"Voodoo Lounge" 1994 - The Rolling Stones

"Voodoo Lounge" 1994
The Rolling Stones

Photo © Mark Fisher

By the time the Rolling Stones began preparations for their next tour in 1994, many of the ideas and visual influences that had informed Fisher's design for "Steel Wheels" had been superseded by new cultural representations of the future. The cyberpunk genre of science-fiction writing had passed its peak, and the technological dystopian visions of the future were being replaced by more optimistic accounts of what commentators perceived as the emerging information age.

Drawing © Mark Fisher

Whilst in the design of the "Steel Wheels" set Fisher had been able to draw on powerful industrial architecture of the nineteenth and twenties centuries, this latest theme presented the impossibility of imagining a future in which the underlying economy is essentially invisible, and based on ethereal flow of information rather than tangible manufactured products. Indeed, Fisher had observed that the only major visual manifestation of this new economy has been the @ symbol introduced by e-mail, which has become a ubiquitous graphic signifier for the information age.
Fisher gave the project the working title of Gigabyte City and the stage designs presented the audience with an alternative future, "a place filled with computers in which people traffic information".

Photo © Mark Fisher

Working with a new title; "Voodoo Lounge" and a more sensual mood Fisher examined the social implications of technology, and in particular the deep- seated popular fear of the Information Age caused by an increasing abstraction and depersonalisation of the world.
Of particular interest were the ways in which people attempt to overcome "techno-fear", often turn towards the mythical or supernatural to defend themselves against an invisible technological force.
The design that developed from his research was illustrated in a series of collages, and became a disturbingly surreal inflatable tableau formed out of a series of incongruous icons.

Excerpts from:
'Mark Fisher - Staged Architecture'
by Eric Holding
Wiley-Academy

Links

The Mark Fisher Studio
Archietctural Monograph No 52 "Mark Fisher - Staged Architecture"

Mark Fisher arcspace features





				Features
		"Voodoo Lounge" 1994 The Rolling Stones Photo © Mark Fisher By the time the Rolling Stones began preparations for their next tour in 1994, many of the ideas and visual influences that had informed Fisher's design for "Steel Wheels" had been superseded by new cultural representations of the future. The cyberpunk genre of science-fiction writing had passed its peak, and the technological dystopian visions of the future were being replaced by more optimistic accounts of what commentators perceived as the emerging information age. Drawing © Mark Fisher Whilst in the design of the "Steel Wheels" set Fisher had been able to draw on powerful industrial architecture of the nineteenth and twenties centuries, this latest theme presented the impossibility of imagining a future in which the underlying economy is essentially invisible, and based on ethereal flow of information rather than tangible manufactured products. Indeed, Fisher had observed that the only major visual manifestation of this new economy has been the @ symbol introduced by e-mail, which has become a ubiquitous graphic signifier for the information age. Fisher gave the project the working title of Gigabyte City and the stage designs presented the audience with an alternative future, "a place filled with computers in which people traffic information". Photo © Mark Fisher Working with a new title; "Voodoo Lounge" and a more sensual mood Fisher examined the social implications of technology, and in particular the deep- seated popular fear of the Information Age caused by an increasing abstraction and depersonalisation of the world. Of particular interest were the ways in which people attempt to overcome "techno-fear", often turn towards the mythical or supernatural to defend themselves against an invisible technological force. The design that developed from his research was illustrated in a series of collages, and became a disturbingly surreal inflatable tableau formed out of a series of incongruous icons. Excerpts from: 'Mark Fisher - Staged Architecture' by Eric Holding Wiley-Academy Links The Mark Fisher Studio Archietctural Monograph No 52 "Mark Fisher - Staged Architecture" Mark Fisher arcspace features