Part grime set, part lecture, part immersive installation, Elijah’s Yellow Squares come to life in an exclusive, hybrid, digital experience of Make The Ting 360º.
In a unique leap from live to digital, with support from The Space, world-renowned digital arts charity Lighthouse and independent venue The Old Market commissioned an exclusive full-length recording of Elijah’s Make The Ting 360º live from the event at the end of last year. It’s now available to watch online, along with an animated highlights edition, and an exclusive interactive 360º video, elevating access and interactivity for audiences. Shaping a performance that extends well beyond the stage, Elijah, Lighthouse and The Old Market have aligned emerging technologies with established means of connecting and collaborating with audiences; a mean feat in the context of our current cultural landscape.
December 2023 saw a brand new, one-of-a-kind immersive experience in Brighton. Elijah’s Yellow Squares made their 360º debut at The Old Market, funded by The Space, a national organisation that supports the cultural sector to be digitally innovative. Welcomed by a lively audience in the round, Make The Ting 360º is followed by this series of exclusive videos unique to the scene in its innovative, immersive, and original take on performance.
Described by an audience member as “exciting, accessible, inspiring, and brilliant”, Elijah’s debut Brighton performance was an industry first, bringing together an interactive lecture experience head to head with immersive, 360º technology – and a live grime MC set featuring Jammz.
The teams experimented with hybrid performance structures, reinventing what “immersive” can feel like for an audience – from wrapping the venue in 360º degrees of Elijah’s Yellow Squares to incorporating new dimensions of experience by live streaming through Meta glasses.
Make The Ting 360º is a fresh take on traditional live events made possible by The Space, an organisation committed to facilitating accessible, digitally innovative work across the cultural sector, whilst connecting artists with diverse audiences. Each video edition experiments with the jump from in-person performance to cross-community digital experiences. The full-length video captures the collaboration between grassroots arts organisation Lighthouse and independent venue The Old Market, with the suspension of the 360º camera from the ceiling providing a perspective rarely seen, as the audience’s live reactions are recorded in real-time.
This capture process was shared with the 2024 cohort of Lighthouse Young Creatives, providing the next generation of artists and thinkers with unique insight into immersive binaural sound, audio edits, and the intricacies of 360º viewing platforms. The animated video of Royal T’s digital work, also accessible online, brings Elijah’s Yellow Squares to life in a slick 10-minute highlight reel, adding further depth to the once static work.
As Jammz shared, “this was just one iteration” of the experience, with the event becoming an experiment in how we engage with the work from both ‘inside’ and beyond the yellow square; a process that will continue well beyond the immediate scope of the work.
“We’ve got to have different ways of presenting work now – we’ve done DJing, we’ve done pirate radio, we’ve done raves, we’ve done concerts; let’s try other stuff man, let’s make it interesting.”
Elijah speaks of his experimentation with performative formats, “taking the squares out of Instagram and X into real life”, finishing the event by writing one-of-one statements on the aptly blank yellow square of his vinyl albums.
One audience member said, “I’ll be honest; I came here not knowing what the event was or what to expect, but after hearing everyone’s questions and Elijah’s responses to them… it’s interesting, it’s really interesting.” Another audience member shared; “there are people from all different walks of life here – if I look behind me there’s someone in their sixties, if I look beside me there are people in their twenties – seeing different people come together to learn and collaborate; it’s really beautiful”.
About Elijah
Elijah is a London-based writer, DJ, artist manager, and co-founder of the iconic record label, Butterz. He shares his thoughts on sustainable artistic creation, electronic music, grime, web3, community, social media and his various other interests in short notes, known as the Yellow Squares on Instagram and X (formerly Twitter).
Having worked with Lighthouse as Associate Artistic Director (2017-18), Elijah has a longstanding relationship with arts organisations in and beyond the music industry, with the yellow squares making their way onto billboards and into football stadiums, as well as lecture halls across the globe.
Since 2021, Elijah has been sharing his 15 years of experience in and beyond the music industry through his Yellow Squares, a digital phenomenon that has made its way offline into both a lecture series and an eight track album created with Grime MC, Jammz. “Make The Ting” was written and recorded in just seven days, with each track exploring the Yellow Squares as a gesture towards creative freedom and digital experimentation, with over one hundred listeners “remixing the ting” and producing their own original responses to the work.
@eli1ah
About Lighthouse
Lighthouse is a charity that supports artists who use digital technology in their work. Their vision is a diverse and inclusive creative sector where digital art and artists are valued and thriving; where everyone, regardless of class, gender or ethnicity, has the confidence to enjoy cultural experiences; the opportunity to unlock their potential; and where every young person is empowered to explore a creative career.
Their mission is to nurture the next generation of diverse, talented, creative people working with digital art and innovative creative technologies; and to support them to become leaders themselves, building a richer cultural landscape for the future.
@lighthouse_btn
About The Old Market (co-commissioning partner and host venue)
The Old Market (TOM) is Brighton and Hove’s Independent venue; started by artists and run by a team of creatives. With a passion for seeing things in new ways and creating fresh, relevant experiences to engage, excite and inspire a diverse audience, they encourage risk taking; presenting new voices and innovative concepts.
@tomvenue
About The Space (funder)
The Space is the UK’s leading digital agency working in the cultural sector. Originally founded by the BBC and Arts Council England, the company supports arts, cultural and heritage organisations across the UK to build skills and produce digital creative content for online and broadcast platforms, as well as site-specific digital experiences. thespace.org | @thespacearts | linktr.ee/TheSpaceDigital
ENDS
Written by Elsa Monteith, part of Lighthouse’s Young Steering Group, supported and funded by Art Fund.
For interview requests or further information please contact [Niamh Hicks] at [niamh@lighthouse.org.uk]
Download press images here
Link to full performance here
