Electr.Oper

Stage design for ElectrOper, an electronic music event at the Vienna State Opera

ElectrOper was the first electronic music event ever to take place at Vienna State Opera. The super exclusive event in this stunning setting featured some of the greatest electronic musicians. The event kicked off with a live performance of Carl Craig, Moritz van Oswald and Francesco Tristano which was followed by the Crosstown Rebels Showcase featuring DJ performances of Damian Lazarus, Jamie Jones, Maceo Plex and Amirali.

The event was spread across several rooms on a total of about 2000 sqm. The main floor and the stage were located in the backstage area of the opera, which implied an enormous ceiling height. For us, that meant the need for something big while remaining within a rather modest budget.
The basic idea for the scenography was to create a sort of crystal parallel universe with crystal planets and the musicians as space travelers. The scenery consisted of three sculptures, the biggest one being about 5.5 m high and placed on a platform 2.5 m high, adding up to a total height of 8 m. Each crystal-shaped sculpture is made up of several elements all in the shape of a tetrahedron. The components which come in four different lengths were standardized in terms of properties |, such as angles xxx|. This made production much easier, cheaper and faster since it could be automatized, which was very important considering that we only had four weeks from concept till showdown.
The installation was informed by crystalline structures and computationally modeled with a generative approach utilizing a growth algorithm based on the L–system.
Initally, we intended to use grey cardboard for the surfaces to create a darker look, but instead we ended up opting for white, weather resistant and translucent plastic, so that the crystals could be used as light objects in indoor as well as outdoor settings in the future.
Within one week, all crystals were manually assembled by members of the team and put up in the night before the event. During the show, five projectors were used for the 3D mapping. In the background, there was a gigantic screen simulating a travel through space.