Insight Lighting (London)

https://insightlighting.co.uk/

Personnel:

Brendan Clarke
Emma Smith
Dave Herman
Gary Oldknow (Deepvisual)
Ben Sullivan

Insight Lighting was started in 1988 when Brendan Clarke and Dave Herman met at Camberwell School of Art.

Dave operated an after school film club and brought with him a Kodak slide projector and Super8 films, Brendan brought a huge pile of gelled up TV sets gifted by the Archaos Chainsaw Circus who had performed at Clapham common that year.

“Having a lot of TVs in various states of working, I wondered: what happens if you take the back off and see what’s inside? That’s where I discovered shadow screen.” *

This fine mesh is where the pixels are formed inside the vacuum tube of a TV set. Shadow screen proved to be a great material that creates the most distinct moiré pattern of dots and spots.

The results were exciting. Soon slides and analog projection effects were being produced with the mesh.

The effects were known as 'The Bollocks', but went on to be known as BLX effects!

Here’s the very first example:

“In September 1988 I put on an art exhibition in an abandoned factory off Acre Lane in Brixton.

There was a launch party and someone brought a friend who was a party promoter who asked if he could use the space. It was the start of Acid House, and before we knew it 500 people were emerging into the dawn with steam coming off them.”

The visual aesthetic of this event was raw, mainly using found materials: piles of TV’s showing white noise; paintings lit with exposed UV bulbs; Super 8 loops showing sci-fi and Flash Gordon; slide projectors showing mesh screen dots and spots.

Early rave culture was to become a free space and laboratory to try out new visual ideas on a receptive and appreciative audience.

In the early years Gary Oldknow (Deepvisual) and Ben Sullivan joined Brendan and Dave.

Gary soon left to production manage and develop his own visual techniques at the Fridge in Brixton as Deepvisual).

Ben left almost immediately to become a co-director of the Spot Co where he pioneered the use of Optikinetics Strobe Flowers and moving mirror lighting at large scale gigs and festivals.

Dave produced a series of pioneering shows for The Orb who gifted us the name 'The Bollocks', and, having built up an impressive stock of film projectors and huge film library, left a few years later.

A series of aspiring Light Show technicians, designers artists and musicians have worked and collaborated with Brendan over the years, and in the late 90’s his partner Emma Smith joined as a permanent member of the team bringing art world connections and experience along with her.

As architectural mapping was being invented (on the fly) Brendan would occasionally work with Gary making 7” hardware slides and operating Hardware for Xenon projectors.

A darkroom was built to produce transparencies for these building projections. A couple of hours from conception to show was the nearest thing you could get to instant visuals at the time. With a darkroom up and running we were then able to process 35mm slides in house.

Londons underground Clubbing Scene in the 90’s was happening in old warehouses and industrial units where our slide and 16mm projections would be anything up to 360 degrees. The 35mm slides, which combined lith transparencies, lighting gel, leaf skeletons, mesh screen and images, would be reproduced on the copy stand and processed in the dark room.

Carousels would be loaded and labeled: ‘dots and spots’; ‘DFM’ (dance floor mix); ‘scenics’; ‘tiny machines’ (etc). 16mm loops would be running throughout these events with edits from dancing scenes and sci fi visual effects being highly prized. Using 16mm film and slides people would often ask “how do you get it to go to the music like that?”

A connection between the Cornish party scene and the London rave scene was established at some point around this time when we were invited to light a small party on an organic farm.

We initially went purely for the adventure and some fresh air, although we were also enticed by the ambitious line up.

At first there was no agenda for the visuals or lighting, but 30 years on we still head west each summer, and the gig has evolved, developing from some simple slide animations and party lighting to mapped building projections and hardcore dark disco.

This gig, in barns on the edge of the Atlantic, has become the ultimate bus-man’s holiday, where, barring logistical restrictions, we are free to create whatever we like.

To this day we regularly use our large stock of Kodak SAV slide projectors and slide library, OHP’s,16mm projectors, solar 250’s and TV monitors.

We hold a treasure trove of Clay Paky Astroraggis and an Astrospider, we have hundreds of meters of Arcline and custom panoramic Zeiss Horizon planetarium projectors.

Occasionally we teach Liquid Light techniques and 16mm scratch film techniques, and we have devised and produced guerilla Liquid Light Shows on the Regents Canal.

In the start kit was acquired from boot fairs, Army surplus stores, Brick Lane etc. It was being begged (Archaos), hand made (mesh screens), found (pavement or skips), bought/traded (cheaply).

The approach hasn’t changed - never to throw anything away, it will come in handy one day – but we have grown with the technology and try to push, inform and keep up with the zeitgeist!