Here and Now was a collaborative installation that we produced with Highwater Restaurant for Visa Wellington on a Plate. The idea was to create an immersive dining experience with visuals that explored themes of flavour, locality and temporality. The visuals were designed to tantalise, but not overwhelm the senses, adding to the ambience of the space and complimenting the architecture of the dining room.
The visuals followed a narrative that accompanied the menu – following the format of three courses or chapters across the evening
First Course – Ingredients.
The first course was a series of text streams that were randomly generated from information about the key ingredients that Highwater was using for the meal. When words from the menu appeared they became coloured dots which stayed in the projection as the text faded.
Second Course – Cooking
The coloured dots eventually overwhelm the projection and begin to melt together using a fluid generator. This is a slow process that forms a swirling river of colour over the course of an hour.
Third Course – Plating
Mandala’s, which are made by reflecting the swirling fluid pattern reflected back in on itself, bloom onto the projection in circular forms. Each one contains all our ingredients, but each is slightly different. Over the final course, these will bloom in and out of existence.
