Place/Dates: IRCAM/Paris and IEM/Graz, 24 & 25 November 2010
Description:
Creation of works for CO-ME-DI-A concert featuring NetTrike and Zoom-Up.
“NetTrike” :
Within the CO-ME-DI-A project a new artwork was produced and realized. Christine Gaigg as choreographer and Bernhard Lang as composer have developed and written this piece for 2 dancers, 2 sound plates, 2 cameras, 2 concert halls. As live-electronics the “Audio and Visual Loop-generator” was extended to networking capabilities, especially using video- and audiostreams. The outcome was a networked concert for large concert halls at IRCAM and IEM, reflecting the use of the network. This piece, streamed over Internet between the two concert rooms at IRCAM and IEM, also realized a live interaction between the target rooms and surroundings. Two dancers and two choreographers on each site are combined with an ensemble, where the dancer produces the sound on a metal brass plate, wearing metal pieces on the feet. The dancers are filmed and reproduced as virtual dancers either over network or locally on a screen. With the motion material filmed, virtual dancers of each side are projected. Using the aesthetics of difference/repetition from the work of Bernhard Lang a new contextual piece arise in audio and visual domain.
“Zoom-Up” :
Zoom Up created in the context of the artistic residency of Andrea Cera, is a distant dialogue between two musicians – one in Graz, the other in Paris – connected by a stream of digital data over the network. The illusion of proximity brought about by the streaming technologies contrast with the fictional character of the sounds that are the basis of this dialogue. The technical setup of Zoom Up functions like a four handed instrument. The two instrumentalists play the same program, a computer version of a “prepared piano” that evolves over time as the score is played. Sometimes the sounds become uncomfortably dissociated with the sounds and gestures we normally associate with the piano. The setup thus allows narrowing or amplifying the distance between the performers. Sometimes they appear to play in the same place; sometimes they seem too distant joined and by a tenuous link that becomes almost invisible; sometimes so near that the performance is lost in the small movements of the hands.
Objective:
The main objective was to create novel works that take into account the specificities of the network when creating the work in question. The goal also was to present the Paris/Graz duplex concert to the general public while taking advantage of the IRCAM and IEM artistic season audiences.
Results:
NetTrike : An idea workshop was held to develop the idea of the piece in February 2010, and in a second workshop the piece was developed at IRCAM in Paris in July and finalized in October. Within workshops and rehearsals a piece for combining two concert rooms was composed and choreographed by Christine Gaigg and Bernhard Lang. Special software development and adoption as part of the artwork was produced. A production of two involved teams developed the main technical showcase, where audience and artists are streamed over the network.
Zoom-Up : This work leverages much of the work initially undertaken in the installation “They Are Here” at the CENTQUATRE arts center in Paris in 2008 and the “An Invisible Line” network installation premiered in Hamburg and Genoa in 2009 (and presented during the NPAPW event right before the CO-ME-DI-A Duplex workshops and concerts. The work successfully managed to incorporate expressive motion capture over the network, one of the goals initially soecified in the scenarios (“use cases”) developed at the beginning of the project.
As a result, the piece was performed between the art university in Graz and IRCAM publicly on two days which included talks by the artists. Video documentation of the pieces, including some interviews, were produced.
Products (if appropriate):
Excerpts of work sessions and performances can be viewed on the CO-ME-DI-A website (http://www2.comedia.eu.org)
Website information on :
• http://npapw-2010.ircam.fr/wordpress/
• http://www2.comedia.eu.org
Target group:
IEM : General public, Artists, Technicians.
IRCAM : General public from the IRCAM artistic season.
Number of participants/visitors/audience :
IEM : approximately 170 participants for each of the NPAPW and CO-ME-DI-A performances.
IRCAM : approximately 280 participants for each of the NPAPW and CO-ME-DI-A performances.
TOTAL : 450 people.