Land Rover Transformer - Buzzbeak Week 4

Inspired by his love of Transformers lore, artist Sumit Sarkar will work with engineer Duncan Turner to transform a Landrover into a giant musical interactive condor.. The idea for Engine Tuning stemmed out of the tragic death of a young person, Stuart Henderson, in a car accident in Shetland. Stuart was a member of the Shetland Youth Theatre, and Engine Tuning was originally envisaged as a sculpture project preparing the way for Ignition, a large scale theatre piece being developed by Shetland Arts in partnership with the National Theatre of Scotland. Engine Tuning has since grown a life of its own, and is being co-produced by UZ Arts and Shetland Arts, working with artist Sumit Sarkar, engineer Duncan Turner and a team of technicians, musicians and members of the local community. Engine Tuning is now part of a wider national project Roofless involving four other locations across Scotland, funded through Creative Scotland. It will tour nationally as part of the Roofless project and internationally in mainland Europe as a high profile event for the Year of Creative Scotland 2012 which is expected to receive national and international media coverage. The condor, Buzzbeak, will sonically interact with it's audience, recording, remixing and playing back inputted sounds and music, both live and pre-recorded. This can either be done publicly by playing or singing to the bird, or more privately by going into a specially designed music booth, housed in the control car, a second Landrover, kitted out with music players from down the generations - mp3 player, CD player, cassette deck, record player, etc.. The condor, aided by an electronica artist from Shetland, will remix and play back re-mixed selections from the musical excerpts the condor has received. The control car will also be used to tow the bird's trailer. At the end of four country show tours in Shetland, Buzzbeak will make a final appearance at a venue in Lerwick where there will be a cinematic performance in which viewers will witness the apparent transformation of the car into a robotic condor, using 3D animation and video mapping, with a score created by Shengi, a musician from North West England. This celebratory event will also include a debut performance of a specially commissioned composition by the local electronica artist, created from the musical excerpts gifted to the bird. Engine Tuning will tour nationally to the other four locations involved in Roofless as well as around Europe.

Added 5 Apr 2026