Designing the Atmosphere: Notes from a Live Visual Director Adetunle Sunday Michael

In contemporary live performance, some forms of authorship are immediately visible. Others are
experienced first and felt in the room before they are consciously noticed. The work of Adetunle Sunday Micheal, also known as Micheal Able, belongs to this second category.

Working as a live visual director and digital artist, Micheal Able has emerged as one of a small number of practitioners in Nigeria shaping how large audiences experience performance through atmosphere, spatial design, and visual pacing. His practice operates across concerts, worship gatherings, and large-scale cultural events, where light, structure, and digital imagery are treated not as decorative elements but as central components of meaning. Live visual direction remains an underdefined discipline within Nigeria’s creative landscape.

Its tools are often absorbed into technical production and rarely discussed as a cohesive artistic practice. Micheal’s work stands out for insisting on that cohesion and for approaching live performance as an environment to be designed rather than a stage to be filled.

Sunmisola Live / Prophetic Worship Medley (2023)

This approach is most clearly articulated in Sunmisola Live / Prophetic Worship Medley (2023), recorded at The Civic Centre, Lagos, Nigeria, where Micheal served as Creative Director and Stage Production Designer. The project marked a defining moment in his practice, both in scale and in conceptual clarity. Rather than treating the stage as a neutral platform, Micheal approached it as a spatial narrative. Lighting, structure, and movement were composed to sustain emotional continuity across the performance, allowing moments of intensity and stillness to coexist without visual rupture. The environment did not compete with the music. It held it.
The recording of the event has since reached over 5.3 million views on YouTube, extending its life far beyond the original audience. Its significance, however, lies less in digital circulation than in the coherence of its visual thinking. What emerges is a carefully constructed atmosphere that guides attention subtly and without spectacle for its own sake. The project suggests a growing confidence in Micheal’s visual authorship, one that is restrained, deliberate, and responsive to space.

“We Behold” from Qavah Conference (Qavah Anthem), Abbey Ojomu (2022)

An earlier articulation of this sensibility can be found in “We Behold,” an extract from Qavah Conference (Qavah Anthem) by Abbey Ojomu, recorded at Solution Arena, Lagos, Nigeria, during Qavah Conference (2022).
In this project, Micheal served as Creative Live Visual Director, shaping the visual environment for a worship gathering that required emotional attentiveness rather than visual dominance. Within the expansive scale of the venue, Micheal’s direction resisted excess. Lighting transitions unfolded gradually, visual cues followed the musical arc, and spatial openness was preserved rather than filled. The camera responded to an atmosphere that had already been carefully established. The resulting video has accumulated over 4 million views online. Its lasting impact lies in its clarity of intention. Micheal’s visual direction does not impose itself on the moment. Instead, it creates the conditions for the performance to resonate on its own terms.

This project reveals a defining aspect of his practice, an understanding that visual authorship in live performance often involves knowing when to recede. Beyond Individual Events Although worship contexts feature prominently in Micheal’s most widely circulated work, his practice extends beyond any single genre.

He has applied the same principles to orchestral performances, jazz showcases, cultural exhibitions, and large-scale public events, adapting his visual language to each environment rather than repeating a fixed aesthetic. Across these varied settings, a consistent question appears to guide the work. What does this moment require visually. Sometimes the answer is complexity. Often, it is simplicity. It always involves attentiveness to performers, space, and audience.

Toward an Emerging Discipline

Live visual direction remains an emerging field within Nigeria’s creative economy, practiced by a small number of individuals working across performance, design, and digital art. Micheal’s work contributes to the gradual articulation of this discipline through sustained practice, scale, and refinement rather than declaration. As live events grow more conceptually ambitious and audiences become more visually aware, the role of atmosphere becomes increasingly central. Designing that atmosphere is not incidental work. It is a form of authorship that requires sensitivity, collaboration, and trust.

Looking Forward

Micheal’s body of work reads as a practice still unfolding, shaped by each new venue, each new audience, and each new constraint. What remains consistent is an understanding that the most enduring visual experiences are not always the ones that draw attention to themselves. They are the ones that allow a moment to settle and remain with the audience long after the lights fade.

Benson Idonije is a veteran Nigerian music and cultural critic and broadcaster, with decades of experience writing about live performance, cultural practice, and the evolving landscape of the creative arts in Nigeria.

Written by Benson Idonije, music and cultural critic
June 18, 2024