Everything We Saw at CrossCurrent 26

CrossCurrent 26 brought together a diverse collection of interdisciplinary postgraduate projects at Production Park. From an Afrofuturist projection-mapped installation to an immersive casino experience, students showcased their work alongside a rich programme of talks and panel discussions from industry leaders. 

The showcase and symposium was organised by a collective of 13 graduating students from the Academy of Live Technology (ALT) across four different postgraduate courses. The event brought together student work spanning lighting, audio, immersive experience, virtual production and research projects in Production Park’s Studios 002 and 003. Talks and panel discussions ran parallel to the showcase, discussing current challenges and future developments across the creative industries. Dr Aby Cohen, Head of Postgraduate Study at ALT, said the showcase reflects ALT's emphasis on interdisciplinary practice.

“Unlike many institutions that concentrate on training students for a single discipline such as theatre design or performance, here the emphasis is on crossing boundaries between fields. Students are given the opportunity to explore multiple areas and develop their own direction. This flexibility allows them to move between disciplines and build a more adaptable creative practice.” 

Dr Aby Cohen, Head of Postgraduate Study at ALT

Student Projects 

Thomas Moore was one of the students exhibiting, his stand featured footage and stills from his project that took place in Studio 002 only days before. Audience members were transported into an interactive story, told against the backdrop of a seedy casino underworld. When asked what he wanted audiences to get from the experience, he said: “I think with immersive experiences, it's about interactivity. It's about engaging with other people, not necessarily only the people that you turn up with.” 

In Studio 003C, Afrogalactica: The Threshold was an interactive project created and exhibited by Dami Olagbegi. CrossCurrent 26 attendees were invited to step inside a portal to an imagined Afrofuturist narrative experience. Dami created the project over a period of three months in collaboration with poet Juana Udubang, composer Ré Olunuga and fellow ALT student Olivia Kitteridge. The project was constructed using two projectors, one aimed at the floor and one at a hologauze screen and a custom built ring lighting fixture. When asked about the inspiration for his project, Dami said: “I wanted to create an identity merging cultural heritage and a speculative future and see how I could push that as a narrative in live event design. I wanted to infuse visual storytelling, sound design and the immersive experience by telling a story.” 

Around the event, students had stands exhibiting their skills and projects including screenings of short films by Thomas Martel alongside a demonstration of an inside-out camera tracking system using a smartphone’s accelerometer. Creative Technologist Max Moore also demonstrated a physics-based markerless interactive project called Techtonic, where people could play with virtual 3D objects using their own hands.  

Industry Insights 

Alongside the variety of student showcases, CrossCurrent 26 brought together leading figures from across the creative industries for a programme of panel discussions examining the challenges and opportunities facing the industry today. The panels explored interdisciplinarity, experimentation, authorship and innovation, with a recurring theme being the relationship between creativity, technology and the audience. Ted Moore, Director at TAIT, reminded us that “everything we do is for the audience”, while Jack Hardwick of CoSTAR Live Lab and Pod Bluman of Bluman Associates discussed how more technology does not necessarily mean a better performance, with the “why”, story and meaning often being the most interesting aspects of live events. Ian Caballero from L-Acoustics echoed this sentiment when discussing the implementation of new performance technologies, pointing out that “really, the audience shouldn’t know that the technology is even there”. The discussions also explored the growing role of AI in the live events industry and how emerging technologies can be used meaningfully without losing sight of the creative purpose behind them. 

With the students now completing their postgraduate study, CrossCurrent 26 offered both a showcase of where they are now and a glimpse of the kinds of creative, technical and interdisciplinary work they may go on to develop across the industry. 

Applications for postgraduate study at the ALT are currently still open, find out more below: