Rechord

Who

Stefan Cartwright, Rachel Collinson and Louise Carrier

Where

London

What

Interactive communicators

Age

One year

Routes to Rechord

Cartwright: recording artist/ producer, audiovisual environment designer. Collinson: 11 years on-line experience. Carrier: information design postgraduate from Central St Martins College of Art and Design. ‘Learning from Andy Cameron and Andy Allenson of Antirom/ Romandson for an MA in Hypermedia Studies was fundamental to developing our style and working methods.’

Define your work and output

‘Free jazz programming. Emphasis on sound. Experiences, environments, personalisation. Enabling people to create for themselves.’

Sample descriptor

‘We create spaces in worldy places which respond to movement, light, sound… installations to play with and inspire participation.’

Sample projects

AV installations and on-line environments for Greenpeace, Romandson (ex Antirom) and Creative Futures.

What work will you be showing at Digital Solutions?

‘Cubop; a piece developed purely as a space where people can play and create in music and colour, showing the medium as we think it should be used.’

On Rechord’s aims

‘From inception we intended to integrate our values and exploration as artists and commercial work into one. And saying no to work which doesn’t resonate has opened doors which have been fruitful.’

Such as?

‘We turned down a job with a large corporate client due to its dismal track record concerning people and the environment. A week later we were invited to take part in an exhibition. Observing people interacting with the installation there was inspiring, plus it generated some interesting new business relationships and allowed us to touch people, some of whom have become friends.’

Where would you say your work fits into current interaction design?

‘There’s a lot of noise in this world and we hopefully introduce some space.’

And future interaction design?

‘We have an interactive TV project we expect to be highly influential in developing good quality content for a technology starved of imagination.’

Who’s work do you admire?

‘Antirom, John Maeda, James Tindall, Daniel Liebeskind, Ellesworth Kelly, Adrian Frutiger, Mondrian.’

Client vs creative needs

‘Each project is a partnership – we like to write a joint brief as prescriptive briefs can easily miss the point. It takes constant communication, managing expectations, being open. Honesty and trust are very important.’

Which pieces are you particularly happy with?

‘We are never 100 per cent happy – it’s an ongoing process of learning and applying. But special mentions go to Cubop and Play Rechord (a play zone within the rechord.com website) and the new on-line environment for Greenpeace UK.’

Work or play?

‘We aim to make all our work playful.’

Is your work more effective in physical or virtual space?

‘It’s effective in both, but we get high on developing immersive environments which inspire audience interaction with sound, colour, tasty food and so on.’

Website

www.rechord.com