This year, Vivid Live has commissioned multi-disciplinary design collective Universal Everything to create a new projected artwork for the sails of Sydney Opera House ( Vivid Live’s most public event.)

Founded 11 years ago by creative director Matt Pyke in Sheffield, England, the bold colour-friendly group have collaborated with bands (Radiohead’s Polyfauna), brands (MTV), record labels (Warp), and mammoth events alike such as the London 2012 Olympics and the largest screen unveiled yet at the heart of New York’s Times Square.

Threading their playful sense of discovery, anthropomorphic creation and digitally-crafted landscapes through each project, Pyke and his globally-based team continue to play with new technologies to invent new forms of design and movement – all conceived from the same back garden shed where Universal Everything began.

‘Living Mural’, Universal Everything (UK)

Based upon aesthetic and narrative parameters set by the studio, a global animation collaboration has begun, re-imagining the Sydney Opera House as a living mural.

A diverse series of vibrant hand drawn sequences explore and respond to the bold forms of the building.

Artists Statement

This commission to light the sails of Sydney Opera House epitomises the spirit of our studio – inventing new forms of moving image for emerging display technologies.

Our long term passions of architecture, graphics, moving image and sound converge on this iconic building.

A global animation project by Universal Everything, collaborating with over 20 different animation studios worldwide to create a living mural on one of the world’s most iconic buildings.

Embracing emerging technologies, Universal Everything’s process always starts from drawing. The hand drawn techniques seen in this film are akin to the early pioneers of animation Len Lye, Norman McLaren and Walt Disney.

Using these timeless techniques mean this film could have been existed in 1920, albeit with a 21st century twist – bringing our influences of global pop culture, modernist graphics and physics simulations into a playful exploration of this iconic building.

Creative Director: Matt Pyke
Animation Director: Chris Perry
Sound Designer: Simon Pyke / Freefarm – freefarm.co.uk
Producer: Greg Povey
On-Site Producer: Mic Gruchy – grup.tv

Universal Everything collaborated with a number of artists to create the animation sequence for the Sydney Opera House sails: –

01. Block: Universal Everything, UK
02. Burst: Patch d. Keyes, UK
03. Fill: Drew Tyndell, US
04. Chase: Tymote, Japan
05. Multiply: Nicolas Ménard, Canada/UK
06. Climb: Parallel Teeth, New Zealand
07. Rise: KClogg, Russia
08. Twist: Matt Scharenboich, US
09. Wind: Váscolo, Argentina
10. Swarm: Universal Everything, UK
11. Calm: Zutto, Russia
12. Float: Cindy Suen, Hong Kong/US
13. Power: Masanobu Hiraoka, Japan
14. Slide: Ori Toor, Israel
15. Spin: Ori Toor, Israel
16. Wave: Váscolo, Argentina
17. Construct: DXMIQ, Russia
18. Growth: DXMIQ, Russia
19. Flow: Ruff Mercy, UK
20. Scatter: Caleb Wood, US
21. Shrink: Bee Grandinetti, Brazil
22. Noise: Takcom, Japan
23. Attack: MixCode, Taiwan
24. Boom: nöbl, France
25. Bounce: Matt Abbiss, UK
26. Ricochet: Matt Frodsham, UK
27. Splash: Guille Comin, Spain/Germany
28. Bang: Universal Everything, UK
29. Embrace: Matt Frodsham, UK
30. Melt: Caleb Wood, US
31. Stripe: Matt Abbiss, UK

Inside Sydney Opera House, we are showing a series of video artworks which share a sense of life and humanity, through our studies in choreography, observing movements in nature and the extremes of pop culture – gleaning a heart and soul from digital technologies.

A global-animation-collaboration exploring the architectural form

Sydney Opera House