Nicolas Padfield
Dream Forest - illutron@Smukfest (2016)
In the fence from the festival site there is a small hole, a small cave, marked only by a glowing tree. Through the hole in the fence you can glimpse a magical experience. You crawl through the portal and stand among the beautiful beech trees - lit up, a gigantic work of light art consisting of thousands of individually computer-controlled pixels, which present a calm, pristinely beautiful light show. Oh, how slowly it dawns on you that you are standing in the middle of a real forest, which does not leave anything behind to the special effects of the movie Avatar. The light pulses slowly: a mixture of the breathing forest, the aurora borealis and the movements of the audience are outlined in living light patterns.
You walk on a path. A walk, a catharsis with experiences along the way:
Dancers swing around in the air between the trees.
Immersive performance experiences offer massages and an opportunity to float through the forest yourself.
Exclusive virtual experience, helmets that you can stick your head into give you the opportunity to see from the Book Stage beyond the audience in real time (you control a camera with your head movements).
You can hug the trees, listen to them and see the imprint of your touch in the light patterns.
You return to the festival site in a different place physically, through an equally discreet door, a different place, but indeed also a different place mentally - cleansed by the beautiful, technologically enhanced nature experience.
Mathias Vejerslev
Mathias Vejerslev
Mathias Vejerslev