and joyous has been crafted.