Lightroom has announced a new 360-degree immersive experience for fans of David Bowie.
The London-based company, which creates IP-led immersive entertainment experiences, has unveiled details of David Bowie: You’re Not Alone, a new show featuring never-before-exhibited material that delves into the late pop icon’s career and artistry.
The multimedia show, produced by Lightroom and designed by 59, a Journey studio, opens on April 22 at Lightroom in King’s Cross. Visitors can see rare footage and hear special recordings selected from the vaults of the David Bowie Archive in New York, taking in material from Space Oddity through to Diamond Dogs and Bowie’s final album, Blackstar. A film anchors the exhibition, which is written and directed by 59’s Mark Grimmer and Tom Wexler.
Alongside a showcase of the British star’s landmark performances, audiences will hear newly reconfigured versions of his tracks in order to make best use of Lightroom's specialised spatial audio system.
According to press material, audiences are promised a “focus on the man behind the masks”. Instead of “magnifying the myth through the lens of his characters – Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, Halloween Jack, The Thin White Duke”, the show will spotlight “the provocateur, the polymath, the shapeshifting icon in his enduring, human form”.
The announcement comes in the wake of Bowie’s 1977 hit "Heroes" returning to the UK Top 40 after it appeared in the finale of Netflix series Stranger Things. A new heritage project for Bowie’s family home in Bromley was also launched last month, 10 years on from his death, amid growing interest in the star’s already popular catalogue.
To spend time in his world as it comes to life around you and to travel back and forth across the decades of astonishing performances, whether reliving them or experiencing them for the first time, is a total thrill
David Sabel
Mark Grimmer, writer and director of David Bowie: You’re Not Alone, said: “It says something about our relationship with artistic heroes that we're drawn to mystery, otherness, the alien... in Bowie's case, this is our construct, not his. Throughout his career, Bowie repeatedly resisted being figured as anything but human. Rather than undermining his mystique, we designed a show to celebrate Bowie as a champion of human creativity – focusing on the message he expressed time and again: that art, in all its forms, is our best hope for understanding what it means to be alive.”
David Sabel, executive producer at Lightroom, added: “Lightroom offers an incredible opportunity to step inside an artist’s imagination and creative universe – weaving film, photography, animation, text and music into a story that can only be experienced in this space. I cannot think of an artist more suited to this than David Bowie. To spend time in his world as it comes to life around you and to travel back and forth across the decades of astonishing performances, whether reliving them or experiencing them for the first time, is a total thrill. Working so closely with RZO and the David Bowie Archive has been a great privilege.”
News of Lightroom’s David Bowie: You’re Not Alone comes amid a growing appetite for immersive music experiences. In a recent issue of Music Week, we reported on opportunities for avatar-based music productions, expansion of immersive tech events, and more.
Last year, Reservoir Media invested in and provided new IP for Lightroom, which now hosts shows in more than 10 cities worldwide.
Lightroom opened its flagship London venue in February 2023 with its first show, a 60-year retrospective exhibit: David Hockney: Bigger And Closer.
With a focus on the IP around which it builds shows, Lightroom has launched three additional shows in its London venue: The Moonwalkers: A Journey with Tom Hanks, unfolding the story of the Apollo missions; Vogue: Inventing The Runway, exploring the history of the fashion runway narrated by Cate Blanchett and developed in collaboration with Anna Wintour; and its latest experience, Prehistoric Planet: Discovering Dinosaurs, with a score by Hans Zimmer.
Tickets for David Bowie: You're Not Alone are on sale now.
