STROBE_ROCK series

Rock art is found in many culturally diverse regions of the world and has been produced in many contexts throughout human history. STROBE_ROCK is a 3 part series of digital light installations combining audio reactive visuals and 3D scan data, paying homage to a unifying but forgotten art.

Daniel graduated from The Manchester School of Art in 2011 with a degree that spanned both theory and practice. He spent the proceeding years as a freelance VJ and animator, cultivating a well known reputation in the audio visual and multimedia arts community. Providing visuals for clubs most weekends, his love of music, sound reactive graphics and generative art still permeates his work.

Specialising in projection mapping he worked on a number of larger installations before joining ISO Design and moving into museum and gallery AVs. Here he was able to combine his love of history and live visuals working on an array of projects from heritage sites such as the Wallace Monument in Scotland to the newly constructed Al Salam Palace in Kuwait.

Daniel is now based in Glasgow and working as senior designer at Playdead. Daniel’s own personal projects focus on exploring generative design with real-time visuals. He collaborates with fellow team members and artists to produce multimedia exhibitions, including a recent series of audio visual and VR installations for Glasgow based arts collective RE—ND—ER—ED (https://www.re-nd-er-ed.co.uk/). 

“STROBE_ROCK is a culmination of a number of interests and practices I’ve developed over the years. A combination of installation art, sound reactive visuals and photo-realistic renders. As well as a love of history and a yearning to re-contextualise nature and my surroundings.”

“3D scanned data is something I’ve dabbled in throughout the years, briefly exposed to while working with ISO Design and their massive task to scan the Glasgow school of art, to more recently collaborating with RE—ND—ER—ED where we scanned the infamous Sub Club, creating a sound reactive VR installation of the space. And now at Playdead where we had the opportunity to 3D scan the models of famous stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen for an exhibition currently running at National Galleries of Scotland.”

“There’s definitely something that attracts me to 3D scanning. It’s still in its early formation but I love the unpredictability and level of photo realism that can be achieved. Realism is something I never really persuaded but as technology gets better at recreating and documenting our surroundings, there’s a great opportunity to explore very surreal avenues. It almost reminds of collage art, recontextualising and remixing our surroundings and reality.”

“My immediate surroundings have taken on a heightened sense of importance to me during the numerous lockdowns we’ve had here in the UK, as well as the lack of contact with friends and family and other human-beings. I’ve spent my whole life in post-industrial cities from Manchester to Glasgow, but especially during quarantine there’s been a real yearning for escapism and to reconnect.”

“This yearning manifests in my STROBE_ROCK series. Using 3D scanned models of rocks I wanted to create something that reconnected us with nature and our shared cultural heritage – coupled with my immediate post-industrial surroundings and a real desire to revisit the bright flashing, sometimes disorienting, lights of clubs and music venues I miss so much.”