An audiovisual project involving the synthesis of NASA deep space data into audio and physical form. The data, captured by the Voyager and Cassini probes and acquired with help from the University of Iowa Physics Department, came to us in the form of short, low quality audio conversions of radio and plasma wave radiation, which was then refined into a series of epic compositions originating from sources including Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus and their moons.We then took the same waveforms and converted them into physical form, embedding electronics inside to create a series of enigmatic, abstract musical devices acting as portals to the farthest reaches of the universe.

The four compositions; Enceladus, Ganymede, Jupiter and Saturn, can be heard here.

Made in collaboration with Cassini Sound. Comissioned by Selfridges in London as part of their Work It season. With thanks to NASA.

Listen to Tim talk about the project at Electromagnetic Field 2016 here.

Commissioned by the Tate Britain in June 2016, this piece (the second in the series) uses as a base a high resolution three-dimensional scan of the Gale Crater on Mars, the landing site of the Curiosity rover in 2012. The 3.6 billion year old crater measures 154km in diameter, with the central peak, Aeolus Mons, rising 5.5km from its centre.

As the moving line of light slowly traces the surface, cresting its peaks and sinking into its troughs, the resulting waveform is translated into an etherial, otherworldly, microtonal composition.

Listen to the composition here.

Made in collaboration with Cassini Sound. With thanks to NASA.

In December 2014 ELK helped win the The Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award for "The Body": an intimate, immersive theatrical performance developed in collaboration with renowned experimental theatre duo Nigel Barrett and Louise Mari.

The piece serves to examine "our relationship to the body as a visual and physical construct, but one mediated both by personal experience and external factors". ELK were tasked with peppering the performance with discreet technologies designed to help stimulate senses and provoke responses from the unaware audience. These technologies included peripheral vision LED screens, sub-bass chairs, live heart-rate-to-sound conversion and projection mapping.

In November 2015 the concept was developed into a breathtaking full performance which enjoyed a sold-out run at the Barbican in London and was described by The Guardian as "a seat-shaking, soul-searching techno-futurist experience".

Commissioned for the official Wikipedia 10th Anniversary party in 2011.

Eighteen receipt printers were suspended four meters above the heads of the party guests. Custom software fetched global page edits in real time and fed them to the printers, creating a physical record of every change made to Wikipedia. These receipts gently fell to the ground, building up until the floor was covered in information. This illustrated both the immense traffic that the site attracts and also the vast amount of work that goes into its upkeep.

Made in collaboration with Dean McNamee.

Consisting of a custom built vision tracking system and screen mounted to a mechanical armature, all built around a beautifully restored 1930's dentist chair, the Ocular Cocktail Creator was designed to provide a wildly theatrical way of prescribing cocktails to event guests. Very loosely based around a psychoanalytical technique called Guided Affective Imagery, participants were shown groups of carefully selected images (mountains, trees, streams, etc) with each group sharing a hidden emotional theme (aspirations, self-concept, narcissism, etc). Participants were instructed to let their eyes wander over the images, with the vision tracking system silently noting images with the longest dwell time. With each set of images relating to a particular emotional state, a "profile" would be assembled and given to the participant in the form of a tongue-in-cheek medical assessment, culminating in a printed percentage breakdown of the psyche along with a prescription for a cocktail designed to redress any imbalances within the Big Five personality trait categories.

Built in part on the exceptional Eyewriter project developed by members of Free Art and Technology (FAT), OpenFrameworks, the Graffiti Research Lab and The Ebeling Group communities.

Commissioned by Steely Fox on behalf of Hendrick's Gin, with technical direction from Devin Matthews.

A second piece commissioned for Hendrick's Gin as a theatrical method of prescribing cocktails at public events, the Power of the Mind used the very brainwaves of the participant as the method of interaction. Upon donning a headset the guest found their neural activity (consisting of alpha, beta, gamma and theta waves) mapped, wirelessly and in real time, to one of four antique glass beakers. When activated each beaker would flicker to life, the liquid inside bubbling, frothing and releasing delicate perfumes into the air. The participant would be encouraged to focus their attention as hard as they could, increasing alpha wave output and making one beaker stand out over the others. This stand out colour would then become the base of the prescribed cocktail.

Commissioned by Steely Fox on behalf of Hendrick's Gin.

Created as the focal point of a month long Christmas 2013 event at Kensington Palace curated by legendary games designers Hide&Seek, the Throne was designed to offer visitors a magical, fairytale experience: the opportunity to be crowned under a title of their own creation.

Each visitor was given an empty title board which they then filled with a choice of over one hundred different adjectives, titles and places. They then walked the red carpet and took their place on the throne. Thirteen golden trumpets then sounded a royal fanfare, with coloured streamers shooting out of each. A regal voice then emanated from the throne, presenting the visitor to the crowd using their chosen title. And there was much rejoicing.

An in-depth write-up of the project can be found here.

Made in collaboration with Henry Cooke.

Designed and built (in a week) for the launch of Skylanders Tag Team.

Built with the aim of tying a physical launch event to the brand's existing social media following, the piece consisted of a Twitter controlled, baseball bat wielding, pinata destroying robotic arm. Upon tweeting a particular hashtag the arm would activate and take a swing at one of three giant pinata hung from a custom truss structure. Special prizes that fell into a three meter wide, smoke filled "portal" would be won by the user who sent the lucky tweet.

Commissioned by TMW on behalf of Activision

Commissioned for Rare Disease Day 2014, Hands consists of 2000 laser cut acrylic hands, each of which is engraved with the name of someone associated with one of the charities involved in the event.

The hands, hung from 514 individual suspension wires, are arranged in such a way that they snap together to form the event's logo when viewed from two specific positions. A single lightbulb hung in the centre of the piece throws shadows out into the surrounding environment, filling the space with shapes, colours and movement.

The piece was shown at The Science Museum before heading to its permanent home at Birmingham Children's Hospital.

Made in collaboration with Lisa Price.

Exploring the introduction of data into the home in a delicate, unobtrusive yet magical way.

The Cabinet consists of a series of RFID embedded avatars, each representing a useful data set, e.g. local transport status, the home environment or the location of family members.

Placing an avatar into a projected circle triggers the appearance of a graphical data overlay that shows just the data relevant to that object. Once the avatar is removed, the data disappears and the system becomes invisible.

Made in collaboration with Dan Williams and Ben Bashford.

A unique storytelling device created for an exhibition by Designersblock as part of the London Design Festival 2012. The Bureau consisted of a Victorian writing desk, heavily modified to incorporate four locked drawers and four hidden unlocking mechanisms. Think Monkey Island meets the Crystal Maze.

Tuning the colour of the oil lamp unlocked the first drawer, whilst turning the three wise monkeys opened the second. The clock acted as a three digit combination lock, and tapping out a tune on the desk surface unlocked the final drawer. Finally, a service bell chimed every time a drawer was successfully unlocked.

Made in collaboration with Studio801.

A permanent interactive lighting installation in Ipswich, Suffolk, designed to unify a quarter mile stretch of derelict buildings with a minimum of structural alteration. The scheme consists of a network of LED and electroluminescent light sources that use colour and movement to connect the site after dark. When passers-by stop to play with a series of projected animations at a central location, ripples of light and sound cascade out across the entire landscape.

Commissioned by Suffolk County Council and funded by Arts Council England.

Made in collaboration with Creatmosphere.