Shift is a site-specific light installation commissioned by the Royal Northern College of Music. The work responds to the building’s Brutalist staircase, using projection to work directly with its structure and surface.
Drawing on the idea of transformation, the installation maps light across the staircase’s concrete forms, accentuating its geometry, edges and depth. Patterns move across the steps and walls in cycles, building in intensity before receding, creating a sense of continual change within a fixed structure.

Rather than softening the architecture, Shift works with its material qualities - sharp lines, weight and repetition. Light is used to trace, interrupt and reframe these elements, shifting how the staircase is read as the piece unfolds.

Colour plays a key role within the work, moving between restrained tones and more saturated moments, helping to guide the rhythm of the piece. These changes are paced to draw attention to different parts of the structure, encouraging the viewer to look again at a space they might otherwise pass through.
The installation repositions a functional route through the building as a place to pause, using light to alter perception and reveal new qualities within the architecture.