James Blake - The Colour in Anything
World Tour, 2016
As part of a continuing artistic collaboration with James Blake, United Visual Artists created the concept design for the North American and European tours supporting the launch of The Colour in Anything album.
The stage design employs the creative principle of using virtual light sources to define space architecturally and cast the stage itself in the role of a performer – a visual instrument that adds another significant element to the live experience. The stage concept plays with tensions between the real and the virtual, implicating both the artist and the audience in an absorbing hybrid experience.
Collaborating with the band to bring a unique sensory element to the tour performances, UVA composed graphic content which was programmed in real-time and choreographed alongside complex lighting sequences, using audio triggers. Alongside playing their instruments, band members ‘perform’ the visuals, forging a deep connection between what the audience sees and hears.
The track The Colour in Anything featured a new technique UVA created using a 3D ’tracking pen’ with which Quentin Blake - responsible for the album artwork - sketched out various illustrations in the studio. His gestural movements were then used to create animated content to form part of the tableaux behind the band.
The visual concept went on to form the basis of James’s subsequent festival appearances in the summer of 2016.
