Revolving Realities 

(2010) 

by Interpalazzo (Martin Hesselmeier, Andreas Muxel and Carsten Goertz) together with composer Marcus Schmickler, who created the sound composition specifically for this project.

The network of luminescent cables are the edges of an array of invisible intersecting planes. If we stand still and close one eye, our depth perception is temporarily suspended and we can experience fleeting moments of illusory flatness, as the brightness of the cables is perceived as uniform and space is fragmented into spontaneous geometry. Yet as soon as we begin moving again we are delighted with the dynamic interplay of the cables as they expand and contract in relation to our position in the garage.

The vector space can be understood as a force field which interacts with the object. The object's surface fluctuates and shimmers under impossible lighting schema, granting it with a simulated inner life. Its virtual innards are intermittently revealed to us; we experience the object as a simulated 3D solid that is sliced by invisible planes of the vector space. The array of audiovisual vectors define the invisible planes which cut through the sculptural object, amplifying its energy into an architectural orbit of audiovisual synaesthetic activity. The multi-channel audio fills the parking garage to create a volumetric sonic field. Each strand of electro-luminescent cable is mapped to one audio channel and is programmed to react to variations in the sonic signal.

As time passes we recognize that this wholly synthetic space has a personality, albeit one which we actively participate in creating. It seems to be in dialog with itself; oscillating between modes of moody contemplation, childish curiosity and confrontational antics. We recognize the system as a model for consciousness; it amuses itself and we witness its abstract ruminations as tangible spatial mutations. The complexity of its dramaturgy is tantamount to the implosion of the orchestra and the ballet; each element collapsing and unifying the roles of instrument and dancer, creating an ensemble of synapses.

As the object's surface ebbs and flows by means of digital projection surface-mapping, it allows us to superposition it across various archetypes of the digital age. One moment it is a lost polygon from an esoteric video game landscape; the next moment its a mysterious engine from an alien spaceship, or perhaps a novel form of matter which is both crystalline and liquid at once.

This hypercubist sculpture its surface moving in time while its volume remains paradoxically still is a fractal seed for the expression of future media universes and our role within them. We can traverse the vector space freely; no particular vantage point is privileged. The cables and sculptural object transcend their mundane physicality into grand metaphor, the activity of which comprises both a digital ritual and an analog prototype for a not-yet-invented digital medium. If we allow our imaginations to project into the future, our encounter with th e installation provokes an impending sense of the holographic.

(Exerpt from review by Gabriel Shalom, media theorist, videomusican and artist, January 2010)

 

Source: Dornbracht

 

 

The installation is the latest instalment in the Dornbracht Edges series featuring projects in which architecture, design and art intersect, curated by Mike Meiré.

Interpalazzo is a collective of media artists. For Revolving Realities, Interpalazzo (Martin Hesselmeier, Andreas Muxel und Carsten Goertz) have teamed up with composer Marcus Schmickler, who created the sound composition specifically for this project.

 

Source: Meiré und Meiré

 

 

Revolving Realities, *****, vvvv, architecture, Installation

Reading

Digital Harmony (1980): On the Complementarity of Music and Visual Art – John Whitney, Sr. wanted to create a dialog between "the voices of light and tone." All of his early experiments in film and the development of sound techniques lead toward this end. He felt that music was an integral part of the visual experience; the combination had a long history in man's primitive development and was part of the essence of life. His theories On the complementarity of Music and Visual Art were explained in his book, Digital Harmony, published by McGraw-Hill in 1980. (Paradise 2012)

Computer Music Journal: Visual Music (2005) - The articles in this issue are all devoted to the topic of Visual Music: audiovisual creations in which the artist strives to endow the video component with formal and abstract qualities that mimic those of musical composition. (Computer Music Journal)

Notations 21 (2009) by Theresa Sauer features illustrated musical scores from more than 100 international composers, all of whom are making amazing breakthroughs in the art of notation. Notations 21 is a celebration of innovations in musical notation, employing an appreciative aesthetic for both the aural and visual beauty of these creations. The musical scores in this edition were created by composers whose creativity could not be confined by the staff and clef of traditional western notation, but whose musical language can communicate with the contemporary audience in a uniquely powerful way. (Notations 21 Project)

 

SEE ALSO

Chromophore (2013) by Paul Prudence is a real-time audio-visual performance work that uses a bi-directional communication between audio and visual systems to create colour-shape-sound modalities. Made with VVVV. (Paul Prudence)

Alex Rutterford is a British director and graphic designer working mostly on music videos. He studied graphic design at the Croydon School of Art and graduated in 1991. His most well-known works include the videos for Gantz Graf by Autechre, Verbal by Amon Tobin and Go to Sleep by Radiohead. (Wikipedia)

Paul Prudence is an artist and real-time visual performer working with generative and computational systems. He is particularly interested in the ways in which sound, space and form can be synthaesthetically amalgamated. 

Paul Prudence has performed and lectured at numerous international shows, festivals and conferences. Researcher and writer at Dataisnature. (Transphormetic)

Do While (1995) by Sebastian Oschatz is the 24-minute opener of 94 Diskont, arguably one of the most radical electronic albums of the 1990s. Oval equally drew praise and controversy for their assault on techno's restrictions by literally deconstructing music and digital audio by using X-acto knives, paint, and tape to damage the surfaces of CDs, only to stitch it back together in loops of melody punctuated by the CD's physical skips. (Stylus)

Chris Cunningham (1970) is an English music video film director and video artist. He was born in Reading, Berkshire and grew up in Lakenheath, Suffolk. Chris Cunningham has had close ties to Warp Records since his first production for Autechre. Videos for Aphex Twin's Come to Daddy and Windowlicker are perhaps his best known. His video for Björk's All Is Full of Love won multiple awards, including an MTV music video award for "Breakthrough Video" and was nominated for a Grammy for "Best Short Form" Music Video. His video for Aphex Twin's Windowlicker was nominated for the "Best Video" award at the Brit Awards 2000. He also directed Madonna's Frozen video. (Wikipedia)