Together in electric dreams
With its core business wiped out during lockdown , Lucid Creates shifted focus to work on giant art concepts including new touring AV installation Together , which has since been adapted for use at festivals including Leeds . Access meets Lucid co-founders Helen Swan and Chris Carr
The Samula venue at Glastonbury
During the height of the pandemic lockdown , ‘ pivot ’ became one of the period ’ s overused buzzwords and while there were countless examples of companies shifting focus to survive , there were few whose new work was as visually impressive as the results of Lucid Creates ’ switch to producing art installations .
The Kent-based design and fabrication studio , run by Chris Carr and Helen Swan , has built a strong reputation since its launch in 2010 , having created spectacular structures and installations that use cutting-edge visual technology to remarkable effect .
Among its many clients have been Wembley Park , Pacha , Festival Republic , Live Nation and Broadwick Live . In 2019 , it presented a new , award-winning , venue at Glastonbury called Samula , and installed the huge Valley Arena at Parklife festival .
The onset of the pandemic in early 2020 meant Lucid ’ s plans for the season ahead went up in smoke as swathes of contracts were cancelled . Rather than count their losses , the duo set about developing multifunctional sculptural structures that could be experienced outdoors in non-ticketed environments .
Swan says the move stemmed from a desire to “ create a safe and accessible way for people to connect and experience art and music in spite of the pandemic ”.
The first project to take shape in the workshop during the early days of the pandemic was a handmade , and self-funded , art piece called Exponential that was installed on Liverpool ’ s pier while the country was in full lockdown .
Not long afterwards , Lucid unveiled another piece – Futures . Described by Swan as an “ immersive audio-visual space ”, the modular light installation can take different forms , including a walkway of mirrors and lights , with the lights moving in sync with an ambient soundscape . It was used at Wembley Winterfest as a 100m-long installation .
The third and largest of the new creations from Lucid was a pavilionlike structure called Together . It consists of four huge steel pillars , from which three giant rings are suspended .
The structure is filled with video , light , sound and reflections . It was co-commissioned by Medway Council as part of their City of Culture Bid and by Culture Liverpool as the headline piece for its River of Light trial .
The giant touring AV structure presents words and audio from stories gathered from different communities , enabling the experience to be tailored to each setting . While the music plays , words from the stories are presented on video screens intertwined with visuals . It means audiences can be presented with
32