WEBVTT 00:00:05.553 --> 00:00:09.318 These are sequences from a play called "The Lehman Trilogy," 00:00:09.342 --> 00:00:14.384 which traces the origins of Western capitalism 00:00:14.408 --> 00:00:15.827 in three hours, 00:00:15.851 --> 00:00:18.306 with three actors and a piano. 00:00:19.356 --> 00:00:23.185 And my role was to create a stage design 00:00:23.209 --> 00:00:26.723 to write a visual language for this work. 00:00:27.699 --> 00:00:30.983 The play describes Atlantic crossings, 00:00:31.007 --> 00:00:32.860 Alabama cotton fields, 00:00:32.884 --> 00:00:35.034 New York skylines, 00:00:35.058 --> 00:00:39.732 and we framed the whole thing within this single revolving cube, 00:00:41.339 --> 00:00:45.335 a kind of kinetic cinema through the centuries. 00:00:45.715 --> 00:00:48.318 It's like a musical instrument 00:00:48.342 --> 00:00:50.151 played by three performers. 00:00:51.159 --> 00:00:54.368 And as they step their way around and through 00:00:54.392 --> 00:00:56.956 the lives of the Lehman brothers, 00:00:56.980 --> 00:00:59.465 we, the audience, 00:00:59.489 --> 00:01:03.432 begin to connect with the simple, human origins 00:01:03.456 --> 00:01:07.666 at the root of the complex global financial systems 00:01:07.690 --> 00:01:09.809 that we're all still in thrall to today. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:11.462 --> 00:01:15.015 I used to play musical instruments myself when I was younger. 00:01:15.650 --> 00:01:17.348 My favorite was the violin. 00:01:19.227 --> 00:01:21.290 It was this intimate transfer of energy. 00:01:22.044 --> 00:01:25.882 You held this organic sculpture up to your heart, 00:01:25.906 --> 00:01:28.600 and you poured the energy of your whole body 00:01:28.624 --> 00:01:33.479 into this little piece of wood, and heard it translated into music. 00:01:34.088 --> 00:01:37.070 And I was never particularly good at the violin, 00:01:37.094 --> 00:01:42.278 but I used to sit at the back of the second violin section 00:01:42.302 --> 00:01:45.014 in the Hastings Youth Orchestra, 00:01:45.038 --> 00:01:46.317 scratching away. 00:01:47.163 --> 00:01:49.872 We were all scratching 00:01:49.896 --> 00:01:54.162 and marveling at this symphonic sound that we were making 00:01:54.186 --> 00:01:56.283 that was so much more beautiful and powerful 00:01:56.307 --> 00:01:58.830 than anything we would ever have managed on our own. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:59.836 --> 00:02:04.331 And now, as I create large-scale performances, 00:02:04.355 --> 00:02:05.919 I am always working with teams 00:02:05.943 --> 00:02:09.739 that are at least the size of a symphony orchestra. 00:02:09.763 --> 00:02:12.244 And whether we are creating 00:02:12.268 --> 00:02:16.252 these revolving giant chess piece time tunnels 00:02:16.276 --> 00:02:18.859 for an opera by Richard Wagner 00:02:18.883 --> 00:02:22.729 or shark tanks and mountains for Kanye West, 00:02:22.753 --> 00:02:28.508 we're always seeking to create the most articulate sculpture, 00:02:28.532 --> 00:02:32.279 the most poetic instrument of communication to an audience. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:32.871 --> 00:02:34.744 When I say poetic, 00:02:35.426 --> 00:02:38.775 I just mean language at its most condensed, 00:02:38.799 --> 00:02:40.196 like a song lyric, 00:02:41.204 --> 00:02:44.584 a poetic puzzle to be unlocked and unpacked. 00:02:45.015 --> 00:02:49.672 And when we were preparing to design Beyoncé's "Formation" tour, 00:02:49.696 --> 00:02:52.069 we looked at all the lyrics, 00:02:52.093 --> 00:02:55.958 and we came across this poem that Beyoncé wrote. 00:02:57.191 --> 00:03:01.963 "I saw a TV preacher when I was scared, at four or five about bad dreams 00:03:01.987 --> 00:03:06.456 who promised he'd say a prayer if I put my hand to the TV. 00:03:06.480 --> 00:03:11.654 That's the first time I remember prayer, an electric current running through me." NOTE Paragraph 00:03:11.678 --> 00:03:16.123 And this TV that transmitted prayer to Beyoncé as a child 00:03:16.147 --> 00:03:19.343 became this monolithic revolving sculpture 00:03:19.367 --> 00:03:22.670 that broadcast Beyoncé to the back of the stadium. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:24.003 --> 00:03:27.312 And the stadium is a mass congregation. 00:03:28.795 --> 00:03:31.821 It's a temporary population of a hundred thousand people 00:03:31.845 --> 00:03:35.198 who have all come there to sing along with every word together, 00:03:35.222 --> 00:03:40.845 but they've also come there each seeking one-to-one intimacy 00:03:40.869 --> 00:03:42.210 with the performer. 00:03:42.863 --> 00:03:45.976 And we, as we conceive the show, we have to provide intimacy 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:47.838 on a grand scale. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:48.705 --> 00:03:50.607 It usually starts with sketches. 00:03:50.631 --> 00:03:55.417 I was drawing this 60-foot-high, revolving, 00:03:55.441 --> 00:03:58.004 broadcast-quality portrait of the artist, 00:03:59.055 --> 00:04:01.435 and then I tore the piece of paper in half. 00:04:01.459 --> 00:04:03.278 I split the mask 00:04:03.302 --> 00:04:06.595 to try to access the human underneath it all. 00:04:07.741 --> 00:04:11.455 And it's one thing to do sketches, but of course translating from a sketch 00:04:11.479 --> 00:04:15.332 into a tourable revolving six-story building 00:04:15.356 --> 00:04:19.254 took some exceptional engineers working around the clock for three months, 00:04:19.278 --> 00:04:22.890 until finally we arrived in Miami 00:04:22.914 --> 00:04:24.919 and opened the show in April 2016. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:25.541 --> 00:04:31.355 (Video: Cheers) NOTE Paragraph 00:04:31.379 --> 00:04:33.974 (Music: "Formation," Beyoncé) NOTE Paragraph 00:04:33.998 --> 00:04:37.553 Beyoncé: Y'all haters corny with that Illuminati mess NOTE Paragraph 00:04:38.387 --> 00:04:41.767 Paparazzi, catch my fly, and my cocky fresh NOTE Paragraph 00:04:42.244 --> 00:04:45.525 I'm so reckless when I rock my Givenchy dress NOTE Paragraph 00:04:46.072 --> 00:04:49.620 I'm so possessive so I rock his Roc necklaces NOTE Paragraph 00:04:49.930 --> 00:04:51.818 My daddy Alabama NOTE Paragraph 00:04:51.842 --> 00:04:53.787 Momma Louisiana NOTE Paragraph 00:04:53.811 --> 00:04:55.962 You mix that negro with that Creole NOTE Paragraph 00:04:55.986 --> 00:04:57.692 make a Texas bama NOTE Paragraph 00:04:58.533 --> 00:05:00.398 (Music ends) NOTE Paragraph 00:05:00.422 --> 00:05:01.946 I call my work -- NOTE Paragraph 00:05:01.970 --> 00:05:02.971 (Cheers, applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:05:02.995 --> 00:05:04.145 Thank you. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:04.169 --> 00:05:05.837 (Cheers, applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:05:05.861 --> 00:05:08.836 I call my work stage sculpture, 00:05:09.836 --> 00:05:14.028 but of course what's really being sculpted is the experience of the audience, 00:05:14.052 --> 00:05:16.329 and as directors and designers, 00:05:16.353 --> 00:05:17.805 we have to take responsibility 00:05:17.829 --> 00:05:20.472 for every minute that the audience spend with us. 00:05:21.045 --> 00:05:23.263 We're a bit like pilots 00:05:23.287 --> 00:05:27.548 navigating a flight path for a hundred thousand passengers. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:28.413 --> 00:05:32.010 And in the case of the Canadian artist The Weeknd, 00:05:32.034 --> 00:05:34.692 we translated this flight path literally 00:05:34.716 --> 00:05:39.086 into an origami paper folding airplane 00:05:39.110 --> 00:05:41.662 that took off over the heads of the audience, 00:05:41.686 --> 00:05:44.067 broke apart in mid-flight, complications, 00:05:44.091 --> 00:05:47.669 and then rose out of the ashes restored 00:05:47.693 --> 00:05:49.480 at the end of the show. 00:05:49.504 --> 00:05:51.305 And like any flight, 00:05:52.256 --> 00:05:55.472 the most delicate part is the liftoff, the beginning, 00:05:55.496 --> 00:05:57.363 because when you design a pop concert, 00:05:57.387 --> 00:06:00.375 the prime material that you're working with 00:06:00.399 --> 00:06:04.947 is something that doesn't take trucks or crew to transport it. 00:06:04.971 --> 00:06:06.461 It doesn't cost anything, 00:06:06.485 --> 00:06:11.914 and yet it fills every atom of air in the arena, before the show starts. 00:06:11.938 --> 00:06:14.461 It's the audience's anticipation. 00:06:15.786 --> 00:06:18.894 Everyone brings with them the story of how they came to get there, 00:06:18.918 --> 00:06:20.316 the distances they traveled, 00:06:20.340 --> 00:06:22.743 the months they had to work to pay for the tickets. 00:06:22.767 --> 00:06:26.248 Sometimes they sleep overnight outside the arena, 00:06:26.272 --> 00:06:30.974 and our first task is to deliver for an audience on their anticipation, 00:06:30.998 --> 00:06:34.450 to deliver their first sight of the performer. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:36.404 --> 00:06:38.341 When I work with men, 00:06:39.032 --> 00:06:43.540 they're quite happy to have their music transformed into metaphor -- 00:06:43.564 --> 00:06:45.484 spaceflights, mountains. 00:06:46.917 --> 00:06:51.806 But with women, we work a lot with masks and with three-dimensional portraiture, 00:06:51.830 --> 00:06:54.330 because the fans of the female artist 00:06:54.354 --> 00:06:55.917 crave her face. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:57.746 --> 00:07:02.748 And when the audience arrived to see Adele's first live concert in five years, 00:07:02.772 --> 00:07:05.755 they were met with this image of her eyes asleep. 00:07:06.964 --> 00:07:08.764 If they listened carefully, 00:07:08.788 --> 00:07:12.819 they would hear her sleeping breath echoing around the arena, 00:07:12.843 --> 00:07:14.888 waiting to wake up. 00:07:14.912 --> 00:07:16.172 Here's how the show began. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:16.775 --> 00:07:22.291 (Video: Cheers, applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:07:22.315 --> 00:07:23.316 (Music) NOTE Paragraph 00:07:23.340 --> 00:07:24.617 Adele: Hello. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:24.641 --> 00:07:31.373 (Cheers, applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:07:36.062 --> 00:07:38.766 Es Devlin: With U2, we're navigating the audience 00:07:38.790 --> 00:07:43.995 over a terrain that spans three decades of politics, poetry and music. 00:07:44.949 --> 00:07:48.533 And over many months, meeting with the band and their creative teams, 00:07:48.557 --> 00:07:50.414 this is the sketch that kept recurring, 00:07:50.438 --> 00:07:52.916 this line, this street, 00:07:54.483 --> 00:07:57.294 the street that connects the band's past with their present, 00:07:57.318 --> 00:08:01.276 the tightrope that they walk as activists and artists, 00:08:01.300 --> 00:08:02.966 a walk through cinema 00:08:02.990 --> 00:08:05.875 that allows the band to become protagonists 00:08:05.899 --> 00:08:07.081 in their own poetry. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:07.105 --> 00:08:10.455 (Music: U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name") NOTE Paragraph 00:08:10.479 --> 00:08:12.621 Bono: I wanna run NOTE Paragraph 00:08:14.041 --> 00:08:16.788 I want to hide NOTE Paragraph 00:08:17.820 --> 00:08:21.677 I wanna tear down the walls NOTE Paragraph 00:08:21.701 --> 00:08:24.732 That hold me inside NOTE Paragraph 00:08:26.593 --> 00:08:29.452 Es Devlin: The end of the show is like the end of a flight. 00:08:29.476 --> 00:08:30.934 It's an arrival. 00:08:30.958 --> 00:08:35.172 It's a transfer from the stage out to the audience. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:35.978 --> 00:08:38.321 For the British band Take That, 00:08:38.345 --> 00:08:42.837 we ended the show by sending an 80-foot high mechanical human figure 00:08:42.861 --> 00:08:45.063 out to the center of the crowd. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:45.087 --> 00:08:52.087 (Music) NOTE Paragraph 00:08:53.546 --> 00:08:56.829 Like many translations from music to mechanics, 00:08:56.853 --> 00:09:00.133 this one was initially deemed entirely technically impossible. 00:09:01.039 --> 00:09:04.428 The first three engineers we took it to said no, 00:09:04.452 --> 00:09:06.841 and eventually, the way that it was achieved 00:09:06.865 --> 00:09:10.530 was by keeping the entire control system together 00:09:10.554 --> 00:09:12.221 while it toured around the country, 00:09:12.245 --> 00:09:15.123 so we had to fold it up onto a flatbed truck 00:09:15.147 --> 00:09:17.298 so it could tour around without coming apart. 00:09:17.322 --> 00:09:20.894 And of course, what this meant was that the dimension of its head 00:09:20.918 --> 00:09:22.894 was entirely determined 00:09:22.918 --> 00:09:27.711 by the lowest motorway bridge that it had to travel under on its tour. 00:09:27.735 --> 00:09:30.181 And I have to tell you that it turns out 00:09:30.205 --> 00:09:33.894 there is an unavoidable and annoyingly low bridge 00:09:33.918 --> 00:09:35.455 low bridge just outside Hamburg. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:35.479 --> 00:09:38.808 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:09:38.832 --> 00:09:44.799 (Music) NOTE Paragraph 00:09:44.823 --> 00:09:49.831 Another of the most technically complex pieces that we've worked on 00:09:49.855 --> 00:09:51.532 is the opera "Carmen" 00:09:51.556 --> 00:09:53.894 at Bregenz Festival in Austria. 00:09:55.258 --> 00:09:59.728 We envisaged Carmen's hands rising out of Lake Constance, 00:09:59.752 --> 00:10:01.845 and throwing this deck of cards in the air 00:10:01.869 --> 00:10:04.616 and leaving them suspended between sky and sea. 00:10:04.640 --> 00:10:08.790 But this transient gesture, this flick of the wrists 00:10:08.814 --> 00:10:11.576 had to become a structure that would be strong enough 00:10:11.600 --> 00:10:13.845 to withstand two Austrian winters. 00:10:15.123 --> 00:10:18.074 So there's an awful lot that you don't see in this photograph 00:10:18.098 --> 00:10:20.075 that's working really hard. 00:10:20.099 --> 00:10:24.067 It's a lot of ballast and structure and support around the back, 00:10:24.091 --> 00:10:27.336 and I'm going to show you the photos that aren't on my website. 00:10:28.075 --> 00:10:30.181 They're photos of the back of a set, 00:10:30.205 --> 00:10:33.670 the part that's not designed for the audience to see, 00:10:34.270 --> 00:10:35.924 however much work it's doing. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:40.185 --> 00:10:42.797 And you know, this is actually the dilemma 00:10:43.962 --> 00:10:46.332 for an artist who is working as a stage designer, 00:10:46.356 --> 00:10:51.232 because so much of what I make is fake, 00:10:51.256 --> 00:10:52.557 it's an illusion. 00:10:54.073 --> 00:10:58.978 And yet every artist works in pursuit of communicating something that's true. 00:11:00.033 --> 00:11:03.088 But we are always asking ourselves: 00:11:03.112 --> 00:11:06.073 "Can we communicate truth using things that are false?" 00:11:08.264 --> 00:11:11.692 And now when I attend the shows that I've worked on, 00:11:11.716 --> 00:11:15.144 I often find I'm the only one who is not looking at the stage. 00:11:16.404 --> 00:11:21.679 I'm looking at something that I find equally fascinating, 00:11:21.703 --> 00:11:22.864 and it's the audience. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:22.888 --> 00:11:24.863 (Cheers) NOTE Paragraph 00:11:24.887 --> 00:11:26.784 I mean, where else do you witness this: NOTE Paragraph 00:11:26.808 --> 00:11:27.809 (Cheers) NOTE Paragraph 00:11:27.833 --> 00:11:31.459 this many humans, connected, focused, 00:11:31.483 --> 00:11:34.808 undistracted and unfragmented? 00:11:36.573 --> 00:11:39.335 And lately, I've begun to make work that originates here, 00:11:40.478 --> 00:11:43.057 in the collective voice of the audience. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:44.535 --> 00:11:47.740 "Poem Portraits" is a collective poem. 00:11:48.669 --> 00:11:51.027 It began at the Serpentine Gallery in London, 00:11:51.051 --> 00:11:56.956 and everybody is invited to donate one word to a collective poem. 00:11:56.980 --> 00:12:00.322 And instead of that large single LED portrait 00:12:00.346 --> 00:12:02.718 that was broadcasting to the back of the stadium, 00:12:02.742 --> 00:12:05.036 in this case, every member of the audience 00:12:05.060 --> 00:12:07.305 gets to take their own portrait home with them, 00:12:07.329 --> 00:12:09.791 and it's woven in with the words 00:12:09.815 --> 00:12:12.608 that they've contributed to the collective poem. 00:12:12.632 --> 00:12:16.592 So they keep a fragment of an ever-evolving collective work. 00:12:17.833 --> 00:12:21.251 And next year, the collective poem will take architectural form. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:23.640 --> 00:12:28.846 This is the design for the UK Pavilion at the World Expo 2020. 00:12:30.569 --> 00:12:31.719 The UK ... 00:12:33.089 --> 00:12:35.731 In my lifetime, it's never felt this divided. 00:12:37.160 --> 00:12:41.209 It's never felt this noisy with divergent voices. 00:12:41.233 --> 00:12:44.296 And it's never felt this much in need of places 00:12:44.320 --> 00:12:46.356 where voices might connect and converge. 00:12:46.380 --> 00:12:50.239 And it's my hope that this wooden sculpture, 00:12:50.263 --> 00:12:53.169 this wooden instrument, a bit like that violin I used to play, 00:12:53.193 --> 00:12:58.822 might be a place where people can play and enter their word 00:12:58.846 --> 00:13:00.423 at one end of the cone, 00:13:00.447 --> 00:13:02.743 emerge at the other end of the building, 00:13:02.767 --> 00:13:07.066 and find that their word has joined a collective poem, a collective voice. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:08.796 --> 00:13:15.904 (Music) NOTE Paragraph 00:13:22.149 --> 00:13:25.911 These are simple experiments in machine learning. 00:13:26.769 --> 00:13:32.107 The algorithm that generates the collective poem is pretty simple. 00:13:32.131 --> 00:13:33.838 It's like predictive text, 00:13:33.862 --> 00:13:39.692 only it's trained on millions of words written by poets in the 19th century. 00:13:39.716 --> 00:13:44.696 So it's a sort of convergence of intelligence, past and present, 00:13:44.720 --> 00:13:46.525 organic and inorganic. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:47.547 --> 00:13:50.761 And we were inspired by the words of Stephen Hawking. 00:13:50.785 --> 00:13:54.396 Towards the end of his life, he asked quite a simple question: 00:13:54.420 --> 00:14:00.719 If we as a species were ever to come across another advanced life-form, 00:14:00.743 --> 00:14:03.191 an advanced civilization, 00:14:03.215 --> 00:14:04.745 how would we speak to them? 00:14:05.808 --> 00:14:09.499 What collective language would we speak as a planet? NOTE Paragraph 00:14:11.941 --> 00:14:15.639 The language of light reaches every audience. 00:14:16.474 --> 00:14:19.157 All of us are touched by it. None of us can hold it. 00:14:20.514 --> 00:14:26.077 And in the theater, we begin each work in a dark place, devoid of light. 00:14:26.101 --> 00:14:29.644 We stay up all night focusing the lights, programming the lights, 00:14:30.812 --> 00:14:33.724 trying to find new ways to sculpt and carve light. NOTE Paragraph 00:14:35.074 --> 00:14:39.445 (Music) NOTE Paragraph 00:14:39.469 --> 00:14:44.024 This is a portrait of our practice, 00:14:45.494 --> 00:14:49.575 always seeking new ways to shape and reshape light, 00:14:49.599 --> 00:14:53.821 always finding words for things that we no longer need to say. 00:14:56.637 --> 00:15:00.408 And I want to say that this, 00:15:01.218 --> 00:15:03.747 and everything that I've just shown you, 00:15:03.771 --> 00:15:06.075 no longer exists in physical form. NOTE Paragraph 00:15:06.099 --> 00:15:08.931 (Music) NOTE Paragraph 00:15:08.955 --> 00:15:11.521 In fact, most of what I've made over the last 25 years 00:15:11.545 --> 00:15:13.262 doesn't exist anymore. 00:15:13.286 --> 00:15:17.838 But our work endures in memories, in synaptic sculptures, 00:15:17.862 --> 00:15:21.061 in the minds of those who were once present 00:15:21.085 --> 00:15:22.505 in the audience. NOTE Paragraph 00:15:22.529 --> 00:15:25.438 (Music) NOTE Paragraph 00:15:25.462 --> 00:15:30.208 I once read that a poem learnt by heart 00:15:31.231 --> 00:15:33.398 is what you have left, 00:15:33.422 --> 00:15:35.530 what can't be lost, 00:15:35.554 --> 00:15:39.686 even if your house burns down and you've lost all your possessions. 00:15:39.710 --> 00:15:44.554 I want to end with some lines that I learnt by heart a long time ago. NOTE Paragraph 00:15:44.578 --> 00:15:47.099 (Music) NOTE Paragraph 00:15:47.123 --> 00:15:50.004 They're written by the English novelist E.M. Forster, 00:15:50.028 --> 00:15:54.670 in 1910, just a few years before Europe, my continent, NOTE Paragraph 00:15:54.694 --> 00:15:56.325 (Music) NOTE Paragraph 00:15:56.349 --> 00:15:58.095 began tearing itself apart. NOTE Paragraph 00:15:58.119 --> 00:16:00.017 (Music) NOTE Paragraph 00:16:00.041 --> 00:16:02.882 And his call to convergence still resonates 00:16:02.906 --> 00:16:05.278 through most of what we're trying to make now. NOTE Paragraph 00:16:05.302 --> 00:16:06.770 (Music) NOTE Paragraph 00:16:06.794 --> 00:16:11.752 "Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. 00:16:11.776 --> 00:16:14.865 Only connect the prose and the passion, 00:16:14.889 --> 00:16:17.890 and both will be exalted, 00:16:17.914 --> 00:16:22.224 And human love will be seen at its height. 00:16:22.248 --> 00:16:27.049 Only connect! And live in fragments no longer." NOTE Paragraph 00:16:29.090 --> 00:16:30.241 Thank you. NOTE Paragraph 00:16:30.265 --> 00:16:37.265 (Applause)