Exyzt - Southwark Lido - London

[deepvisual]

It's been a typical English summer, ie cold with torrential rain. A planned visit to Exyzt on weds by the denizens of vjlondon.org was cancelled after a washout, but the rain finally gave way on Friday and left London with a summer sunset for the first time this week.
By chance an old friend from southwark called up and invited me out for a beer so I suggested we drop by Southwark Lido to check out the "temporary installation by EXYZT and Sara Muzio providing bathing and breathing space for the residents of Southwark, the London Festival of Architecture community and the general public alike. "

Quite simply it was a wonderful event. There were saunas, beach huts, a tiny swimming pool and the Exyzt installation - a scaff tower the Borg would have been proud of that was bristling with laptops and tents and people from all over Europe who were generating audio and visuals that were beaming out onto the surrounding walls.

I was very pleased to finally meet the team from garagecube. Its easy to think of Software developers as self - interested profiteers in suits, but for niche companies like Garagecube this couldn't be further from the truth. Boris and Ilan were both resident at Southwark Lido for a week, living in tents on the upper levels of the scaffolding tower and as soon as darkness fell it was obvious they had been busy.
High contrast timelapse clips of the venue and event were comped with jerky, erratic rotating humans on both end walls of the Lido. sadly it was only really dark for a short while before the 11pm curfew came and the public were bundled out to another venue.

I was once advised by a charming old lady I met in an oxfam shop, that it is far better to be born lucky than rich. Having met a few rich folk in my time, I think i know what she meant. Anyway, Ilan must be one of the luckiest people in the business, as he works as the 'human interface' of Modul8. A job that takes him across europe meeting amazing people at the coolest gigs. In a world of easy cracks and P-P downloads its important for software developers to have good relations with their customers. Well, you couldn't meet nicer people - I tell you, if you see these guys buy them a beer. They are genuinely committed to visuals and their pioneering work is of enormous benefit to all of us ... Modul8 is quite simply amazing and looks set to get even better if half of what Ilan told me makes it into the next release. Boris managed to find a few minutes to show me some of his previous work. I hope he puts this up an youtube at some point as his recent installation made the much lauded Etienne De Crecy Live Show look a bit amateur - Boris taking the idea up a few dimensions by using 6 projectors set in different planes.

So all in all, it was a great event and I really wished I had known sooner as I would have had no trouble spending the whole week in a tent up that scaff tower with some of the most creative people in Europe.



http://southwarklido.exyzt.org/

[SteveG]

Those who live outside of London miss out so much....we'd need a second job to be able to afford visiting all the various events and shows that go on throughout the year. Pics look great on their site...really interesting and fun.

[BluesGirl]

Loved your report - I didn't go (never heard about the event) but I feel like I was there!

Blues Girl,
I London

[RayV]

Great report
well written. makes u wish u could make it !
sounds like you had fun of the best kind !

[deepvisual]

Did I write that?

seems like someone else.
how bizarre.