Cryptic Nights: Lampfire

Benjamin Hall's work is an exercise in immersive storytelling, futuristic world building and archival adaptation using real-time game-engine technology. For Cryptic Nights, Benjamin with Grace Fielder, Kirstin Halliday and Sam Wood present Lampfire; a digital puppetry performance featuring real-time motion capture, game engine technology and a live DJ set.

The audio-visual piece waves a narrative around a group of otherworldly shapeshifting beings who see themselves in the stars, the earth and the spirit world, as they recount their experiences. The centrepiece of the work takes the form of a visitation by a kelpie-ish being upon the folk of the story, a congregation of northerly forest-dwellers.

This shadow play takes place across vast landscapes, moving between the interstellar and the atomic and is accompanied by a soundtrack of winding rhythms and fast beats. The narrative is relayed and manipulated by all its participants (humanoid and otherwise) through the media of dance and infrared light. Come and move with them...