Live Design's fifth annual 31 Days Of Plots features one production per day during the month of December 2022, highlighting a different lighting design, from across theatre, concert tours, corporate events, live for broadcast, and more, as we wind down 2022 and head toward the new year.
Internationally known designer and visualist, Mikki Kunttu,was honored for his 50th birthday this year in his home country of Finland. The festivities took place in September in Tampere, Finland, and included a photo retrospective, a design conference attended by several industry icons, and a performance of Gustav Holst's The Planets.
Kunttu talked to Live Design about his design for the concert and shared his plots and renderings for the project.
Live Design: The Planets is such a well-known piece of music compared with new projects you have worked on, did you feel there were any traditions you had to follow?
Mikki Kunttu: No not really, we were looking for a perfect piece of music to go with this concept and The Planets was all that and more. Such a perfect concept for me to work on pretty freely. I like to work quite abstractly and I really enjoy working on The Planets.
LD: This performance was attended by some of your peers in the lighting world, including LeRoy Bennett, Christopher Bauder, Benjamin Dupont, and Ola Melzig, did that add any emotional pressure for you?
MK: I would not say pressure, I feel we are all such an extended family - so it was just heartwarming having everyone there. There are so many great people in this business and I have the honor of calling many of them friends.
LD: Did you use existing fixtures at Tempere Hall, or were you able to bring in your own?
MK: I did not use a single fixture from the house inventory. Everything was brought in for the production and this was the largest rig they’ve ever had in this hall. All of the gear was provided by MA Lighting, Ayrton, CHAUVET Professional, Claypaky, and MDG Fog. Video equipment was from KAUKO (finnish distributor for Panasonic) and Green Hippo. Akuntehdas provided the crew with Pekka Korpi as the head of lighting and Antti Tuomivaara as the technical project manager. Jyri Tervakangas is the technical manager of the venue and he is also my old boss! You know I started my career at this venue in 1995 and worked there for a few years. There are still some of the old familiar faces there such as another good friend Sidi Mäki-Laurila, who was the FOH sound engineer for The Planets.
LD: Do you have a different approach when you are designing for orchestral work?
MK: Well, yeah sure different arts have different characteristics. But it never means you need to stick within the conventional 100%. I have always felt there is room to move and twist things a bit. A touch of odd is always good!
LD: What were the main challenges?
MK: Well, schedule for sure. I basically had one day to program the full show. And as I designed and programmed everything myself and also created all the screen content, the schedule sure was the main challenge. But I also feel in many ways this was the beginning of the journey with The Planets and every version will always evolve and be different.
LD: What was your favorite part of the project?
MK: This was the first time ever a visualist has been presented as the soloist with Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra. It is such an honor to be able to do this and to open doors for future collaborations like this. It is so important and it surely will resonate.
RELATED STORIES