Just back from Melbourne, where I came across VOLUME, a fantastic installation in Federation Square.
The installation is the brain-child of the UK's United Visual Artists, known for their work with U2, Massive Attack, The Arctic Monkeys and others. With a soundtrack arranged by Neil Davidge and Robert Del Naja of Massive Attack, this incredible fusion of light and sound is realized through a forest of luminous LED columns which light up Federation Square.
The columns respond spectacularly to human movement and visitors walk, crawl, jump and dance their way through this interactive installation.
VOLUME is part of a series in 'The Light in Winter', Federation Square's annual winter festival for Melbourne centred around light. Directed by Robyn Archer, The Light in Winter brings together artists, designers and communities to explore their ideas of light, enlightenment and hope.
For more 2009 Light in Winter events, see their program, here.
We welcome back to Brisbane, New Yorker internet music pioneers William Duckworth and Nora Farrel who were with us for the iOrpheus project in 1997.
This time, they're here to inaugurate a multi-year project titled Sonic Babylon, an art project planting gardens of sound around the world; invisible gardens hanging in the air and heard on mobile devices when visitors pass through.
The Art of Interpretation A collaboration between Stephen Emmerson (pianist) and Paul Draper (sound producer), this excerpt from Schoenberg’s 3 Piano Pieces Op. 11 draws upon on various interpretive strategies including analysis, reflection, and the use of Schoenberg’s paintings to highlight certain aspects of the performance and recording. The project is based on the premise that a recording is not ‘music’ itself, rather, is a virtual artefact through which an interpretation can be manipulated and enhanced through deliberate interference in the recording and post-production processes.
The piano itself was tracked using some sixteen microphones spaced at different positions throughout the hall which enabled ‘multiple perspectives’ to be attained, then in post-production was 'vertically arranged' and through the use of Digital Signal Processing (DSP) in ways similar to that of orchestration. In contrast to the usual practice where classical piano recordings maintain a single sound and perspective, this project explores the ways in the researcher's interpretation of the music can be expanded and communicated through these manipulations of the sound recordings.
Foreign Objects This is an excerpt from the new album 'Foreign Objects' by Vanessa Tomlinson and Erik Griswold aka 'Clocked Out', presenting new compositions that pay homage to two giants of contemporary music: Terry Riley, the master of expanded space, and Morton Feldman, the master of intricate patterns.
Produced by Paul Draper, after spending a week of recording in the IMERSD studios the project then moved directly into a live concert event in the Ian Hangar Recital Hall to premier the works, and where these performances were also recorded remotely in IMERSD. The final results are arrangements, edits and integrated sound productions that combine both environments, where the musicians extend the sound landscape of the keyboard through prepared piano to the world of ‘found object’ percussion. Mixing bowls meld into cardboard preparations, roofing tiles into buzzing screws, toy piano into miniature bells.
Prof Huib Schippers (Director, Queensland Conservatorium Research Centre)
The project is funded by the Australian Research Council and involves ten partners across Australia, Europe and the US, including the International Music Council founded by UNESCO in 1946. It aims to increase understanding of the mechanisms of musical sustainability by closely examining ten different music cultures: how musicians interact with communities,how the music industry and governments affect musical life, as well as underlying values and attitudes. It will deliver an online resource, freely accessible to everyone in the world, to assist in improving the chances of survival and success for music cultures.
Here's a couple of videos, shot on the Sunday:
Asia-pacific musical performances, including Gamelan, Kathak dance, Indian ragas, Korean, Vietnamese and Fusion musics
Prof Huib Schippers (Director, QCRC) and Dr Richard Letts (President, International Music Council)
The installation is the brain-child of the UK's United Visual Artists, known for their work with U2, Massive Attack, The Arctic Monkeys and others. With a soundtrack arranged by Neil Davidge and Robert Del Naja of Massive Attack, this incredible fusion of light and sound is realized through a forest of luminous LED columns which light up Federation Square.
The columns respond spectacularly to human movement and visitors walk, crawl, jump and dance their way through this interactive installation.
For more 2009 Light in Winter events, see their program, here. 
