Veuve Clicquot goes to the races with Jason Bruges

Jason Bruges Studio is creating a series of installations to support Veuve Clicquot’s sponsorship of a series of English summer sports events.

The interactive designer is creating three 240m2 displays made from more than 30 silken flags, that can both capture and display the speed and ‘insanity’ of sports events.

The pieces will take centre stage at the events, including the Festival of Speed at racing venue Goodwood and a polo match at Cowdray Park, for which designer Nigel Coates is creating the trophy.

Using tracking-system technology, the flag installations will play back a simulated version of the race or match for the audiences gathered on the track or field.

Bruges’ 4m-high flags are designed to individually point at the cars or horses at the events, and collectively generate a representation of their movements.

Each car or horse creates through its movement a unique fabric notation on the flags, in response to the strategy of each driver or rider.

‘We are using flags to display the sequences because they have traditional racing and polo connotations,’ says Bruges.

‘The intention is that the atmosphere of the high-speed events will emerge as pixel patterns of motion as the cloth moves through the air,’ he adds.

At the end of the match or race, the data that has been recorded on to a computer will play back the day’s movement as a performance after events.

Bruges, who is currently the champagne brand’s artist-in-residence, was appointed to the project in February.