Featuring: Infinite and Infinite Clouds with the live performance.
In partnership with Hidden Notes Festival
Opening night with special guest performer Silver Ley, (formerly performing as Bethany Ley).
Friday 11th 6-8pm
Independent multi-instrumentalist, composer, and vocalist based in Bristol, UK (formerly performing as Bethany Ley).Known for combining classical instrumentation like the harp and viola with electronic production and granular sound design
Tickets: Pay What You Can: £10, £12, £15
Immersive randomised spatial musical composition in four movements for a space of any dimensions.
Infinite carves physical space into clusters of sounds, chords and notes. These clusters, generated at random but according to specific rules, emerge and dissipate over various timescales, eventually ceding the space to the next cluster event. Each movement uses randomness in a specific way – results have structure but the randomness ensures unpredictability and no repetition.
Physically, the space contains hundreds of suspended bespoke ‘orbs’ at various heights (each orb emanates its own independent light and sounds) yet still allowing visitors to walk through the space, hearing the composition unfold from any chosen vantage point. The result is clouds of sounds, chords resulting from combined individual notes emanating from multiple speakers, appearing at specific locations in the space – a fully spatialised 3D sonic experience, shared but yet unique to each visitor.
Infinite uses any number of orbs, though the version documented has around 200, suspended at random heights. The orbs were designed and built by us, and each includes an ESP32 processor, LEDs and its own speaker.
The work comprises a three section loop (of variable length but set as around five minutes for the documentation). It is ambient by nature, exploring the overlaps between immersion and atmosphere, the finite and the infinite.
The sections use different sample sets (white noise, piano and strings) triggered using randomised parameters (the notes played, timing, location, size of cloud, rate of expansion), generated in real time.
Infinite Clouds
The idea was to turn Squidsoup’s installation Infinite into a musical instrument and use it as part of a performance.
Working with brilliant violinist Julz Nguyen (Lunar Calendar, the quartet we worked with to create the original sounds for the SMOCA version of the work) and incredible local dance group Nicole Olson Movement Chaos, we created a unique event in two parts: one half was a duet with solo violin (Julz), the other a collaboration with Nicole’s dance group.
Infinite was controlled in real time, creating its usual blend of spatialised clouds and waves of chords and sounds on demand; but in dialogue with the violin or the dancers – the result was somewhere between improv and planned performance.
The sell-out event was commissioned by Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) as a celebration of their permanent acquisition of Infinite. The work has been on show at SMoCA since June 2025, with the run planned until late August (2026) – a run of well over twelve months.
The performances explored the real-time spatial and narrative possibilities of the Infinite piece, consisting of around 400 suspended speakers and creating a unique series of intimate experiences and encounters between physical space, technology, music and the human body.
Commissioned by Julie Ganas for Scottsdale Museum of Contemprary Art.
About Squid Soup
Pioneers in the use of light, sound and technology, Squidsoup’s artworks combine physical and dynamic digital spaces with novel and intuitive forms of interaction to produce responsive and beguiling environments.
Their work has been seen by millions of people across the globe since 1997 in galleries, museums and live events, festivals and exhibitions. Recent exhibitions and events include: Vivid Sydney (AUS, 2023), London’s Alexandra Palace (2019, 2023), International Centre for Light Art (DE, 2022-2023) Burning Man Festival (USA, 2018, 2019), Canary Wharf (UK, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2023), Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History, (CA, USA, 2021-2), Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (USA, 2017, 2019), Noor Riyadh (KSA, 2021), Ars Pedregal (MEX, 2019), Salisbury and Gloucester Cathedrals (2015, 2018, 2020), and a permanent exhibition in Houston (USA).
Their key work Submergence has been exhibited over 100 times on six continents.
Their collaboration with renowned DJ/musician Four Tet has developed over 8 years from a small conventional live stage-based lighting system to a radical fully immersive experience enveloping both audience and performer, breaking the boundaries between the two, merging artwork and performance, the virtual and the real into a unique augmented experience.
Working with partners in a variety of winter light festivals has allowed them to present their work to a broad demographic of more family-based audiences across the globe at events as varied as Vivid Sydney (AUS), Lyon’s Fête des Lumières (FR), Royal Botanical Gardens’ Christmas at Kew (UK), Canary Wharf (UK), Brooklyn Botanical Gardens (USA) and Illuminate Adelaide (AUS).