Ström 

(2008) 

by Mattias Petersson (music) and Fredrik Olofsson (video) is, in its full version, a 45-minute minimalistic piece for five loudspeakers, live-electronics and live-video, based on an open-minded, artistic approach towards electricity.

Ström by Mattias Petersson (music) and Fredrik Olofsson (video) is, in its full version, a 45-minute minimalistic piece for five loudspeakers, live-electronics and live-video, based on an open-minded, artistic approach towards electricity. The piece is an attempt to transfer electric currents via sound to the audience. The five speakers in the surround system struggles to take over the sonic stream like electro-magnets. Sine waves and noise rotates with breakneck speeds around the listeners, tries to charge them with static electricity and, as an ultimate goal, even make them levitate.

The video part is in direct connection with the sound and is generated out of five discrete lines – one for each channel in the surround system. The lines are treated in different ways, and as the high voltage builds up in the music they look more and more like electric wires, inflicting each other with violent discharges and eruptions.

 

DVD released on Fylkingen Records in 2008.

 

Source: Mattias Petersson

 

 

Ström, super collider, stripes, Video Clip, Code

Reading

Synesthesia: A Union of the Senses (2002) by Richard E. Cytowic disposes of earlier criticisms that the phenomenon cannot be real, demonstrating that it is indeed brain-based. Following a historical introduction, Cytowic lays out the phenomenology of synesthesia in detail and gives criteria for clinical diagnosis and an objective test of genuineness. (MIT Press)

Sons et Lumières (2004) – A History of Sound in the Art of the 20th Century (in French) by Marcella Lista and Sophie Duplaix published by the Centre Pompidou for the excellent Paris exhibition in September 2004 until January 2005.


Curated by the Pompidou’s Sophie Duplaix with the Louvre’s Marcella Lista, the show required a good three or four hours to absorb, with its bombardment of sensory and intellectual input, including painting, sound sculpture, sound/light automata, film and video, and room-size installations. (Frieze Magazine)

 

SEE ALSO

Spectral Strands/ Saariaho: Vent nocturne (2010) by Garth Knox performing viola (at times with electronic treatments) and Brian O'Reilly manipulating real time visualizations. The moving images use source materials based on extreme close up footage Brian O'Reilly shot of Garth performing on the viola, then processed using Tom Demeyer's ImX software, with further editing and transformations using FCP to create the fixed form presented here. The music Vent nocturne for viola and electronics was composed by Kaija Saariaho for the project and is dedicated to Garth. (Brian O'Reilly on Vimeo)

Chronomops (2005) by Tina Frank opens up a shimmering, colorful space that is simultaneously an excess of color, frenzy of perception, and pop carousel. An abstract architecture of vertical color bars is set in endless rotation, whereby the modules and building blocks fly around themselves—and the entire system likewise rotates. The forced movement forms a digital maelstrom whose suction pulls the observer deep into it. (Tina Frank)

Itaru Yasuda (1984) is a Japanese audiovisual artist. Based in Tokyo. Focusing on computational audiovisual composition. Representative of a new generation of composers in this field, Itaru Yasuda takes algorithmic composition to levels of intricacy that years ago would have required a warehouse full of computer processing. These days, with the help of software like SuperCollider, audiovisual work can reach new levels of expression without the hindrance of hardware or technological boundaries. This might just be a sneak peak into the future. (Itaru Yasuda)

Jost Muxfeldt (*1959) is a German/American artist, composer, and philosopher, who almost exclusively uses electronic media and computers. His work often focuses on trans-media and phenomenology, exploring the rational and irrational channels between artistic and conceptual disciplines, and pursuing their self-transfiguring implications. (Jost Muxfeldt)

Memo Akten (1975) is a visual artist, musician and engineer working at the intersection of art and technology. With a focus on creating emotional and memorable experiences, his work ranges from live music/dance/theatre performances, large-scale immersive interactive installations, music videos; to online works and mobile applications. He has given talks and workshops around the world and is currently on the selection committee of Siggraph. (Mehmet Akten)