Video artist / Projection Designer
Martyn has worked with video in a live context for as long as he has created performance works. He has worked as a VJ, Video designer for theatre and dance, projection technician and interactive video designer for participatory projects.
As a projection designer / video artist, Martyn’s designs have appeared in works that have been presented at Melbourne Festival, Perth International Arts Festival, Ten Days on the Island, Mona Foma and Dance Massive. He has worked with the following companies and creators; Brian Lipson, James Saunders, Tasdance, Terrapin Puppet Theatre, Stuck Pigs Squealing, Arena Theatre Company, Is Theatre, Kelly Ryall, Luke George, Dancehouse, Stompin, Tania Bosak, Nicola Gunn, The Rabble, Paula Lay and Clovelly Fox. He was the recipient of a Victorian Green Room Award for the video design on The Harry Harlow Project in 2009, a work undertook out a national Mobile States tour in 2011.
Martyn’s most recent Video Designs were for Elegies with Clovelly Fox at 45 Downstairs and Apologia with Nicola Gunn at Malthouse.
Reviews of work:
Martyn Coutts' live video art is the show's highlight. Saunders' performance is ghosted in black-and-white projection, the images warped to create a sense of disorienting isolation. They also suggest that, in Harlow's lab, the observer and the observed are linked in a destructive dance.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2009/11/29/1259429301627.html
But while Harlow’s lot is to be eternally caged with his own demons, Saunders has ensured that the production itself is not the result of a single vision—rather, much of the work’s shape is defined by his collaborators. Martyn Coutts and Kelly Ryall provided live video and aural components to Saunders’ solo performance, where projected monkey footage and fascinating sequences wherein Harlow engages with ghostly doubles of himself or his shadow offered some of the most striking moments.
http://www.realtimearts.net/article/95/9762
Martyn Coutts’ video design is unobtrusive yet breathtakingly effective, conjuring heartrending phantom monkeys and parallel versions of Harlow himself.
http://www.artshub.com.au/au/news-article/reviews/performing-arts/the-harry-harlow-project-185368
The stage becomes a slapstick simulacra of Harlow's psyche, with some deft video work by Martyn Coutts and a subliminally disturbing score by Kelly Ryall framing a bravura performance by Saunders.
http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com/2009/12/review-harry-harlow-project.html
Video designer Martyn Coutts’ backdrop – a projected suburban kitchen subtly micro-shifting in its viewpoint and slowly drifting to our left, is used to great effect. First presaging then showing a tragic delivery using a simple figure silhouette in a doorway in-filled with crackling pre-digital television static-screen patterns that eventually consume the tableau.
http://www.artshub.com.au/au/news-article/reviews/performing-arts/apocalypse-bear-trilogy-179408
The performance at Theatre Works is remarkably finely micro managed. Lighting, sound, projections (Emma Valente and Martyn Coutts) and the human bodies of performers, Luisa Hastings Edge, Emily Milledge, Dana Miltins and Nikki Shiels work in outstanding synchronicity to produce startlingly crisply timed images.
https://www.stagewhispers.com.au/reviews/joan
Projections by Martyn Coutts and Lara Gabor are a standout, serving as a well-placed centrepiece that adds dynamism to the production. Featuring names and black-and-white photographs by the director’s brother, Trent Parke, these projections infuse a touch of romantic nostalgia.
https://limelight-arts.com.au/reviews/elegies-a-song-cycle-clovelly-fox-productions/
…Martyn Coutts’ clever use of rear screen projections. This is most effective during the graveyard scene and closing number.
…incorporating elegant silhouettes and projections, designed by Martyn Coutts.