The Light Surgeons

About The Light Surgeons:

The Light Surgeons are a collective of pioneering multimedia artists. Founded in 1995 by creative director Chris Allen and Andy Flywheel as an experimental production company which sort to develop new forms of image making. TLS’ work spans many diverse mediums; from print and motion graphics to digital film production, exhibitions, installations and ground breaking live audio visual performances.

TLS is renowned for producing countless visual displays for club events and concerts and helped pioneer the current VJ scene back in the mid nineties. Born out of a foolish dedication to car boot sales and secondhand camera shops, TLS’ began operating with an eclectic mix of Lo-Fi analogue equipment. Layering together Super 8 and 16mm cine projections with simple graphic design on slide projectors; TLS created wholly original and unique projected environments that became a standard feature in club culture throughout the nineties. This early form of motion graphics or visual compositing lead to many musically inspired collaborations. After starting their own club night with Rob Da Bank, the now legendary Sunday Best, TLS began working in resident at the Blue Note club in Hoxton square, providing moving cine-scapes for seminal independent record labels like Ninja Tune, Mo’Wax, Metal Heads and Wall of Sound.

In this hot bed of creative talent TLS slowly refined its creative output and developed its technology through live concert performances with bands such as The Herbalizer, Cornershop, Sneaker Pimps and Propellerheads; taking their shows on tour internationally. These collaborations with labels and bands lead to the creation of several promo videos and record covers. TLS close relationship with The Herbaliser lead to a seminal live audio visual performance commissioned by the London Film Makers CO-OP called Ocularis which opened the Lux Cinema in Hoxton Square in 1997 and went on to be performed at the Rotterdam film festival. This was TLS’ first audiovisual performance and formed the blue print for their move towards being AV performing artists in there own right.

After teaming up with the short film festival Halloween Society to create the acclaimed new media cabaret night called Kentra, TLS’ work moved progressively from its roots in club culture and concerts into the gallery space in exhibitions like Stealing Beauty at the ICA. They developed their cross disciplinary direction and extended their ideas further into physical space with a architectural installation in collaboration with product designers Inflate in an exhibition called Exhibit “B”.

This project lead to the discovery on an LA beach of a traveling street poet called Robert Alan Weizer who provided the narrative story in their first short film Thumbnail Express which was premiered at the onedotzero digital film festival in 1999. This formed the beginning of a close and on going relationship with this ground breaking film festival and marked the Surgeons progression into narrative film making; but maybe most importantly, Onedotzero festival gave them the platform to develop their own live audio visual performances away from the club dance floor and placed their work in a more critical sphere of design and film making.

TLS’ toured the world in 2000 filming material for a permanent video installation for Bloomberg’s London head quarters which was completed in 2001 just days after September 11th along with their second narrative short The City of Hollow Mountains. These global events fueled the development of TLS’ live AV performance APB – All Points Between. An expressionistic live documentary which crossed the American continent, combining oringinal music and spoken word interviews, video, slide photography and film in a stage performance which became a timely social political essay. This show firmly placed TLS’ on the new media art scene and Tour internationally with Onedotzero to major art institutions like the SF MOMA.

In 2002 TLS’ released their a collection of their projects on DVD with Japanese design publisher Gasbook entitled Lost Leader and continued developed their narrative digital film making into a new social areas with the idea of open source digital films and Chimera Project. A digital film concept that maps a city throught the collaboration of a group of local artists, TLS have completed two half hour digital films in the north east of England with the help of a local Cinema and Northern Arts Funding, both films have been broadcast on BBC2.

They have brought and shared there talent an ideas to other through these innovative projects, working with charities like the Drake Music Project which saw them collaborating and working with groups of disabled Musicians across the UK on bring a visual element to their sonic compositions and live performances.

Over the last few years TLS have continued to redefine cross media art and set the standard for others in a range of different discipline