Photo of Simon East

I am a creative technologist, sound artist, and composer working in the field of interactive installations and performances. I often work with quadraphonic and ambisonic surround sound. I also incorporate video into some of the works I produce.

My focus is on producing fully immersive, interactive pieces where participants have very clear feedback on what their input is adding to the work, such that they become part of the performance. Much of my work uses movement inputs from smartwatches or smartphones to trigger audio or visual responses.

Recent Work

Delia Derbyshire Day

November 2025, Manchester, UK

Delia Derbyshire Day asked myself and Katie Chatburn to run a Delia inspired surround sound installation as part of their 10 year anniversary event. The installation took audio created by sound artist and Delia Day organiser Caro C. We then animated those sounds with Flowfal and added the ability for participants to modulate these sounds with the kinds of effects that would have been available to Delia. This video shows the installation in action.

Oram 100 x FatOut Festival Workshop

November 2025, Salford, UK

Myself and vocalist, sound and performance artist Lou Barnell were commissioned by the Oram Awards to run a workshop as part of the Oram/100 tour Honouring Daphne Oram’s centenary, which was part of FatOut Festival for the Salford leg of the tour. Lou and I did a deep dive on using Flowfal and Envelop 4 Live to produce motion activated spatial audio visual performances and installations. This video gives an idea of what the workshop looked like.

Children's Capital of Culture

October 2025, Rotherham, UK

I was commissioned by Rotherham Children’s Capital of Culture to produce an interactive public installation to be run in the centre of Rotherham. Given the theme of computer game music, I wrote a set of ChipTune inspired tracks that the participants could trigger and move around a spatial sound setup, using Flowfal enabled digital wands. This video shows the installation in action.

Quob Festival

October 2025, Manchester, UK

I was asked to play a set at Quob Festival which was held in a woodland site in the Lake District. For this I made some field recordings of the woods, recorded some interviews with some of the attendees, and asked a few of them to sing. This was all incorporated into a performance where two audience members were given Flowfal enabled digital wands which they used to trigger various elements of the live tracks. The whole performance was in surround sound, with myself and the participants able to move the sounds they were controlling around the space. In addition, a third wand allowed another audience member to control the visuals accompanying the set. This is a video of the set.

Soothing Sounds of the City

September 2025, Coventry, UK

I was commissioned by Coventry Libraries and The Space to produce an interactive installation to be run in Coventry Central Library over two days. The installation took audio recorded in and around Coventry by sound artist Clare Savory. From the birdsong of Brandon Marsh and the soft pop of yellow gorse in Allesley Park to the bustle of Coventry Market and the echoes of Pool Meadow bus station, visitors were able to trigger the hidden sounds of their city and create their own 3D sound scape. This was part of Coventry Libraries Digital Spaces project, supported by The Space, in association with Arts Council England. This video shows the installation in action.

Deershed Festival

July 2025, Thirsk, UK

I was commissioned by Deershed Festival to run a family-friendly interactive installation over the three days of the 2025 festival. The participants used Flowfal enabled wands to trigger and move sounds around the space in 3D, allowing them to create movement-activated music tracks. This video shows the installation in action.

Kofi Mingo Collaboration

July 2025, London, UK

As Thunkist I have been collaborating with Kofi Mingo to add movement-controlled sound to his choreographic practice, in particular his work with an Acro Staff. In these pieces Kofi wears a Flowfal enabled watch on each wrist, and we attach a third watch to his Acro Staff. This video shows part of the work in progress.

Drake Music Lab

June 2025, London, UK

I was asked by Drake Music to present an interactive demonstration of Flowfal as part of their DMLab Sensory Special event. During the presentation the audience were given several Flowfal-enabled wands which they used to trigger and move sounds around the space. Photo by Martin Delaney.

Displace Yourself Installation

May 2025, Bradford, UK

I created a well-being focussed, movement-activated, interactive installation that was run in the Displace Yourself Theatre studios in Bradford. This event was run as part of the Bradford 2025 Creativity and Wellbeing Week, and supported by the Bradford 2025 Creative Health Team. The participants were given Flowfal enabled wands which they used to trigger and move sounds around the space in 3D. This video shows the installation in action.

Audience Controlled Music

July 2024 onwards, various locations, UK

As Thunkist I have been writing music that the audience at events can participate in performing, using movement from the Flowfal digital wands that I hand out. So far I have performed at multiple Electronic Music Open Mic nights around the UK: Ilkley Live, Leeds, Wakefield, Sowerby Bridge, Chorlton, Todmorden, Sheffield, Camden, Stoke-on-Trent, Bleep, Crux AV Festival and Leeds EMOM Fest.

Tech Art Fest

February 2025, Basildon, UK

I was commissioned by Tech Art Fest to create a movement-activated, immersive and interactive installation. This piece built on the music written for the Radiolarian project below. The participants were given two Flowfal enabled wands which they used to trigger and move sounds around the space in 3D. In addition, a third wand was given out that allowed them to manipulate two different 3D models of Radiolarians on two screens at each end of the space. This video shows the installation in action. This video shows the visuals in more detail.

Radiolarian

February 2025, Barrow-in-Furness, UK

I was commissioned by Full of Noises to make a movement activated sound piece which the audience could also interact with. The piece is inspired by the shells, made of exotic materials like pure opal or strontium, that microscopic creatures called Radiolarians produce. I controlled the music with two Flowfal enabled wands. A third wand was handed out to the audience which they used to trigger and move sounds around the space in 3D. Full video to come shortly.

Reaching Through The Rubble

February 2025, Barrow-in-Furness, UK

I was commissioned by Full of Noises , in collaboration with the Knotted Project , to make a movement activated, immersive dance work. The dancers were given Flowfal smartwatches which they used to trigger and move sounds around the space in 3D. This video shows some a short clip of making the work. Full video to come shortly.

Flowfal Workshop at BOM

January 2025, Birmingham, UK

I was commissioned by Birmingham Open Media to create dance technology workshop to be run as part of the Digital Black Dance Ecologies residential programme. The workshop introduced Flowfal as a different way of adding sound to a dance or movement performance, and allowed the participants to explore how they might integrate Flowfal or similar technologies into their work. This video shows Keith Alexander trying out Flowfal in the workshop.

Dance Workshops

November and December 2024, Ipswich and Worcester, UK

Rebecca Evans from Pell Ensemble and I were invited to create dance workshops for DanceEast Youth Fest and DanceFest. The dancers were given Flowfal smartwatches which they used to trigger and move sounds around the space in 3D. This video shows some of the DanceEast workshop.

Choreographic Coding Lab

July 2022, Chatham, UK

I was invited to attend this week long Choreographic Coding Lab Workshop with Rebecca Evans from Pell Ensemble, where we worked with other coders and performers to integrate Flowfal into a scratch performance.

Dovetailing Responses

November 2021, Ilkley, UK

I was commissioned by the creators of Dovetailing to contribute to the follow on Dovetailing Responses installation at the Manor House Museum in Ilkley. For this I took the original sound designs of the Responses video made by Clare Dearnaley and produced versions for my Movuku App that allowed visitors to add to the installation soundscape by making movements with their phone.

800 Lifetimes

August 2021, Bedford, UK

I was part of the team lead by Pell Ensemble that created 800 Lifetimes, a 45 minute contemporary dance, sound and voice performance around modern myth making with local communities. It is an immersive 360 sound performance that uses Flowfal to enable the dancers to move and manipulate the sound in the space in real time. This is a video of the process of making the performance.

Frequency Festival

October 2019, Lincoln, UK

I was commissioned by Frequency Festival to create a new immersive soundscape using Flowfal. Visitors were able to trigger sounds and move them in 3D space by moving around the smart watches they were given. This is a video of the installation.

All Ears

2017 to 2020, Ilkley, UK

I collaborated with Tom Beesley to set up All Ears listening club in Ilkley. For each session we invited 6 people to play 30 mins of music on a theme we agreed with them. Tom and I curated the themes and accompanying visuals for each night. In total we ran it on a total of 29 evenings over three years.

Wild Woods

October 2016, Bradford, UK

I was commissioned by the UnCommons Wild Woods festival to create a new immersive soundscape using Flowfal. This installation also included movement controlled visual effects. This is a video of the installation.

Sonolope Installations

2016 to 2018, various locations, UK

I collaborated with Maria Kapsali to create Sonolope which produced sound from movement using smartphones and Native Instruments Reaktor. We were commissioned to create installations at a number of events using Sonolope: the National Media Museum in Bradford, a Materiality Symposium at Leeds University, Verspertine in York, and the Metabody Conference at Brunel University. Videos of these various installations can be found on the Sonolope YouTube page.

Body Remixer

2014 to 2015, various locations, UK

Jane Wood and I were commissioned by Light Night Leeds to create a visual installation called Body Remixer for the October 2014 event. For this installation we captured portrait photos of participants which we then chopped up into three sections: head, body, and legs. We then mixed up these sections with those from other participants and projected the results onto the side of Leeds City Gallery. This is a video of the installation. We were asked to run this installation several times after that at: Nottingham Light Night, the National Media Museum, and for BBC 1xtra at Bradford College.

Contact

I am based near Leeds, in the UK.

Contact me via the social media links at the bottom of the page.

Or contact me via email me at: [email protected]