the genius behind radiohead\'s live shows

As a lighting and stage designer, Andy Watson is unmatched.
10 years ago, I first witnessed his work on the radio tour \"children.
Since then, every time I see the live performance of Radiohead, I look forward to a soft but intoxicating stage performance like the music itself.
No matter who performed, Watson\'s set seemed to blend with the band\'s musical aesthetics at all levels.
His idea may be the hometown of Jean kokto\'s film, or the psychedelic movement at the age of 60 and 70 (
Soft Machine, Pink Floyd)
But Watson\'s clients have been very mainstream in his 25-year career.
He was given the opportunity to work with people like healing and Prince, but as a solo artist, especially with Radiohead, Watson did re-enter
Together with artists such as the North monkey, Vanessa Paradis, Lenny Kravitz, Crow, Oasis and Dido, the possibilities of lighting and stage design are defined.
A few weeks ago, the Chronicle published Watson\'s first monograph, \"body armor. \". .
I hope I am, \"This is a record of his work in the first decade of the 21 st century.
Like Laslo Mosan, a Hungarian constructivist painter and photographer
Najib, Watson uses technology as a bridge for new ideas and ways of thinking about lighting, video and sound.
He wrestled with the new
The sharp tooth machinery appeared in his stage tour.
When we first met, Radio Yorke, Watson, lead singer of radio head-
Who wrote the forwarding of the book--
Remember him \"all the brothers and smiling faces.
\"Just like us,\" he wrote, \"I like to master new or different technologies.
He struggles with it to make it do what he wants to do, in the process and adaptation ---
It forced you to end--
Is it his excitement or art? \"Mr.
Watson kindly gave me some time to answer some questions about his work to date.
Here are some of these conversations.
When your background in engineering is how important it is to create your stage light and video background in engineering, it has influenced my career in many different ways.
I was initially offered a job as a Vari * Lite technician, partly because of my previous lighting experience and partly because of my familiarity with the processor chips used in the system.
In those days, things were not as modular as they are today, and we had to diagnose the fault every day and fix the circuit until the component and chip level.
As a designer, I found that my engineering training was very helpful not only in understanding materials, technology, physical performance, etc.
, But simply design the system that works on the basis of reality and reality.
Understanding how light itself \"works\" and how physics affects the principles behind an object, the structure and system allows me to see a design from multiple angles and make some key changes, although the audience may not see these changes.
What was your first tour like, and with whom, my first tour was actually a band National Building Association in the UK.
I am the operator/Technician of the VL2 s system.
I \'ve only been on a vacation or holiday before that and it\'s my first company job.
It was a strange, somewhat surreal experience, and I\'m not sure if it was really ready for my next job, that was to work as a Prince * Lite unit on The Times Tour
It was my first \"band\" tour when the Prince was a great artist.
It\'s very hard work, but the rewards are huge, and I \'ve learned a lot about how small details can have a huge impact on the end result.
You have been working with Radiohead since their club day.
You and the band have a crush on each other.
Are they your most challenging clients in the early days of radiowhead? They gave me the freedom to create and develop my own ideas and style.
Before I worked as their designer, I spent a couple of years on some big world tours and returned to doing small shows with the experience I gained.
This is a very good way to put the technology I have learned into use and try the new technology.
When designing for Radiohead, I \'ve been trying to break through my own boundaries, and these days there is a general expectation that the visual elements of their show will be special.
It\'s very challenging in itself, but in a way that\'s really exciting and rewarding.
It\'s always a pleasure to work with them, they are a group of amazing people that make it easy for people to feel inspired.
I think we find each other, just as we seem to have an almost telepathic understanding on some occasions.
However, some other clients work harder due to politics or attitude.
In the past, I worked for artists and management and they made my work more difficult and there was almost no obvious reason other than they could do it.
This is a challenge.
Stay focused and creative when there is a lack of inspiration and you don\'t want to go there.
Among all the pioneers of dramatic lighting. .
Who do you like best and what do you learn from them. . . Absolutely. . .
His infinite creativity and determination are inspiring, the way he accepts new technologies (
Such as projection and low voltage lighting)
Their continued development is incredible.
As a designer, his understanding of light and his interaction with the world has always been a constant encouragement to my own development.
For me, he understood form in the purest sense, and his use of color was fascinating.
If you can go back in time to witness a live show, which one it will be and why it might be Radiohead in Glastonbury on 1997.
My memory of the Radiohead show is different from that of most people.
It is often mentioned that this is one of the greatest shows ever, but I have a nightmare on hand.
When the band stepped onto the stage, the table threw away its memory pieces;
A lot of lights don\'t work properly, it\'s a very stressful experience.
However, everyone I spoke to thought it looked great.
I think it\'s bad.
I would love to go back and watch the show from the audience, though I\'m not sure if I want to revisit that original night.
When you start to conceive a collection, if so, do you always start in the same way? What is your implementation process, like my design process, always starts listening to music over and over, until it comes up in my mind, the songs below almost become subconscious
So I can focus on the dynamics, feelings and emotions of music and lyrics.
In the meantime, I always meet with the artists themselves to discuss how they want to be perceived and to determine if they are interested in any particular aesthetics.
I think my main role is to create an environment for the live performance of the band, which is determined by the combination of physical objects (
Lighting, truss, video screen, riser, complex kit, etc)
Software components such as video content and lighting programming.
Imagine it. . .
I have been listening to music and imagining the combination of elements necessary to create a stage world.
I then proceeded to sketch and finally built the model on my computer using the 3D design package.
When I send drawings to the band/management for approval, the design is often quite complete in terms of physical structure in my mind.
Clearly, the system must be programmed, the content must be created, and the environment must be given life.
Do you always compose music on your computer or do you like to sketch on paper first. I always start with sketches on paper.
I ended up with a notebook filled with sketches and piles of paper with different designs.
The 3D modeling world in my computer is too slow for me to start anything there.
The original design can be purely a shape or texture, and only on paper can I build on it and make it physically implemented.
On paper, there are no rules or restrictions, which is a very good way to start working on new projects.
In Christopher Scoates\'s article the bright future, he mentioned the cabinet of the Doctor
Robert Wien and Jean coketo\'s surrealist film, \"the blood of the poet,\" kalari.
\"Whether the early films will affect you to find yourself back in the past, yes.
I am a huge fan of early movies and movies.
The work of Jean coketo has certainly had a significant impact, as did the early work of pioneers such as Oscar Fischer and Ryan Laey.
In particular, the Prelinger Archive is a constant source of inspiration.
When you first started your business, I thought it was moving and you were told \"don\'t forget the people sitting in cheap seats \".
\"With the change of the venue, is this motto easy to follow, modern art has always been very important to me, because everyone who performs feels like they are involved, they\'re some kind of thing.
To do this, I always try to extend the performance environment to the whole audience, not the few.
When I go to the show where the lights go straight out of the stage, I am always sad to bathe a part of the audience with light and texture, but ignore all the people who may be on the side or high.
From the location in front of the House, the shows always look spectacular, but only a small percentage of the audience is there, and those outside that area are just viewers of what some people have experienced.
I just don\'t quite understand the idea.
Let me know how you designed the first set of LED for Radiohead, the first time we used LED on Radiohead was during the thief tour in 2003.
For a while I \'ve been following up on how some companies have introduced a large number of lights with 5mm LEDs, I\'m working on new technologies and fixtures, and I met Thomas Pixelline. This was a 4-foot-
Long batteries for 18 individually controllable R/G/B batteries.
I immediately fell in love with the color, the feel of the LEDs and the possibility of internal modulation.
I have been using large LED video panels on stage, but I have had a big problem due to weight, power, etc.
I convince myself that I can effectively create a large 48 \'wide 8 \'(
Followed by 12 \')
Only 24 vertical bars of pixel units with intervals of 2 are used to display the video screen.
By programming hundreds of patterns on individual elements, I can fool the audience into filling gaps that don\'t exist.
Along the way, I was saved by Richard Bleasdale, a software developer behind Catalyst media server software, from the eternity of thousands of sets of programming.
He suggested that we could use his video server to map a single R/G/B level on screen pixels to the R/G/B DMX value on pixels.
Fortunately for me, Radiohead creatively and financially supported this completely untried approach and I succeeded.
When we finally assembled the system, it was more beautiful than I thought.
By using the software developed by Richard for tourism, we were able to create the most beautiful images on the screen, although only a small fraction of the 48\' width really existed.
It\'s an amazing moment when you look at something and want to know how you got there.
Behind your book is a graphic library.
How important this library is to your craft. The image behind the book represents only a small part of the file in my catalyst Library.
New content is created or commissioned as the project progresses, which is specific to production.
In addition, the texture layers in the video are usually created from files, which may not be recognized by anyone other than me and my longtime video content collaborators, Pip Rhodes, and special effects experts.
The files shown in the book are a combination of custom content that has only been used once;
What is used to build these texture layers is a more generic library file.
A constant library of familiar images and movie files enables me to always provide a starting point or reference for a custom work, enabling me to quickly combine files, create video content that fits perfectly with the rhythm, dynamics, and emotions of a particular clip.
As video becomes more and more part of live performance design, my library has become a very important tool in the past few years.
* All Images credited to Andi WatsonCopyright F. W. Media Inc. 2011.
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