NIN goes Interactive

Featured recently in both Creative Review and Wired, are American industrial rockers NIN, (aka Nine Inch Nails). However this has nothing to do with their music...as such.

The band's latest tour, 'Lights In The Sky', the band have gone all spontaneous; and have achieved what I think is a first in live music.

"For the band's current Lights in the Sky tour, Reznor has not only raised the bar for what's possible in an arena tour, but has also produced what could arguably be one of the most technologically ambitious rock productions ever conceived. Unlike most rock shows, the visuals for about 40 percent of the show (including "Only") aren't pre-rendered. There's no staging, no pantomiming by band members: It's all interactive, live and rendered on the fly.

With more than 40 tons of lighting and stage rigging, hundreds of LED lights, a daunting array of professional and custom-built machinery running both archaic and standard commercial VJ software, three different video systems and an array of sensors and cameras, the tour is nothing if not a lavish display of techno wizardry."

See the full article at Wired.com here.



Personally I find this indicative of the advance of interactive art, and perhaps a resurgence in its popularity. This idea of using computers for spontaneous expression. Perhaps NIN has opened a door, I suspect other artists/bands may well be inclined to follow them through it. I guess whether interaction on such a level will make any difference to the performance or its appeal is yet to be seen. Maybe this is the future and it will become the norm for musicians to take complete control of their on-stage performances.