The Intergalactic Hanseatic League // 01 – 31 OCTOBER 2021
The IHL was a climate change themed sci-fi, time-travel adventure which took place across King’s Lynn town centre and online at the-ihl.com.
As director, co-writer and filmmaker I led a team of 24 artists and creatives with creative support from over 800 local young people.
In development for about 18 months the IHL was produced by Collusion.
For full details and credits visit the Collusion Project Website.
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The IHL are a crew of three time travellers from 2225 – the Captain (played by Kate Dickie), the Navigator, and the Computer who are urgently attempting to contact the people of King’s Lynn, Norfolk in 2021.
In the 23rd century, ‘Earthport Lynn’, as it’s known, is a thriving, bustling spaceport as well as a holiday destination for intergalactic tourists. A pivotal historical event in late 2021 called the MINDSHIFT changed the course of history – averting the climate crisis and leading to a thriving, happy planet and remarkable advances in time and space travel. But, there’s been a glitch in spacetime. The IHL must fix it – if they don’t, the MINDSHIFT won’t happen, plunging Earth into an alternative future of climate chaos. That’s why they’re here: to find out what went right in Lynn 2021, so that they can save their future – and ours.
Mysterious TRANSMISSIONS from the crew of the IHL Discovery appeared in King’s Lynn’s cinemas, shops and on social media. After dark, visitors IHL PORTALS to see more of the IHL’s story projected onto five historic buildings.
Collusion // The IHL - Documentary
This 14-minute documentary shares the process of making and delivering the project, including interviews and footage with
participating children, young people and schools, plus the team of creatives behind the project.
Directed, filmed & edited by Gavin Toomey
Drone and Eastgate film footage filmed by Matthew Usher Photography
Music Composed by CLIP
Project Produced by Collusion Cambridge Ltd.
4 x IHL Transmission Films // Cinema / High St / Online
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On Greyfriars Tower, a 13th Century Franciscan monestary tower, they played the MESSAGE IN A SHUTTLE retro arcade game to send messages into ‘space’ written by the town’s primary school children, then interacted with
the INTERGALACTIC SYNTHESIZER on the pergolas.
2 x Films of the IHL Portals in Action
The IHL Discovery’s NAVIGATOR called to young people in King’s Lynn to help us remember what the MINDSHIFT in 2021 King’s Lynn was that led to our healthy, thriving planet in 2225! We gave these AGENTS OF CHANGE a very important mission brief: the official IHL DATA LOG. Their responses to this brief became part of the AGENTS OF CHANGE projection on the Corn Exchange and in THE OLD ARGOS WINDOWS in the Vancouver Quarter
Throughout the project, the AGENTS OF CHANGE exhibition in the Old Argos windows shared the artwork of the 570 children who became Agents of Change for the project, with their designs addressing sustainable future living. You too can become an AGENT OF CHANGE – create your own designs for the future using our Resource kit and share you ideas with us on social media. And you can respond to the IHL challenge on Tiktok!
Local IHL 'Agents of Change' visiting an exhibition of their work
We also had help from 22 local partners including the town’s museums, cinemas, arts organisations and even a shopping centre!
Funding for the project came from the Borough Council of King’s Lynn & West Norfolk, Arts Council England, the New Anglia LEP, Discover King’s Lynn,
Norfolk County Council, the Audrey Muriel Stratford Trust and PEACH West Norfolk.
See the full list of people and partners involved by viewing the Artists, Associates and Partners here http://www.collusion.org.uk/projects/the-ihl/
Voyager // 29 SEPT - 1 OCT 2017
 Voyager - View of Pergola 2Photo by Matthew Usher |  Voyager - Pergola 2 with InteractionPhoto by Matthew Usher |
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 Voyager - Route "Under the Tower"Photo by Matthew Usher |  Voyager - Volumetric ProjectionPhoto by Matthew Usher |
 Voyager - Visitors "Under the Tower"Photo by Matthew Usher |  Voyager - Volumetric ProjectionPhoto by Matthew Usher |
 Voyager - Under the TowerPhoto by Matthew Usher |  Voyager - Archive detail projectedPhoto by Matthew Usher |
VOYAGER
'Voyager' was a spatial narrative concerning an AI becoming sentient, based around, on and in Greyfriars Tower, a 13th century Franciscan Monastery in Kings Lynn, Norfolk.
Gavin developed this concept over three Months as a cross disciplinary collaboration with programmer/designer Pete Cleary and amateur journalist/historian Beatrice Bray.
Voyager was 1 of 4 projection projects selected for the Collusion King's Lynn R&D challenge develped over 4 months and
presented over the weekend of 29th Sept-1st Oct 2017, for one weekend only.
Please see a documentary I shot/directed of the scheme, in the 'documentary' tab above.
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The films/audio led the audience on a circular story path to the Tower, with the narrative climaxing "Under the Tower" and an immersive, volumetric light projection using large smoke machines creating a hologram effect. The love story was based on a 6 line, hexagonal poem I wrote, structured as palindrome verses.
I filmed & photographed the source material / footage locally in King's Lynn, around the Greyfriars site. The majority I filmed in the
King's Lynn Town Hall Archives with the kind support and assistance of Luke Shackell, the Borough Archivist.
Collusion King's Lynn website: http://www.collusion.org.uk/kingslynn
Still Photographs by Matthew Usher http://www.matthewusherphotography.com
Archive Photography, Films & Music, R&D Story 'poem' & Audio: Gavin Toomey
R&D, Programming & After Effects design / Tower VFX animations: Pete Cleary
R&D, Historical / Archival: Beatrice Bray
Voyager 'Voice': Gavin Toomey and Jenny Dowdell
Many thanks to Luke Shackell, the Borough Archivist.
in_collusion is a not-for-profit programme supported by Arts Council England Ambition for Excellence fund, the Greater Cambridge, Greater Peterborough LEP, and tech partners, Arm and Cambridge Consultants. In addition, this project is supported by King's Lynn & West Norfolk Borough Council.
VOYAGER - Trailer
Shot, Directed & Audio by Gavin Toomey
Trailer released as a teaser for the art projection installation
VOYAGER - Pergola "Verse" Films 1 & 2 (2017)
Shot, directed & audio/music by Gavin Toomey
Interactive elements designed and programmed by Pete Cleary were later overlayed in real time over film 2 (not shown here), to incorporate the visiting audience's "depth map" silhouette into the central hexagon, Voyager's eye. This interaction was then reflected in the audience's 'data' being absorbed, triggering animations by Pete onto the main tower.
MY SPECTRUM HEART - 11th Hour (2019)
A projection artwork I made for the 11th Hour Festival, King's Lynn, Norfolk and
presented 'for one night only', 11th October 2019 in the cellar of Bank House, King's Staithe Square, King's Lynn.
'My Spectrum Heart' follows my previous experiments with minimal volumetric projection.
Splitting a single projector's red, green & blue channels via mirrors, these layers reform on 3 semi-transparent screens, parallel in space.
Based on water flows I'd filmed (from single drips to waterfalls) this installation accompanied my building projection, 'ascension'
presented on Custom House across the square. I designed both to resonate upon the same themes, spiritual , spectacle and symbolic.
Materials:
1x Projector & USB media player - 2x Mirrors, 1x Smoke Machine - 3x Muslin Screens 2.5m length - 3x Overflow Pipes (White 21.5mm x 3m)
My work was accompanied by Laica's (David Fleet) 6 speaker immersive audio installation 'Final Tide'.
ASCENSION - Building Projection (2019)
A building projection artwork I made for the 11th Hour Festival, King's Lynn, Norfolk and
presented on the 11th October 2019 on the Custom House, Bridge St, King's Lynn.
My first experiment in public building projection. I filmed the 'ascension' footage travelling between Norfolk to Norway
and composed the music utilising samples of the local Norfolk coastline.
11thHour Festival website: https://11thour.co.uk/
Above: Ascension projected on Custom House, King's Lynn
Below: Ascension (the video projected onto building as above)
FAULT
Filmed, directed & music by Gavin Toomey
ANON
Filmed, directed/produced & music by Gavin Toomey
Cast: Keaton Makki & Amanda Lara Kay
APARTMENT (2003)
This is a clip (from DVD) of one of the films I made to accompany my live music performances as "Vessel" circa 2003-04.
This sequence was created with the kind assistance of Inferno artist John Sharp.
Original track on my album 'Vessel - Dreaming in Pairs" (2002)
SPIRIT WARRIOR (2016)
Filmed, directed & music by Gavin Toomey
Styled & Executive Produced by Finchittida
SENTINAL (2011)
Camera/edit/music: Gavin Toomey
Carrier / Source (1995)
Created on a Quantel "Henry" system in 'downtime' when I was a runner at Framestore. Raw Dub from original VHS.
CANDIDATE (2018)
Filmed, directed & audio by Gavin Toomey
ATOMIZER (2010)
An experimental promo utilising vintage analogue tube cameras. All effects are live 'in camera' utilising screwdrivers...
Directed & Produced by Gavin Toomey
Cinematography by Tom Debenham
The musical artists remain anonymous. My use with their kind permission.
INERTIA LOOPS VOL. 1
Performance: Esther Stanford
FIlmed, directed & music by Gavin Toomey
A 'fugue' narrative exploration with actor Esther Stanford
COLLUSION
REVEAL King's Lynn (2019)
Trailers filmed, directed and edited by Gavin Toomey
Drone photography: Matthew Usher
Music by Carter/Tutti, Matmos & Sandy Nuttgens.
Trailer for REVEAL. A Collusion Art/tech project developed and devised in King's Lynn, Norfolk, UK in 2018/19.36 artists worked across the disciplines combining live performance, large-scale projection, and augmented reality. The Collusion REVEAL Project was produced by Marcus Romer & Simon Poulter and exec produced by Simon Poulter and Rachel Drury. Full project credits can be found at www.revealkl.com.
See Documentary tab for my 10 minute documentary on the project.
REVEAL was supported by Arts Council England, Borough of West Norfolk & King's Lynn, Discover King's Lynn, Norfolk County Council and the Combined Authority for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
Film produced by: Beautiful Train Ltd. 2019