Te Whanagnui-a-Tara’s Award Winning Innovator & Activation Extraordinaire, Marcus McShane, Proudly Presents ‘Velocine’!

Join Marcus this November, as he heads outdoors to test his latest public arts activation, peddling his bike around the streets of Te Aro, projecting experimental imagery & sound onto the facades of passing buildings.

A cargo bicycle rolls through inner-city Wellington, two large projectors mounted on it, mapping onto passing buildings, synched to a composed soundtrack, which creates a huge swelling pulse of music and animation centered around the passing bike.

Velocine (working title) is an arts installation, proof of concept test, that will slowly wind its way around the Cuba St precinct over two nights, on Nov 23rd and 25th, from 8.30pm - 9.30pm each evening. As the bicycle pedals through inner-city streets it will project animation onto the second and third floors of the buildings it passes, creating a stunning wave of sustainability produced sound and visuals, entirely run off batteries charged by Marcus cycling. Follow here for updates to Velocine’s route.

The project is brought together with the innovative & environmentally friendly prowess of Marcus McShane. Accompanying this groundbreaking concept is music from critically acclaimed composer and musician Briar Prastiti, and with visuals from another champion of change, multi-award winning projection and theatre designer, Rebekah de Roo, another exceptionally talented artist, again with a strong focus on sustainable design practice.

Velocine’s animations & soundscape will be meticulously timed to synchronize with the bicycle's movement, giving the illusion that the artwork stands still while the bike glides forward, unveiling a wave of music and film that gracefully fades into the night. As this unique bicycle gracefully traverses the inner-city streets of Te Aro, it casts a mesmerizing tapestry of animation onto the second and third floors of the buildings it passes. This choreographed dance of light and sound creates a halo of projection that wraps around the unobtrusive bike, transforming ordinary urban structures into a canvas for captivating art.

A project that many would say only Marcus McShane could pull off! As one of New Zealand’s most prolific designers, having produced over 500 theatre designs and installation artworks since 2005. With 22 awards spanning visual art and design, specifically in the areas of theatre, fine arts, architecture, and museum design, the realms of this talented innovator knows no bounds. Over the course of his work, he has designed the world’s first entirely zero-emission piece of touring theatre, followed by a self-powered artist studio entirely constructed from recycled and found materials, with artists having to pedal while working, (spinning recycled washing machine motors), to generate all the power they need. The later has since had 38 gallery and festival seasons and is still touring. In 2017 he also completed a permanent interactive artwork, Wash, for the Tauranga City Council. In recognition of all this and much more, in 2021 Marcus won an inaugural NZ Arts Foundation Behind the Limelight award, which recognises artists whose work supports other artists.

This ambitious and playful project promises to merge the realms of technology, music, art, and urban landscapes, turning Wellington's cityscape into a canvas for local creativity. The proposed artwork is a testament to the city's vibrant and ever-evolving cultural scene and the champions of change who set out to transform.

Velocine is a public activation that is part of a series commissioned by Urban Dream Brokerage in partnership with Wellington City Council. The series is designed to give artists an opportunity to share their work in new ways, enlivening our inner city with creative participation.

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