Melody Lines

Utilising an intricate overhead conveyor system, Melody Lines weaved through Carraigework’s public space like a multi-dimensional drawing, carrying a stream of objects that split and refract light into many-hued colours and spectra. The overhead industrial conveyer belt was modelled from a line drawing that echoes the history of the industrial site. Melody Lines is a reimagining of the industrial assembly line that once inhabited this space. The coloured glass and florescent tubes journey across the conveyor belt overlaying transparencies and refracting light across the space. With support of theatre lighting technicians, Manning created an evolving lighting program. As the lights transitioned through planned sequences they would project colours through different areas of the space, evolving the artwork's presence throughout the day, and highlighting different facets of the space's industrial architecture. Projections of the hued colours would travel accross the space and overlay. Natural lighting, chance shadow plays, and the evolving use of the space are in a constant state of interaction with Melody Lines—with the artwork sitting in a state of constant intake and projection—building its own colour rythm that consumes all matter of surfaces in the space. The repitition and rhythm of the vertically suspended assembly line—made up of coloured glass panels and unlit fluorescent tubes—come to represent a visual music notation.