OrientalTechno Club – Live

Related

The visual identity and website for OTC are a separate
project, on its own page. The research behind
both is the same: primary sources rather than
the generic idea of Asian aesthetics.

1 / What it had to do

OTC began as occasional nights and needed visuals
that came out of the same research the identity did,
not the generic club content that would have been quicker. The room made that harder rather than easier: there was a physical installation in it each month,
so the projection could not be a rectangle on a wall.
It had to land on an object.

2 / The idea

One element per night. Each installation was dedicated
to a different element of the Wuxing – mountains, stone and the rest — and the material for that night was built around it. That means the visuals are not a mood.
They have a subject, the subject is specific, and
it is not only about the changes on a schedule
the regulars start to feel, is about translating specific energy and philosophycal meanings every event.

3 / How it works

For the first year the mapping ran in VDMX5, masked through a photograph of the installation so the projection sat on the object instead of spilling around it,
with material prepared per night for that month's
element. One night the set ran on the curtains
in the doorway between the two stages, and people stopped to film it and photograph it.

In September 2025 the surface changed:
the main action moved to the sky, with characters
and animals layered above it moving through the scenes, and the rig became MadMapper plus Resolume Arena.

How it changed

2024

The club put an installation in the room each month,
one per element. I mapped onto them in VDMX5
through a photograph of the object, and built
the material for each night around that element.

The curtains

One set ran on the curtains in the doorway
between the two stages. People stopped
to film it.

Water

The one installation I built myself, for the water
element: layered transparent material with space
between the layers so people could walk
in and be surrounded, plus a TouchDesigner
animation with quotes appearing
and disappearing. It has its own page.

September 2025

New mapping surface. Main action on the sky,
characters and animals layered above it. MadMapper plus Resolume Arena.

Now

The night runs every Friday.

4 / What HAPPENED

It worked well enough that the programme moved
from monthly to every Friday at China Town.