CLEAN BANDIT AT THE LONDON PALLADIUM

For Clean Bandit's BRITs Week performance in support of War Child, STUDIO/ crafted a gloriously disorienting live show fusing desktop computer UI aesthetics, train journeys, and viruses.

The creative team centred the design around a forced-perspective projection of a curved train that created a striking illusion of depth that, along with the rest of the set, blended multiple textures and disciplines, incorporating projections, LED, and multi-level platforms to create a surreal and oblique environment that pushed the limits of immersive broadcast. As Clean Bandit’s Grace Chatto describes, “It was the most extreme setup we’ve ever done.”

Having worked with Clean Bandit for years, the STUDIO/ team were well aware of the band’s connection to trains. Using vast landscapes as their starting point, they dove right into setting things askew. As Video Designer Alex Vipond explains, “Our vision was this kind of messed up train ride, where nature and landscapes merge and the whole thing is swallowed by a digital virus. As the virus creeps in, the landscapes are corrupted by glitching visuals that disrupt the train’s motion. We wanted it to feel like the world breaking apart, eventually beyond recognition.”

The studio took inspiration from West End theatre, with the added feeling of an intimate, late-night talk show acting as a foil easily achieved with the BRITs camera setups. The creative team made extensive use of Notch 1.0’s Cloners, which allowed them to clone multiple camera feeds and wrap them within the UI aesthetics. They also used Notch to manipulate 2D elements in a 3D space, playing with different surfaces and integrating different cameras with a variety of textures.