Industry Live Wire to speak at SPARK

Industry Live Wire to speak at SPARK

No one in New Zealand is better qualified to chart the development of live video events than Mike Hodgson, director of Dub Module, member of Pitch Black and mastermind behind epic live multimedia events here and overseas.

Mike is one of the industry speakers in an exciting line-up at SPARK, CPIT’s week-long celebration of architecture and art and design from Monday 8 August. His topic is “the use of video live events from the ‘80s to tomorrow”.

“I will refer to the type of technology that has developed over 20 to 30 years and show work that covers that period and some of the directions I think it’s going too,” he says.

Mike created the Dub Module in 1990 with Bruce Ferguson following stints at the Court Theatre as a set maker, TVNZ as a sound recorder and film school above the Dux de Lux, all the while using every spare moment to make experimental videos.

When the Louis Vuitton store launch was being planned in Hong Kong (and in Taipei, Paris and Beijing) they rang Mike. When the lavish Grazia magazine launch was planned for Sydney, they rang Mike. The rugby ball that has been touring the world with six projectors to form a dome of 15 metres by 8 metres, yes, that’s Mike too.

And a glance at www.thedubmodule.tv/ shows why. Mike and his team create epic effects using screens of 30 metres wide in the case of the NZ Music Awards, projecting onto buildings and basically creating custom-made shows to suit the venue and occasion.

Behind the vision and the technical skill is an enduring love of live events. “I live and breathe live events,” Mike says. “Nothing beats the moment when people see it for the first time, the moment when it is revealed. Sometimes people gasp. It doesn’t matter if there are 20 people or hundreds - nothing is more exciting than live events.

“All that work for one moment, it could be just seven minutes long and it only lives on in the minds of the people who were there. That’s pretty special.”

Live video eventing is a niche market and one Mike finds very rewarding - if you are willing to work hard. His message to young hopefuls is that attitude and work ethic is everything. “You have to be really inspired.”

Mike has a long standing connection with CPIT’s art and design department through specialist digital animation tutor Tim Budgen who he invites each year to work on the NZ Music Awards.

James Ellis, a concept artist with WETA, Guy Pask from the agency Strategy and visual artist Wayne Youle are some of the other speakers at SPARK, which is designed to bring together a range of practitioners for a week of public presentations, a lunchtime series called Art Bites, workshops and exhibitions. Art Bites, in conjunction with the Christchurch Arts Festival, is for NCEA students. For the full programme see www.ignition.ac.nz.

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