Nathaniel Mason

Creative technologist

INSTAGRAMemail

"TECHNOLOGY NEEDS TO BE CLEAR ABOUT
HOW IT IS HELPING US TO SURVIVE"
Jan Lee Dance Artist

Welcome to my portfolio. I am a creative technologist based in South Devon with a background in theatre from Falmouth University. I specialise in creating interactive art installations, music videos, and integrating technology into live performance. My work focuses on using technology to enhance storytelling and live performances, aiming to create meaningful environmental narratives and heighten the experience of liveness and togetherness. This interest has led me to collaborate with artists, musicians and venues including the Common Wealth Theatre Company, the Jack Dean Theatre Company, SPUDworks, the National Trust, Plymouth and Exeter Universities, Prosthetic Head, Sam Walker, Barbican Theatre and RED DOG Theatre company. My objective is to push the boundaries of technology and art, crafting immersive experiences that connect the digital with the physical in innovative ways.

Designing living spaces is also an integral part of my practice. I love pouring over plans, sketching out layouts and getting deep into what people really need from a space, and generally problem solving those tiny painstaking details that make all the difference. I have included a few of these projects, from a simple garden studio I have designed and built for a occupational therapist to custom birch ply kitchen, architectural renders and planning applications.

I am always excited to hear about new projects, whether your just after some advice or need me to make something happen, drop me an email and I'll get back to you.

Services

  • Interactive and Immersive AV Systems Engineering
  • Visual Design for Live Music
  • 3D Scanning and Volumetric Capture
  • Light, Sound and Visual Solutions for Performance Spaces
  • Architectural Design and Visualisations

Projects

A collective of perspectives, creative technologists, producers, movement artists and LGBTQIA+ communities that align ourselves through queer experiences and processes to create XR productions.

Role: Creative technologist specialising in volumetric video capture and rendering

WEBSITE

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During my tenure at BBH architectural firm in Dartmouth, I played a significant role in securing planning approvals for multiple projects, focusing on as-built and proposed drawings, surveys, and digital renderings. Continuing this success, I have further secured planning consent for various small-scale developments and extensions as a freelance professional. I am currently welcoming commissions.

Role: Architectural designer, visualisation

WEBSITE

Surface Tensions was originally created for Mottisfont Abbey in Hampshire, stemming from mSimon Ryder's residency along the River Test, which meanders through the abbey estate. As a main area, we employed GeoSLAM LiDAR techniques to generate visually arresting point cloud data. Unfortunately, the timing coincided with the first lockdown, preventing its scheduled display at Mottisfont. Therefore, a year later, in May 2021, we offered a special preview of the work for one weekend at Llanthony Priory in Gloucester, my hometown, as the original showcase at Mottisfont remained unfeasible. This documentation captures the essence of that unique preview event, which featured a live performance of chalk line drawings. The point cloud data directly interacted with the sounds of the drawing and the live score performed by Bartholomew Mason, creating a multi-sensory experience that brought the artwork to life.

Role: Creative Technologist - 3D rendering, Interactive system build
Software: Touchdesigner, Unreal Engine, Davinci Resolve

The Imaginarium is an interactive installation consisting of five digital dioramas, set within a gaming environment. Visitors can fly through these imaginative landscapes using simple hand gestures (removing the need to touch anything to operate the installation; a response to Covid precautions), travelling from one diorama to the next via portals.  The landscape of each diorama is a montage of LIDAR scans of the Forest, designed to create unexpected juxtapositions and alliances between different aspects of the Forest. Visitors to the Imaginarium are invited to add their own thoughts, recollections, memories about the importance of the Forest to them through audio inserts placed at a chosen location within one of the dioramas. These inserts can be in the form of spoken word, poems, sound effects or music, and once placed in a diorama can be identified by a moving cloud of colourful points in the landscape, which when you draw near eplay the audio for as long as you remained there. Whilst travelling elsewhere within a diorama a specially composed soundtrack is audible. In the exhibition the Imaginarium was accompanied by an introductory video, a map of its layout showing the various portals and where they lead, framed prints of selected views, and a small piece of found wood in the form of a flying dragon. Specially printed cards were available for visitors to record their chosen diorama and location within that, along with their email address, and the link to the spudWORKS website where audio can be uploaded for inclusion in the Imaginarium.A key aspect of the Imaginarium is its aesthetic. This is designed to be beautiful, engaging, something of wonder, and unlike the popular image of computer game visuals.

Role: Creative technologist, interactive systems design and installation
Software: Unreal Engine, Touchdesigner

In making this piece I harnessed advanced technology with a DIY mindset, utilizing volumetric video capture, video-to-video AI with stable diffusion and Neural Radiance Fields. Pushing the data to the point at which the edges fray and break down and tell a new story. This involved 3D recording of human subjects from multiple angles and training AI algorithms to morph these bodies into natural landscapes, and working with Epic's game engine to film real-time photogrammetry scenes.

Role: Creative Technologist - ai rendering, video creation
Software: Brekel, Blender, Stable Diffusion Deforum, Davinci Resolve

This online exhibition Researching Resistance aims to showcase and celebrate the diverse range of people and approaches used to tackle this issue within our Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) network. We invited fifteen members across different research areas and career levels to demonstrate that AMR is an issue that goes beyond disciplinary, societal and national boundaries.
The exhibition serves as a platform to highlight and celebrate the diverse approaches and individuals working within our Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) network. We extended invitations to fifteen members from various research backgrounds and career stages to underscore that AMR is a complex issue that transcends disciplinary, societal, and national boundaries.'Researching Resistance' originated from the research conducted during Simon Ryder's Creative Fellowship with the AMR network in the winter of 2019. Each portrait within the exhibition is a response to how the respective researcher presented themselves and their work to me, incorporating a key element of their research. To create these portraits, we employed photogrammetry, generating a series of point clouds. These point clouds were then skillfully manipulated using 3D animation software, resulting in the captivating tableaux you see here. We chose this approach deliberately to emphasize that every individual depicted in this series, while pursuing their unique research, is an integral part of a unified network. Our collective aim is to address the urgent challenge of antimicrobial resistance through collaborative thinking. You can view this series on display at the University of Exeter Streatham Campus Forum from November 15th to 26th, 2021.

Role: Creative Technologist
Software: Houdini, Vray

A research project visualising landscapes through data.
Utilising LiDAR and Photogrammetry, this project seeks to uncover new perspectives of the natural world.

Role: Digital Artist, photogrammetry, LiDAR, 3D render
Software: Houdini, Metashape, Cloud Compare, Vray

This project is a live immersive gig with Sam Walker from Arthur Brown. Currently on tour in the South West

"An explosive, theatrical, multi-instrumental tour de force from a wildly-talented Devon crew..." Andy Hill CLASH MUSIC

Role: Creative Technologist - video + lighting design, Lead production technician
Software: Touchdesigner, TouchOSC, LightJams, Stable Diffusion (Deforum)

WEBSITEREVIEW

Red Dog theatre company presents the award-winning When the Rain Stops Falling by Andrew Bovell. Alice Springs in the year 2039.  A fish falls from the sky and lands at the feet of Gabriel York.  It still smells of the sea. It’s been raining for days and Gabriel knows something is wrong. Against a backdrop of cataclysmic climate breakdown, Andrew Bovell’s deeply moving play interweaves the stories of 7 family members across 4 generations and 2 continents in an epic and profound quest for answers – from “Will our world survive us?” to the more personal “How can we survive our own family histories and traumas?” A story of love, betrayal, abandonment and, ultimately, hope. Red Dog is a small company with a big reputation producing exhilarating theatre that explores the human condition in all its complexity.

"exquisite ….. a wonderful gamut of human emotion, from powerful to fragile, from wild joy to blind fury.” Venue Magazine

proper grown-up theatre” 4*  The Guardian

“Brilliant, inventive, uninhibited, entertaining!”  Remotegoat

Role: Technical Stage Manager, Lighting Design

WEBSITE

Music Videos created for long time friend and collaborator Jessi Norgard
With these projects we ahve gone on a expansive experimental path, utilizing gaming software and pixel streaming and volumetric video to lives stream a performance.
Alongside this we have utilised ai to quickly develop simple videos to work with her tracks and style.
Role: Creative Technologist - video maker
Software: Stable Diffusion (Deforum), Davinci Resolve

WEBSITE

Production of a live video for the band Prosthetic Head, using facial capture technology and a real-time gaming engine.

Role: Creative Technologist - responsible for developing a real-time interactive video environment
Software: Unreal Engine, Touchdesigner

WEBSITE

As a member of the collective, we showcased our artworks at an exciting exhibition held at The Angel in Totnes, featuring the creative contributions of 21 local artists. While the collective presented various artistic mediums, such as ceramics, photography, portraiture, lino print, collage, abstraction, and illustration, my specific role involved incorporating advanced scanning technology into my digital artworks. This technology allowed me to create an augmented reality piece incoorporating works from 'Volumetric Landscapes'. This collaborative event not only fostered connections among artists but also laid the groundwork for future creative initiatives within the vibrant South Devon artistic community.

Role: New media artist

WEBSITE