Bournemouth University Workshop

Alex May spent two days at Bournemouth University leading a Painting With Light video-mapping workshop, introducing participants to his custom software through practical experiments with projection, objects, and space. The workshop focused on what happens when moving image is treated as something physical and contingent, shaped by the surfaces it meets and by the decisions made in the room.

What stands out in the source account is the range of behaviours that emerged once participants started testing the system for themselves. Several people projected into the same area at once, creating overlapping and unstable compositions, while others combined Max/MSP with Painting With Light’s OSC controls to build a sound-reactive installation. Balloons, foil, cling-film, kitchen roll, books, and masks all became part of the process, turning ordinary materials into temporary structures for light.

The workshop matters within May’s wider practice because it shows the project operating as an open method rather than a fixed performance. Instead of simply demonstrating a finished piece, May used the software to let participants discover their own ways of working with projection, rhythm, and material transformation. That makes the workshop a clear extension of the same concerns that run through the wider practice: perception, experimentation, and the unstable meeting point between digital systems and the physical world.