Video documentation of one of the installations presented at Eastern Bloc in Montreal as part of the media arts festival: Sight + Sound 2012.

a project by Quayola & Sinigaglia

{2013}
Audiovisual Installation - Custom Software for Realtime Graphics
4k video on 2 LCD displays | 2ch Sound
Dimensions Variable

Commissioned by Nike
Producer: Keri Elmsly
Animator: Paul Mumford
Sound: Michael Hodgson
Assistant: Sebastiano Barbieri

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quayola.com/flexure/

The body channels rich layers of information when playing music, from intricate manipulations of the instrument to vivid personifications of expression. But when music is captured and replayed across distance and time, the performer’s body is too often trapped behind a small screen or absent entirely.

MirrorFugue conjures the recorded performer at the piano by combining the moving keys of a player piano with life-sized projection of the pianist's hands and upper body. Inspired by reflections on a lacquered grand piano, MirrorFugue evokes the sense that the virtual pianist is playing the physically moving keys.

This video tells two stories of musical interactions across space and time mediated by MirrorFugue. One presents a great concert broadcasted across the world, where a young pianist learns from the master by playing along. The others describes a woman who plays a duet with herself from the past.

60 medical infusion sets, water, fire, metal sheets 20x20x4cm
Zimoun 2013

zimoun.net

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Dimensions: Size variable. Installation view: Meetfactory Prague, Czech Republic. Curated by Karina Kottová and Daniel Vlcek. Project management by Ulf Kallscheidt. Project coordination by Venuse Tesnerová. Assisted by Ulf Kallscheidt, Florian Buerki and Anna Fach. Kindly supported by Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council.
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Using simple and functional components, Zimoun builds architecturally-minded platforms of sound. Exploring mechanical rhythm and flow in prepared systems, his installations incorporate commonplace industrial objects. In an obsessive display of simple and functional materials, these works articulate a tension between the orderly patterns of Modernism and the chaotic forces of life. Carrying an emotional depth, the acoustic hum of natural phenomena in Zimoun's minimalist constructions effortlessly reverberates.
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Compilation video: vimeo.com/7235817
Next exhibitions: zimoun.net/events.html
Newsletter: zimoun.net/newsletter.html
Video archive on Vimeo: vimeo.com/zimoun/videos/sort:plays
Website: zimoun.net

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SONIC WATER
laboratory for water sound images
Sven Meyer & Kim Pörksen

Sonic Water / cymatics laboratory / vernissage documentation / CREATE YOUR OWN WORLD
Olympus OMD Photography Playground 25. April - 24 Mai 2013 / Opernwerkstätten Berlin

sonicwater.org

MUSIC by Kymat - Drop Sound Enlightenment / kymat.de
studies of visible sound and vibrations - drop@sonicwater.org
greatpieceofcake.com & elfenmaschine.de

omd.olympus.de/site/rooms#sven_meyer_kim_poerksen

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Sonic Water is a cymatics installation.
Cymatics is the process of visualizing sound and vibrations through matter, such as for example sand or water.

In the beginning there was sound.
The reason cymatics exerts such a strong fascination is that we are not conditioned to "see sound". Cymatics is like a magic tool that unveils the true substance of things audible, but conventionally invisible.
With it one can recreate the archetypes of different forms of nature.
So sound does have form and cymatics enables you to comprehend that it not only affects but causes form in matter.
In fact, we think sound had a fundamental influence on the formation of the universe itself. But that is another story.
Primarily, we are fascinated by the simplicity of this subject.
All it takes is sound and a very basic medium such as water to create... well, what could be (and in our view is) the coolest sound visualizer.

How does it work?
Our installation at the Photography Playground in Berlin consists of two different areas.
A self-running installation and a DIY water-sound-image laboratory where people can experiment with their own cymatics.
The setup in both areas is almost identical. The only difference is, that you can use your own camera and create your own soundscapes in the DIY laboratory.
The installation is very simple: A sound signal is used to vibrate a speaker. On top of the speaker membrane we have applied a plate and on the plate we have then glued an ordinary bottle cap. The bottle cap (or the whole plate) is filled with water. The water works as a flexible three-dimensional sculpture mass, that translates the sound into pictures. The vibration of the speaker creates one of a kind water-sound-images in response to the respective sound impulse - from chaotic patterns to standing mandala-like waves.
The camera films the speaker from above and basically shoots a macro mode live view of the bottle cap action which is projected onto a large screen.
When people enter the room they initially just see the big screen cymatics projections. However, once they approach the cube with the speaker they suddenly grasp the setup and have this moment of incredulity and utter bewilderment, that a setup as simple as ours can create such astounding visuals. But this part of our installation is actually just an incentive or an ice breaker.
Our actual intention is for the audience to have fun in the laboratory, where they can create and document their own cymatics.
In the DIY laboratory you clamp a Olympus OMD camera on the stand, which you get upon entering the exhibition and you can then film or take photos of the water-sound-images you create by means of sound signals from a synthesizer, by using your own voice (via a microphone) or by just playing your favorite song on your smartphone.
What does it look like if you hum your favorite tune into the microphone? What does Wagners "Twilight of the Gods" look like in cymatics?
The results are images reminiscent of the shape of flowers, the form of a starfish, the patterns of turtleshells, cell division, the golden ratio, the flower of life - all depending on the individual frequency impulse.
In the laboratory you become the creator, the big bang and part of the genesis.
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