Maroon 5

On 22 March, live from London, Coca-Cola and Maroon 5 tore down the virtual walls of the recording studio and brought fans from around the world together for an unforgettable moment. BA Graphic and Media Design – Design for Interaction and Moving Image student Kate Pincott, who is interning at Nexus as part of her year out on the Diploma in Professional Studies (DPS), was involved in the production of the event.

Kate comments:

“I was one of two students from LCC’s DPS year out who worked as runner’s for Nexus Productions at Maroon 5′s 24 Hour Live Session sponsored by Coca-Cola.  It started on 22 March and went on into the night for one epic session, where fans were invited to inspire the band as they composed an original song in just 24 hours. This was enabled by innovative interactive projection technology designed and made by Helicar and Lewis.

As runners we gained excellent production knowledge, freelance running experience and some great contacts for the future.”

During the project, the studio was fitted out with cutting edge technology to allow the band to communicate with fans from across the world. The interactions were centered on a movement based projection system that streamed the thoughts, inspiration and comments of fans onto the studio walls and direct to the band.  Rather than gathering around a computer to access suggestions, and questions from fans, a specially-constructed surface in the studio was the canvas that enabled the band to interact directly with fans.

Throughout the 24 hours, fans were asked to send in words, pictures and comments to inspire the creation of the song and even had a chance to ask Maroon 5 questions and help with critical decisions by voting for different options put to them.

Joe Belliotti, Director of Global Entertainment Marketing, The Coca-Cola Company comments:

“Coca-Cola has a long history of using the power of music to bring people together from around the world in the most relevant and compelling ways. We were excited to be working with Maroon 5. They have a huge global following and a strong track record of producing great music. They have worked closely with us to help shape the event and ensure the session will be a fun experience for fans no matter where in the world they are.”

Joel Gethan Lewis explains the interactive elements of the project in the YouTube video below.

You can check out the highlights from the live session on the Coke Website. The website also features a free, downloadable mp3 of the final song. For the first 100,000 downloads Coca-Cola will make a donation to RAIN (The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation’s Replenish Africa Initiative), an initiative which provides clean water to people in Africa.