Slope

Experimental lighting design for an intimate reimagining of Pamela Carter’s ‘Slope’, produced in collaboration with the writer and director Stewart Laing, and developed as part of Brookes’ long-term collaboration with Laing and his Glasgow-based company Untitled projects. The work was presented in the round for an intimate and closeup audience – and structured to be framed, captured and broadcast by a collection of live cameras, visibly positioned and engaged within performance. The work was performed in, and streamed from, the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow, in November 2014.The design created an active lighting environment, defined by the output of three purpose-built dimmable LED light boxes – each providing a visible source of diffused yet direction light of a distinct colour temperature. These light boxes were designed and positioned to provide the required light qualities and structures for the resulting camera streams, across the play’s progressive scenes, while also structuring and animating the intimate performance space for the event’s live audience.The project’s original research questions included:How might the subtle and diffused light qualities required by close up and low light film camera work be credibly provided within a live stage performance?How might a structure of fixed light sources, each providing one of the required light angles and colour temperatures, be conceived to appropriately allow both the filming and live performance of the work?How might the physical design and placement of such sources be used to provide the progression of ambient light qualities required by the camera, while also providing an active stage environment appropriate for the work’s live performance