Art x Machine: Alexander Wessely Blurs Reality at The Sphere
What kind of experience do you want the audience to have while attending the show and how do you envision the show affecting people emotionally?
I'm obsessed with this idea of the audience forgetting the boundaries of reality and merging the physical and the digital. The longer they're inside the experience, I want the audience to experience this existential terror and think, ‘What the fuck is going on right now? Is this reality? Is it real or not?’
How did you incorporate futuristic elements in the production, while also making sure it felt grounded for the audience and emotionally resonant for them?
One way or another, whether it's a sculpture, a stage, or a screen, I want to create something that speaks to the human experience.
The luxury of working with musicians is that music is such a strong medium. I can have an idea that initially might feel kind of flat and then you add this music to it and it becomes something else entirely. It comes to life, in a way. And I guess that's what keeps drawing me back to working with musicians. That type of collaboration speaks a lot to me. I can sense that I give them a lot and they give me a lot back to me in return.
In this case, Anyma was a very close collaborator. Working with him was a new experience in some ways because he's so well-known for his visuals so collaborating with a musical artist who is also very focused on visuals is quite special.
Throughout the show there was a focus on the human body in a lot of the visuals. How did that come to be and was that something you had a lot of influence on?
When I joined this project in April 2024, Anyma and Alessio de Vecchi (the art director and lead visual artist on the project) had already been developing this concept called Genesys which is the first and third act of the Sphere show. Coming from working quite heavily with humans, the very first piece I made was with Grimes. The piece is called Tarata and it felt very natural to create a juxtaposition to this very digital and robotic world. That's why the act is called Humana. It’s more about human skin and human emotion.
I really enjoyed the parts with Grimes and FKA twigs. What kind of technology did you use to create that section of the show?
It's all shot footage. But it's supposed to make the viewer question how it’s made. Is it digital? Is it actual shot footage? I wanted to create an offset in the rhythm through speed ramping so they both move in an odd way. We also worked with this fantastic team of VFX artists in post production. That was all led by Alessio De Vecchi who Anyma has been working with since the very beginning.
Are there any techniques or technology that you explored for this that you haven't used in the past?
The most obvious one is the 180 projection for the Sphere. I had never dipped into that before and it was very complex and made the workflow quite insane in a lot of ways. That's why I felt so at home in the Humana part, because it was not that different from previous stuff I've done. It was up to the VFX team to adapt it and really make it work.
It's an unprecedented venue in a lot of ways.
Yes, it's so beautiful but it's also so fucking messy. It's almost insane. The most beautiful thing about it is also the worst thing about it. It's way more complex than I thought it would be.
I was also wondering what drew Grimes and FKA twigs towards this project?
Both of them are such interesting visionaries in their own ways. They’re true artists. And the Sphere is potentially the biggest and most interesting stage in the world right now if you're interested in pushing technology. Also I think, like me, they are intrigued by the unknown. On New Year's, we premiered another piece with Grimes in collaboration with Studio Drift. The piece was focused on quantum computing and in it Grimes is basically seducing a computer.
Oh my god !!
Yes (smiles), and creating nature from it. In some ways, it's almost like cheating working with these kinds of artists because they're so fantastic. I also want to mention that the piece I creatively directed with FKA twigs was directed by Jordan Hemingway. It was fantastic.
What was the process for including the robotic cellists?
I have a long-standing collaboration with my very close friend and composer Jacob Mühlrad and we started talking about these robotic cellists about a year ago. When Anyma approached me about this project in April he told me that he wanted to create a cybernetic opera which I thought was very interesting. I told him we should include these robotic cellists and create a stage design that literally puts them on a pedestal almost as a centerpiece of the performance.
Is there one moment from the show that you're particularly proud of?
The FKA twigs piece. I love it. I'm very proud of it and it really hit the spot of what I wanted to achieve with this kind of performance in terms of this integration we’ve been talking about. She really feels holographic in that space. Her performance was insane and I am very thankful for how that piece has been received. Especially because it wasn’t the most commercial or affect-seeking piece. It gives me a lot of hope.
