The Z-Axis is a multi-layered live audio-visual performance that fuses cult cinema with a new electronic sound scape mixed live by DJ and electronic producer Scanone. The show is essentially a audio-visual remix of the classic Hollywood film “The Fountain Head”, a film that was adapted from the seminal book by Ayn Rand and was directed by acclaimed film maker King Vidor in 1949, Staring Gary Cooper, Patricia Neal & Raymond Massey.
It is a tale about an architect who struggles to maintain his individualist ideas through his modernist designs. It famously explores the notion of the individual against society, or capitalism verses communism, the left and right. This classic story is remixed and juxtaposed with many other cult cinematic moments that explore these themes of architecture, modernity and politics; from Blade runner to Metropolis and beyond.
The performance contains a collection of audio-visual references and incorporates the studios own recent collaborations with internationally renowned architect and designer Ron Arad, as well as contributions from experimental 3D animators Lyn Fox.
As a live cinema performance it has toured internationally to venues including: The Guggenheim Art Museum in Bilbao, San Fransico Art Institute, Moderna Museet in Stockholm, and the Villette in Paris between 2003 and 2006.
Collaborating Audio-Visual Artists:
Christopher Thomas Allen
Robert Pyecroft-Rainbow
Jude Greenaway
Video directed by Christopher Thomas Allen
Animation by Blinkinlab
International Touring:
onedotzero7 + Full Length, ICA, London – 2003
Media Mix Tent, The Big Chill Festival – 2003
AVFEST, New Castle Upon Tyne – 2003
Motion Graphics, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao – 2004
AVIT US, San Francisco Art Institute – 2004
Numerique Festival, Villete Paris – 2004
Watermans Arts Centre, London – 2004
Sonic arts centre, Belfast – 2004
onedotzero_stockholm, Moderna Museet – 2005
Future Cinema, London Film Festival – 2005
Elektra Digital Arts Festival, Montreal – 2006
Architecture Week, Bradford – 2006