Creating an audiovisual installation for MINI at the Frankfurt Motor Show

Rooted in the Berlin Club Scene

As the longstanding partner to Interview Magazine Germany and Brand Eins Magazine, Dusseldorf Agency Meiré und Meiré have a reputation for high concept design. After a longstanding relationship with the luxury kitchen and bathroom fixture brand Dornbracht, for whom the agency regularly creates spectacular, cutting edge furniture fair installations, Meiré und Meiré were awarded a multi-year contract with the BMW Group to oversee trade show executions for MINI in multiple territories. My first encounter with the agency was as a writer. Art director Cartsen Goertz brought me in to craft a text for a brochure that accompanied an ambitious 10-channel audio-reactive installation in a car park. It was only natural when the opportunity arose to bring me in on the MINI project, thanks to an unusual independent club identity that Carsten and I had created a couple years prior.

Berlin is home to a wide variety of club experiences, to say the least. One of the spiciest offerings in 2009 was the mastermind of celebrated chef and music lover Manuel Czech. With no particular religious connotation or meaning, the club night went under the absurdist moniker The Jesus Club. Pairing gourmet nouveau cuisine served between experimental electro-acoustic live sets and left field DJ offerings, Carsten saw the opportunity to create audiovisual stings that could serve to interrupt the flow, harness attention, and create an audiovisual counterpoint to the visual identity he’d created for the club. Here’s what I created in response:

The Brief: Finding the Sound of the Clubman

Meiré und Meiré had conceived of a master plan for the MINI booth: a 12-room spectacle tied together with music. Each space would have a unique sound environment, all synced to 130 BPM, so that each individual visitor to the space would be able to walk between the rooms and experience a seamless “crossfade” effect – like a DJ mix. For the MINI Clubman booth, the challenge was to depict the utility of the vehicle’s barn door style boot and showcase just how much stuff a young urbanite Clubman owner could haul around the city. It was important to keep the concept edgy and fun, as the MINI booth as a whole was to be positioned directly across from Rolls Royce for its premiere at the Frankfurt Motor Show.

Artistic Approach: Discovering a Universe of Objects

I created this video for the agency to communicate my approach to the brief:

Feedback: Refining the Concept

With agency feedback, the idea of showing the car being loaded was refined into a more abstract approach. The original artistic vision called for an elaborate synchronisation between the video content and relief sculptures in the space. This received some feedback and was simplified for the final execution in the form of three vitrines displaying props from the videos.

Working closely with the agency’s creative team to lock in the concept enabled a high level of artistic freedom in execution.

Process: Audiovisual Design

I created three personas – Rafael, Felicia and Giles – and developed unique inventories for each character. The objects were carefully selected for both their visual properties (mechanical and organic movement, ability to emit light, ability to change size, etc) as well as their sonic properties. I created these inventory sheets to facilitate communication with the team and provide a window into my process, in addition to a comprehensive collection of mood images.

Acting as executive producer in addition to my directing capabilities, we worked together with producer Karen Cifarelli to identify both on-screen and off-camera talent. Our seasoned prop shopper sent us preview images of possible items, after which a whirlwind shopping spree commenced. Once the talent was cast, I attended wardrobe sessions at each performer’s home to make selections for the shoot.

Production: Creating a Sound Stage from Scratch

My creative studio KS12 produced the challenging five day studio shoot in Berlin with 14 person cast and crew. Recording with a set of beautiful prime lenses and three different microphones, every shot was captured both for its visual and audio properties. The team created a giant black velvet draping schema, transforming the studio space into a dark void perfect for isolating each object.

Art Direction: Urban Altars

Working with the props on our final shooting day, I art directed these photos of the props, which would eventually be incorporated into an artist’s statement pamphlet distributed on-site at the installation.

Postproduction: Composing the Videomusic

With incredible material on my hard drive, I spent an intensive period refining each character’s footage into a unique videomusical composition. I used graphic notation and scoring to get a handle on the limitless possibilities.

The Series

The final videos, in their entirety:

Reception: International Excitement

The Object Oriented installation was extremely well received. It went on to tour several additional international auto fairs and music festivals for the next year. At the end of its tour it was installed in the BMW Museum in Munich. In additon, a behind the scenes feature about the production appeared in multiple languages in The MINI International magazine, distributed to MINI owners worldwide.

Credits

Client: MINI
Agency: Meiré und Meiré
Agency Art Director: Carsten Goertz
Creative Director / Executive Producer / Writer / Director / Editor / Composer: Gabriel Shalom
Production Company: KS12
Executive Producer: Patrizia Kommerell
Producer: Karen Cifarelli
Director of Photography & Colour Correction: Carlos Vasquez
Lighting Assistant: George Steffens
Felicia: Angie Poon
Giles: Juri Member
Rafael: Tomas Spencer
Styling & Props: Steffa Superheilig – Styling Art
Hair & Makeup: Fernando Madronero
Production Assistant: Laurent Hoffmann
Runner: Mates Al-Fakhri
Postproduction Audio Engineer: Andrea Conti

2011