Text by CLOT Magazine
Resolution is a South East London events series encompassing various different mediums, from Audio-Visual Art and Surround Sound Diffusion to a broad range of Experimental Electronic Music. Featuring live performances from a variety of artists and fields, they are focused on contemporary electronics and AV art, ‘events utilise the 12.2 surround sound setup and multiple projectors to create an immersive experience for the audience.’ Charles, Henrik and Ed told us.
Their previous event — the Amoenus series — was a collaboration with Christian Duka and it brought Resolution to the Aures vaults. It presented a live performance from Roly Porter developed especially for Aures’s 54 Pioneer speaker surround sound system.
Their upcoming show —Retest— is taking place on July 19 at MOT Unit 18 in South London. They will create a transformative space soundtracked by Minor Science alongside Loraine James (Hyperdub) and DJs Will Lister (Cin Cin / Phonica) and Alexis (Balamii). CLOT Magazine sat down for a quick chat with Charles, Henrik and Ed, the core team behind Resolution events, about the intellectual process of the Retest series and how the venue plays an important role in designing their events.
The next series of events is called Retest. Can you expand on the main aims behind this project? What are you ‘retesting’?
Retest is our new venture in bringing the technology and programming that creates the immersive Resolution nights into a club environment. London’s club scene is a thriving culture that inspired us to push the boundaries of what was expected at a Resolution event, by exploring the environment we could create within a club setting.
The name came from taking the principles and processes of Resolution and ‘retesting’ them within this new environment. In doing so, we hope to gain new insights into what is possible with the Resolution project – similar to how one might retest and reconfigure a software system.
We guess your audio-visual systems are something you are developing and experimenting with; what are your main findings when adapting them to different venues and artists?
When working with a new venue, it’s important for us to spend time in the space, giving us a good understanding of its advantages and limitations. We then try to think of the best way to showcase our artists and the space itself, focussing on what we can highlight within the space to help present our artists in a unique environment and create an immersive experience for our audience.
One of the main things we focus on to keep each event fresh is design and aesthetic. It’s key that we are able to adapt to fit the aesthetic of the specific artist and venue, whilst still maintaining the immersive and innovative principles of Resolution.
For Retest we’re working in a club environment, which is new for us, so we’ll be utilising some new techniques in conjunction with some of the technology and systems are previously seen at our events. We are installing a multi-channel projection system that will operate with a minimalist lighting rig. This symbiotic system will create an intuitive audio-reactive visual accompaniment to the music, engulfing the performers and audience in the intimate setting of MOT Unit 18.
Resolution stems from an academic background. Why do you think it’s relevant not to stay in the purely experimental/academic scene and open your practice to club nights?
Whilst Resolution stems from a research-based background, we’re passionate about scenes beyond that. As individuals, we have always loved club culture, especially with the variety and vibrancy of the nightlife scene in London. Throughout our university experience, we discovered subtle similarities between the academic and club scenes. One of our main aims when founding Resolution was to bridge these two different worlds, incorporating influences from both to create distinct multi-disciplinary events.
It, therefore, felt like a natural progression for us to host a club night, building upon our work in the academic and experimental scenes. We don’t want to confine the Resolution project and ourselves to one particular scene or aesthetic. Instead, we’ll continue to explore multiple avenues and test various new strands of the Resolution project.
