As we enter an age of renewably-powered, driverless automobiles, the question arises: what do we do with the estimated 1.5 billion cars in the world today?
Imagine a not-too-distant future where a new civilisation rises from our post-industrial debris and electro-automotive super-bots have been sent to sow the seeds of a brighter, greener tomorrow.
For Vivid 2019 XYZ Dimensions created the epic Robot SPACELand which was made up of five installations in the Darling Harbour precinct. Its centrepiece was a 16m tall mechatronic unit called EcoBot whose primary purpose is to save Earth from extinction and advance a sustainable existence. After assembling itself from crushed cars, EcoBot continues its endless duties crushing and processing old vehicles to extract precious metals and form the building blocks of a new society.
Under EcoBot’s leadership is a band of sentient robots busy repurposing recycled cars and industrial junk into Tree 1.0 to generate alternative landscapes of organic beauty from the wasteland.
The rugged all-terrain TerraScorp terraforms habitable havens. This construction bot remodels compromised environments and plants nutrient-rich seedlings to nurture new life.
Truth Seeker turns its eyes to the skies, raking the galaxies for intelligence that will help preserve our planet – and us.
On Evolution Island, worker bots labour ceaselessly to convert any remaining industrial waste into lush foliage and atmosphere-replenishing rainforest flora. Help them succeed in their mission to restore the Earth.
For our second year at Babylon Festival we created a custom 10 metre tall Jaguar spirit guide DJ booth christened - The Gatekeeper.
Bow down and pray to the DJ gods at the altar of the shape-shifting Jaguar. Succumb to the beat and dance the night away as the mystical feline spirit, and gatekeeper to the unknown, takes you on a journey of transcendence and discovery. If you choose to follow, she will guide you into the underworld where the secrets of life and creation are to be found.
The extraordinary focal point pulls the eye and sets the scene for a multisensory immersive experience. The façade towers above the audience while keeping them connected to the DJs and performers through the carefully curated levels.
Modified 20 foot shipping containers were given a custom paint job and used as performance spaces to enclose the dance floor and create an immersive world.
Scaffold supports the main décor structure.
2 x 12K projectors for custom 3D projection mapping.
Standing at an impressive 19 metres tall Ragebot dominates the landscape and towers over the dance floor. Poised ready to obliterate, Ragebot has a car in its claw ready to throw into the crowd, lasers shooting from its eyes and giant space laser gun. Made from upcycled industrial waste streams this piece was commissioned as a stage for DefQon1 2018.
Babylon is an innovative music and lifestyle festival in western Victoria that features an inspired curation of local and international electronic music. For 2018 we built a “freakin’ spaceship” from up cycled industrial waste streams. Too good for a one time only appearance, this stage was re-invented as a roaming art car for another festival.
Produced by Division Agency, Days Like This, is a one day festival in Camperdown’s Victoria Park. xyz dimensions designed two stages for revellers to enjoy - Crystal Cave and Beat Box Boutique .
Photo credit: Cai Griffin
For a second year, xyz dimensions was invited to design a stage for the New Year’s Day party, Let Them Eat Cake. Held at the historic Werribee Mansion in Melbourne this blow out techno day party is produced by entertainment legends Hardware Presents and sees 12,000 music fans enter the gates.
For 2019 xyz designed Hole In The Wall - a sophisticated stage with a raw metal, back and white colour palette. Each view from the dance floor changes the perception of what you see, making the shapes and angles not what they first seem.
Produced and managed by a pack of legends, Let Them Eat Cake was a pleasure to work on! In our first year with the festival, we were engaged to do the stage, structure and lighting design for Stage 3. We worked back and forth with the audio supplier to come up with an integrated approach for Front Fill which resulted in the use of two Funktion1 AX88's. We had to turn them sideways to really tie it all together!
Nothing says 'New Year's Party' like a huge disco ball! For this New Year's Day techno party there was no other option but to build the biggest disco ball we could afford. Turns out by importing the custom CNC routered mirror polished ACP from China that size is 5.2m diameter.
For maximum daytime effect, we went with sunstrips (nice and wide) and asymmetrically placed strobes. A pair of mac 700's were placed out front to smash prismatic gobo effects at night, a couple small profiles and a nice big wash inside.
Inside we installed over 80 disco balls of various sizes. Seriously, what else would you expect to find inside a giant disco ball? Finished off with 2 Kmart lasers for a touch of movement and people were hard-pressed to know whether to party in front of or in the stage! And party they did. They stomped the grass to dust from 2pm to 8:30pm solid. The d-floor was popin'.
The stage was a hit with festival organisers, suppliers and the public at large. We were thrilled to be involved and will definately be back next year!
After the success of the metal killer-fish stage at Defqon.1 Australia, xyz dimensions was invited to do a new version of the cranky fish at the hardstyle music festival, Defqon.1 in Holland in June 2018.
The 3 day festival boasts 12 stages and more than 185,000 fans make a pilgrimage to this hardstyle mecca. Hurricane designed the stage and worked closely with the Dutch build and install team remotely and then onsite to deliver a magnificent result. Corrugated iron look, razor sharp fins and tail, and glowing red beady eyes all add to the raw edginess of this stage. A saw blade teeth gullet create a truly menacing effect. Scary, gritty and unforgettable!
We were thrilled to work with worldwide bad asses, Q-Dance, as well as a super talented local team of designers, artists, suppliers and technicians to produce Defqon.1 2017. XYZ Dimensions provided Technical and Creative Production and were responsible for curating two stages and decor for the entire site.
xyz dimensions also designed and built the White Stage, a 9m tall scrap metal monster fish that blew flames out of its head, had holographic projections in its gullet, moving sawblade teeth and a custom DQ1 disco ball that hung above the d-floor.
We provided technical production management across five of the six festival stages and the entire site. We also designed and produced eight killer art installations including a 10m sword, a 7m milk crate flying robot, a scrap metal monster fight between a Gieger alien, a battle tank, and a Cerberus, and three live graffiti alleys.
2017 was our second year producing the main stage at what is widely regarded as one of Australia's best parties and festival sites. Despite some challenging weather, a killer atmosphere prevailed created by some of Australia's leading stage builders and decor crews.
To set the vibe of the party we designed the stage as a Psychedelic Forest and played with scale, colour and perception, breaking all the rules and traditions we knew. With incredible LED wall coverage and two Barco F90 laser projectors, we had this stage fully wired for vision. We seamlessly integrated the vision and LX fixtures using all of the theatrical layers to create a cavernous band space. The custom double raked catwalk cut acutely across the stage allowed MCs to come down from the stage height of 1.1m to .5m and get super intimate with the crowd.
We further developed the idea of a theatrical balcony and created a dedicated changeover DJ position. Akin to something stumbled upon deep in the forest of fairy tales, "The Lab" took the form of an Art Nouveau Conservatory which housed an apothecary helmed by a fervent sorcerer cooking up all sorts of potions and concoctions to get the party started. This installation served as the catalyst for the narrative which drove the visual story line over the course of the weekend. We authored a vision brief based on the narrative then recruited VJ's animators and content creators to produce custom visuals for this theme. We then cued these clips on the media server so the story line unfolded over the course of the weekend.
This was produced as a collaborative effort between over a dozen contributing artists to support and realise the creative vision.
This stage exhibited asymmetry at its best. From the LED wall, decor, to structure this stage was presented as a twisting rabbit warren. We took the asymmetry to the next level with the LX plot de-pairing and placing fixtures up, down and tucked behind scenery so only the head was visible. Some big punch Mythos, Magic Panels and five Scenius Unico's provide 'big ass gobo washes' so it appeared this forest was alive and moving. Topped out with a hectic asymmetrical install of RGB LED Sunstrips in the roof (which were mapped through Resolume) and the shade lit with no less than 8 movers the LX operator was set to deliver an immersive psychedelic show!
We used both the level of the LED wall and lights to effortlessly sway the crowds focus from bands on the stage to pumpin' glitch-hop sets banged out from the lab allowing the audio techs to reset the stage and prep for the next act.
The thumping audio system from Full Throttle featured an asymmetrical delta sub array built from 9 Funktion1 F221's. At 1.7 m tall and over 4m wide we had to adjust the stage design and put in a dedicated scaff platform to accommodate this monster sub! The US corner of the offstage SL sub actually tucked under the flown Veros resulting in us decking out the bottom of the line array tower, which led to a super speedy smooth load in of the flown arrays. The delta was balanced out by a pair of 32's above which we put a platform which created a tertiary performance space. Cut to closing set of the party with Seth Troxler grooving out deep house cuts. Mean while a world champion body painter, perched among a 2m moth and a 1m snail in front of a 3m tall mushroom, paints an Avatar style dancing nymph under a dedicated UV light while a human disco ball moonwalks up and down the double raked video catwalk. This stage provided an experience that was truly psychedelic AF!
The Town, one of our favorite parties produced by the envelope-pushing Culture Jam, is Australia's leading narrative based festival.
For this stage, we realised the festival director's dream of placing a Town Hall at the center of the festival. We, of course, put our own twist on it and created a wonky Neo-Classical facade with a Bad Idea Factory inside. We then packed if full of Easter eggs including; a theatrical balcony, two integrated rear projected VJ screens, six fire effects housed in the roof, a secret door and four popup friezes which told the narrative of the festival over the course of the weekend.
Designed and built as a commission for Burning Seed, Australia’s largest Burning Man event, this temple had a tumultuous journey on its way back to the stars. Slated to be the spiritual centerpiece of a 3500 person week-long gathering the Astrolabe's fate was not to be realised in its entirety. Due to extreme flooding of the site the event was canceled. True to the self-reliant nature of Burners we banded together, utilised community resources, found a field and a threw a party!
Suddenly forklifts, boom lifts and cranes were no longer in the plan. Focusing on building community, being resourceful with what we had and producing experiential art we rented a portaloo, camped in a paddock and pulled the 11 metre center pole up with a ute.
Four days of workshops, music and 90 km/h wind gusts followed destroying nearly every structure on the site - except the Astrolabe! But by the time burn night came around we were ready to go. Weakened and pre-loaded with both solid and liquid fuels according to the burn plan we let the show commence which centered around 6 custom designed and built liquid fed flamethrowers. It was quite the sight!
An epic NYE gag for legendary jam band Phish. A 36" disco ball is flown in and opened up to reveal a capsule large enough to fit drummer, Jon Fishman, who climbs inside. Stage hands then load the disco ball into an over sized cannon which is then fired into a net above the crowd. Overcharging leads to the ball being projected through the stadium roof causing destruction and attracting a local police helicopter. The ball crashes into the band's 'maple syrup' powered ride out the front of the stadium.
Also shown is a 10 metre tall jukebox which Earth Wind & Fire performed in front of.
During Hurricane’s tenure at Showman Fabricators in New York he was tasked with creating television sets for some of America’s most viewed shows. His work included complete new sets for Good Morning America, The View, Dr Drew on the Opah Network, SEC College Football and a game show called Around the Horn for ESPN.
Hurricane also worked on News Anchor Desks for NBC Nightly News, Comcast Sportsnet, CNBC, and Aljeezera.
Come Fly Away, a musical based on the life and times of Frank Sinatra, incorporated some fun set pieces. The elaborate Art Deco stair played in a curved guided track. This meant both the drive and guide knives had to independently swivel as the set piece tracked on and off stage. The back-lit risers, installed on separate circuits and curved varying radii hand rail, were some fun challenges on this project.
Also shown is a John Lee Beatty designed show, Dividing The Estate.
This 7 metre tall replica of one of America's most coveted trophies, The Stanley Cup, was commissioned to be exhibited in Time’s Square, the heart of New York City. With integrated lighting, a display fountain and water dispensers that provided an interactive element, coupled with a tight two week lead time, this was a project I couldn't turn down. A welded steel base frame and counterweight system incorporated early in the design ensured certification for the structure by City Engineers. The lower portion was largely aluminium while the upper a mix of ply wood and 3D CNC milled foam. A urethane hard coating ensured the giant hockey trophy was waterproof and sturdy enough to survive the tour to other hosting cities.
Also shown is a Volkswagen Jetta launch that featured popstar Katy Perry as an ambassador.
