Taken
Bowie By Duffy
Nomad Exhibitions and the Duffy Archive present a unique opportunity to host a ground-breaking exhibition featuring two of the 20th century’s most celebrated artists: Bowie and Duffy.
Our aim was to create a music track that was instantly recognisable as Bowie but without the man himself. We felt the most iconic era was Ziggy Stardust and so we emulated the lazy, jangly guitars and psychedelic undertones that were prominent in his music during that time. Sound Design latches on to the photoshoot angle, using analog noise, camera foley and weird, vintage, spacey sound effects to punctuate the edit.
Nomad Exhibitions and the Duffy Archive present a ground-breaking exhibition featuring two of the 20th century’s most celebrated artists: David Bowie and Brian Duffy. The exhibition premiered at the Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Madrid (COAM) to critical acclaim.
Through rare prints, artefacts and an immersive digital sound and light experience brought together by Studio Shosho, the visitor is a participant in some of the most iconic and dynamic creative sessions in popular music and photography. During five iconic creative sessions, across a period often referred to as Bowie’s Golden Years, Bowie and the British photographer Duffy created extraordinary and world famous visual imagery.
The innovative displays bring to life Bowie and Duffy’s legendary creative process through interviews, music, film, artefacts, vintage and modern photography and Chromaluxe prints. The exhibition will appeal to Bowie’s fans both old and new and reveal the working process of an innovative and uniquely creative photographer.
Box of Toys Audio were invited to create a series of psychedelic soundscapes that reflect Bowies most prolific personalities and albums, namely Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, Thin White Duke, Lodger and Scary Monsters.
By looking at and listening to each phase of the Bowie evolution we were able to approximate the kinds of instruments used, styles of music played and general vibe of each era. These influences were applied to a series of abstract musical soundscapes that accompany five photographic sessions within the exhibition.
To stay true to the musical production of the time, we mastered each soundscape with reel to reel tape. The resulting analogue effect not only augments the music but reflects the vintage photography processes and stylings featured heavily throughout the exhibition.
Bespoke recordings of the exact camera models used by Duffy were employed in the sound design and synced to their corresponding sessions. The Hasselblad for example has quite a recognisable and unique timbre that can be heard throughout the Aladdin Sane section.
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