Lighting Design for the Art on Ice 2019 Tour

Art on Ice 2019 centred on the story “Time to Time”. Its main character Ashley is a stage manager who believes he knows every part of the show. When a system error suddenly brings everything to a halt, the apparent disaster becomes the beginning of a journey through different times and dimensions.

A mysterious voice encourages Ashley to embrace the unexpected and allow his imagination to become reality. Guided by a woman in a red dress, he discovers not only a new side of his show but also confronts his own doubts, mistakes and desires. In the end, Ashley realises that true love must be free.

The production’s overarching visual language was shaped by the theme of cyberpunk. The stage design’s LED surfaces were extended with thematically coordinated printed imagery. A large bridge crossed the stage, providing performance positions for artists and singers while also allowing a train to travel across it. The design also included a flying B-stage above the ice and a tracking rail extending across the entire ice surface.

For me, the design challenge was to translate cyberpunk into a strong visual motif while connecting it with every other element of the production. The lighting had to reveal the different levels of the stage and give them a clear spatial order within the complex architecture.

For the ice lighting, I developed six rectangular lighting pods. The many performance positions across the different levels were covered by additional remote followspots controlled through PRG GroundControl systems. Beam lights mounted on the flying B-stage turned this level into a distinct part of the lighting design.

The main stage consisted of 16 truss fingers forming a large matrix block of Martin MAC Viper fixtures and CLF Stinger 6×6 Matrix fixtures. Additional sidelight above and below the bridge separated its different performance levels and made the artists and singers visible within these positions.

The printed fabric borders were illuminated with GLP X4 wash lights using Shape lenses and GLP X4 Bars. As an additional graphical layer, I used 40 CLF Apollo XL fixtures across the floor and rig together with 18 High End Systems ShapeShifters. They gave the cyberpunk theme a deliberately retro-influenced look.

For the tour, I was responsible for the Lighting Design and worked as DoP for the television recording. Together with my team, I managed Preprogramming, Lighting Programming and Lighting Operating. The complete show was preprogrammed in a 3D studio within two weeks.

Live on stage: James Blunt, Stefanie Heinzmann and Momento

Tour locations: Zurich, Lausanne, Davos and Basel