Owen Hindley

I met Dustin for the first time in late 2023, whilst in the gym at Hafnarhaus (our wonderful co-working space in downtown Reykjavík), an notable encounter not just because I'm so rarely anywhere near a gym, but also because it resulted in him asking me to create a visual piece to accompany a track on his new album, 1 0 0 1.

'Harmonic Dream Sequence', in his words, is a psychedelic depiction of the current naive desire to experiment with technology, with a lack of concern for some possible future where it gains autonomy from its creators and users. This really resonated with me, and so I set about trying to create a visual system that would capture both the complexity and scale of this AI-driven future, hinting at the anxiety-inducing speed, the unknowable biases buried deep within it, and also look really, really cool.

The resulting video is intended to be a poetic visualisation of both the wonder and anxiety produced by our collective ability to develop technology that not only reflects our own world back at us in unsettling, distorted and disruptive ways, but how it can also - through modern neural networks and 'AI' systems - appear to create new worlds for us to explore.

Created in TouchDesigner, and using a mix of real LIDAR scans and simulated (hallucinated?) depth scans, millions of particles represent the raw data we feed into these ever-hungry machines. At first they form strange, uncomfortable shapes which periodically resolve into recognisable forms before collapsing again into chaos. Then structure emerges, as we train the system to recognise connections, patterns and layers in the data, before we dive into it, triggering chaotic lightning flashes of connection between disparate pieces of data, and producing unexpected outputs at incredible speed.

But despite having access to an entire Internet's representation of reality and the results of incredible computing power, we're left with a uneasy feeling at the results, the ghostly, dreamlike sensations it leaves us with making us ask uncomfortable questions about our own minds, and the future it beckons us towards.

• Dustin O'Halloran: ⤤

A tryptych of giant faces loom over you on a cold winter's night, accompanied by a pulsing soundtrack. Maybe you recognise some of them as they fade through the noise.

'Tið' is a playful installation by Þorsteinn Eyfjörð and myself for Reykjavík's annual Winter Lights Festival (Vetrarhátíð) inspired by the poem 'Barn' by Steinn Steinarr. The giant floating heads are created from LIDAR scans of members of the public,constantly cycling through their self-reported stages of life.

Audio-reactive, and interactive, we invited members of the public to come and have their faces 'scanned' inside the warmth of Hafnarhaus and look at the work whilst enjoying a waffle or two.

Created as part of Hafnar.haus Hringekja, also produced by Þorsteinn and myself, consisting of an exhibition of this and two other projected works by Atli Bollason and Heimir Freyr Hlöðversson, plus over 20 video pieces by members of the creative Hafnarhaus community.

• Hafnarhaus: ⤤ >
• Þorsteinn Eyfjörð Þórarinsson: ⤤ >
• Atli Bollason: ⤤ >
• Heimir Freyr Hlöðversson: ⤤ >

A live audio-visual performance with sound artist Þorsteinn Eyfjörð Þórarinsson, premiering at Raflost festival 2023.

It was my first time working together as a duo with Þorsteinn, although we'd previously worked together on other projects. Without realising what was happening, the ambition of the project grew into an entirely new 40-minute audio-visual composition, with new ground being explored on both sides - Þorsteinn creating a number of absolute bangers ranging from choral-esque laments to infra-bass driven sonic workouts, but always keeping a thread of 'extreme beauty' throughout.

For my part, I was looking to explore more into these LIDAR-inspired point cloud structures, especially the way that they can be applied to 3d-rendered material to give the feeling of detail and movement, but that only exists in the head of the viewer.

The entire show was performed live with TouchDesigner and a pair of MIDI controllers, with no pre-rendered video used, and only a small amount of audio-reactive input from the music. We're hoping to take this show on the road to festivals in the near future.

• Raflost: ⤤ >
• Þorsteinn Eyfjörð Þórarinsson: ⤤ >

Nine looping 4K video artworks, as part of a group show inspired by Vilém Flusser's 1985 work of the same name.

I was thrilled to be invited to participate in Reykjavík Design March 2023 as part of one of Iceland's first group shows exhibiting digital artists on 9 huge 4K displays.

Curated by Nils Wiberg, the theme of the exhibition comes from Vilém Flusser's philosophical work which describes the concept of Technical Images, an abstraction above film, video, text and drawings, that describe and convey concepts in ways that the previous mediums cannot.

He goes on to describe a possible future in which we're all co-creating these images together in 'darkened rooms' - a chamber orchestra that jointly maps reality, and that distribution of the means of production of these images could help lead us to a utopic understanding of the world, but also warns that centralised control and censorship of these images would lead to deep repression and a dystopic future. For me the text, if you squint a bit, gives a really poetic and prescient way of visualising our current media landscape, from the co-created, mass-consumed reality of Instagram and TikTok, to the state-level media control in countries such as China and Russia.

The pieces were inspired by the LIDAR work I've been doing with Volta and Aristokrasia, made in Unity, with big thanks to Parik Ontkovic for camerawork, Liam Cobb, Uta Reichardt, Íris Erlings René Boonekamp and Hafnarhaus for the recording test process.

• Exhibition at Design March: ⤤

A fantastical journey into the Icelandic highlands and beyond with two escaped convicts and their driver.

Performed by circus artists during lockdown, recorded using full-body motion capture.

Work in progress! Upon release, the piece will be available for Oculus Quest and other major VR platforms.

• Hikapee Circus Theatre : ⤤
• Target3D : ⤤

• Co-director, Movement director : Bryony Livesey-Casey (Hikapee)
• Co-director, Performer : Edd Livesey-Casey (Hikapee)
• Motion Capture Technician : Petros De Doncker
• Motion Capture Cleanup : Hannah Burfield
• Motion Capture Producer : Sarah Polak
• Character Design : Sam Lawrence
• Aerial Performer : Jen Robinson
• Aerial Performer : Katie Hardwick
• Pebble Performer : Peggy Livesey-Casey
• Composer : Iris Thorarins

A collaboration between Hikapee Theatre and Huldufugl, a show for medium to large stages that combines Icelandic folklore, circus arts, theatre and creative technology.

With projected visuals for the entire duration of the show (90 minutes), I used Houdini and Unity to design and render the scenes, working in realtime during rehearsals, then rendering out high-resolution HAP video.

Playback was handled using a custom-made TouchDesigner app, receiving cues via OSC from Qlab, running realtime effects on top of the video, and handling the projection mapping.

Whilst most of the scenes are purely video playback in most cases, with a few scenes are exported as live Unity apps, controlled with an Xbox gamepad live during shows, which just to keep things exciting!

Finally, after several years of rehearsals, covid-induced delays and fundraising, the world premiere took place at Worthing Pavilion Theatre in March 2022. The show plans to be touring worldwide from August 2022.

• Show information: ⤤
• Hikapee Circus Theatre : ⤤

Since I was a student I've gone through stages of performing as a visualist alongside musicians for concerts, raves and club events.

Starting when Pendulum came to our university in 2007, and I (unprompted) threw together a bunch of pre-rendered footage into Resolume and jammed it out, I've loved the experience of playing with images live, responding to the music as it comes.

Since then it's been a nice offshoot of my regular practice, which often involves making some kind of real-time system for visuals anyway.

In the beginning of 2023 it's received a bit of a boost with a bunch of underground, DIY-ish shows in Reykjavík, and I've developed a TouchDesigner-based system to be able to show up and perform pretty much anywhere, including live control over any lights in the venue, multiple projectors, that kind of thing.

Often things I learn from doing this makes its way back into my 'professional' work, little visual tricks, or some weird combination of effects that you end up coming up with in the moment.

A live interactive social theatre experience about trust, communication and questioning your sources of information.

Nominated for Best Immersive Performance at Raindance Immersive 2022.

One day, you wake up and find yourself trapped in a transparent box in a hostile, barren landscape - but it appears you're not alone.

There is the Caretaker, who says they just want to keep you safe inside this box, promising to show you wonders beyond imagining.

There are the Others, individuals trapped in boxes just as you are - some of whom are acting strangely.

And the Voice in your head - together all of them are talking, acting, behaving at odds with one another - so who will you believe?

Based on my theatre company Huldufugl's international award-winning VR experience 'Kassinn / A Box In The Desert' (one of the world's first experiences of its kind), this show expands the narrative to allow five audience members to determine their own story against a barrage of conflicting voices.

My role on this project was lead developer, director and live show operator, with the concept and script co-created by the whole amazing team.

The show takes place entirely in VR using the Oculus Quest headset.

Performances:

• Þjóðleikhúsið (The National Theatre of Iceland) - April 2022 (Sold out run)
• Raindance Immersive 2022 - November 2022 (Nominated for Best Immersive Performance)

• Created by Huldufugl ⤤
• Performers - Nanna Gunnars & Ástþór Ágústsson
• Design, development & Direction - Owen Hindley, Torfi Ásgeirsson, Steingerður Lóa Gunnars
• Composer - Íris Thorarins

An audio-visual collaboration with one of Iceland's most established electronic musicians, Úlfur Eldjárn

Premiering at Extreme Chill Festival, Reykjavík, 2022, and ongoing into 2023.

More images + info coming soon.

Out Of Sync was a slightly mad, experimental performance idea formed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and climate crisis.

As we all remember, in 2020 many artists across the world were unable to perform to audiences of more than a handful of people (at best), and those countries where audiences can gather in numbers have achieved this largely through (sensibly) strict border restrictions, meaning they are unable to invite international artists to come and play. In addition to this, the global climate crisis remained – albeit backgrounded a bit by the pandemic.

The idea is that a performer in Iceland (at the time gatherings were limited to 10 people or fewer) would live-stream to a club in Taipei, Taiwan. There, a full audience of dancing people (Taiwan had no gathering restrictions at the time) would enjoy the party. However, we had two dancers, or “eyes” inside the club, using mobile phones to provide a two-way video stream back to Reykjavik, where two people at a time would experience the party on the other side of the world inside large wooden booths specially built for the purpose.

Full performance :

• Event Production : Uta Reichardt, René Boonekamp, Aephie Chen
• AR Graphics : Owen Hindley & Yuli Levtov (Volta)
• Performer : Hermigervill / Sveinbjörn Thorarensen
• Camera : Yuli Levtov, Uta Reichardt
• Video Editing & Titles : Owen Hindley

Now a 90 minute performance, regardless of how great the music is or colourful the artist's onesie is, might not be the most visually interesting experience if it was a simple camera setup. Luckily, I had been working for several months with my long-suffering collaborator Yuli Levtov on an exciting new project called Volta, which aims to make it easy for performing artists to create visually engaging livestream experiences, either for 2d video streaming or in VR.

Even more luckily, the month before, we had integrated Keijiro Takahashi’s outstanding Rcam2 system into Volta’s existing visual system, allowing us to do a full AR performance using only an iPad Pro and a laptop running Unity + Touch Designer.

We're super happy with the results, which you can watch above. Since then we’ve incorporated a user-facing editor into the Volta product, which you can read more about below. In addition, this same team has applied to produce several more events during 2021 to investigate alternate means of performance and audience experience – both as the world recovers from the pandemic, and as we look forwards to ways to reduce the burden of extensive travel on artists wanting to perform outside of their home countries, whilst still making it a party!

• Project page : ⤤
• Volta : ⤤
• Rcam2 page : ⤤

A cloaked figure makes her way through a pitch black world, filled with invisible obstacles. When the wind blows, the negative space reveals their shape and form so she can progress.

Download:

Game can be downloaded from itch.io : ⤤

The installation version was for two people to cooperate, one using a joystick to control the character, the other using rotating lava rock + button to control the wind. The downloadable version is controlled using the keyboard.

Created for the Isle of Games 002 (see isleofgames.is) exhibition on the theme of “The Tempest”.

Credits:

• Design & Music by Owen Hindley
• Character controller magic by @torfias
• Feedback and general advice from @joonturbo, Steingerður Lóa Gunnarsdóttir and the rest of the Isle of Games team.

Playthroughs / Coverage :

• Cianny / Youtube
• jellythecube / Youtube