highlike

Pierre Boulez

Répons

“Oh yes, there is a metre, slightly irregular on one level but very regular on another. There are so many irregular things in this piece that at one point you need to have a regular metre as you say – a bass and a regular pulse anyway – but also a series of harmonies which are all symmetrical. The harmony always gives this impression of something followed by its inverse; there is always a centre – an axis of symmetry. This symmetry of harmony corresponds in harmonic terms to a regular metre. This is very important. There are three types of time. That which is chaotic and irregular such as you have in the beginning (in the speed I mean). Then you have, in the speed, the very regular rapid repeated notes – always in semiquavers. Finally at the end there is a regularity, a kind of metre – but with much ornamentation. The ornamentation is in fact very irregular, but the metre itself is very regular”. Pierre Boulez

Doug Aitken

Sonic Mountain
As a unique site-specific commission for the Donum Estate, Los Angeles-based artist Doug Aitken has created the ethereal work Sonic Mountain (Sonoma), three concentric circles of suspended stainless-steel pipes whose differing lengths form a wave at their base, mirroring the free Euler-Bernoulli shape that describes the chime’s frequency. Installed in the eucalyptus grove, measuring forty-five feet in diameter and twice human height, and comprising 365 chimes — one for each day of the year — Sonic Mountain (Sonoma) works with one of Donum’s most persistent elements, the Carneros breeze that cools the grapes and creates a temperate zone for growing Pinot Noir. Each day, the warm wind begins its soft whisper, rustling through the vines and trees, building in strength through the day until mid-afternoon, and then gradually diminishing in force. Known to have been used since at least the ancient Roman period in Europe and the second century in India and China, wind chimes create chance, inharmonic music. At Donum, Aitken has teamed up with his friend the composer Terry Riley to compose chords in the chimes to be played by the wind , depending on how it blows, so the lyrical work sounds throughout the estate, demonstrating the artist’s practice of making installations that synthesize many media and are never constrained by tradition.
video

Alan Warburton

Spherical Harmonics
Spherical Harmonics is about the strange power of the CGI image. It’s a fantasy under construction, full of digitally created memories, counterfeit physics and controlled accidents. A place where reality fails because it’s too perfect. Spherical Harmonics sits stylistically at a halfway point between the glossy product displays of Oxford Street and the workhouse construction of Soho’s post production scene.

video

Eirik Brandal

Waldian
Waldian is a standalone, wall hanging sound and light fixture capable of playing a near infinite amount of melodic permutations over a predetermined musical scale, complemented by emerging light patterns from twelve separate LEDs spread across the sculpture. In technical terms, Waldian contains two oscillators, an envelope generator and a voltage controlled amplifier, all controlled by impulses from a network of logic gates akin to those of early computers. These impulses are essentially the nerves in the electronic ecosystem, deciding over pitch and amplitude changes as well as creating bursts of light to highlight the entrances of each note. Finally, there is a tube overdrive stage that creates harmonic and subharmonics based on how far away the two oscillators are from each other in frequency. Most parameters are customizable, such as the aforementioned pitch, amplitude and overdrive, but the responsiveness and envelope of the light bursts can also be adjusted, directly affecting the appearance of the light patterns.

Herman Kolgen

Eotone
With EOTONE, Kolgen and Letellier reflect on distance and weather, by staging something intangible yet powerful: the wind. Four sound and sculptural diffusers, containing elements of both the weather vane and the fog horn, make up this monumental installation that renders in movement and sound the direction and force of the wind blowing simultaneously on two continents: in Montreal and Quebec City on one side of the Atlantic, in Rennes and Nantes on the other. The wind data recorded in each city is transmitted live to the diffusers, controlling the orientation of each of the structures and orchestrating the combined chords that make up the harmonic whole perceived at the heart of the installation. By transforming weather data into sound, EOTONE offers a subtle artistic vision of the Internet of objects.

Hovver

Liminal Scope
Liminal Scope is an immersive light and sound installation, in which three rings frame the transit of light through space. The audiovisual score enmeshes harmonic frequencies, rhythmic motion,
and gradients of color, orchestrating a narrative which navigates tension and release. Our form of reality is mutually constructed by our perceptions along with their limitations. The installation’s rings form an aperture that focuses and reveals a spatial quality of light, which usually remains unseen. Liminal Scope is a meditation on these perceptual limitations as they
relate to our shared and individual perspectives on reality.

Refik Anadol

WDCH Dreams
The Los Angeles Philharmonic collaborated with media artist Refik Anadol to celebrate our history and explore our future. Using machine learning algorithms, Anadol and his team has developed a unique machine intelligence approach to the LA Phil digital archives – 45 terabytes of data. The results are stunning visualizations for WDCH Dreams, a project that was both a week-long public art installation projected onto the building’s exterior skin (Sept 28 – Oct 6, 2018) and a season-long immersive exhibition inside the building, in the Ira Gershwin Gallery.

UVA UNITED VISUAL ARTISTS

Harmonics
Harmonics challenges our perception of light and sound unfolding at great speed, an illusion of time blending. As the two kinetic sculptures speed up, rotating beams of light blend to form volumes of colour, while multiple discrete sounds become a major chord. Unable to process extremely fast information, our brain reads sequential sensory inputs as a single event in time. A disconnected reality perceived as a continuum, a harmonious whole.
VIDEO

ANTOINE GOLDSCHMIDT & OFER SMILANSKY

HYMN
Based on Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Hymn of Cherubim, the work explores in an abstract way the relationship between man and machine, ancient and modern, harmony and chaos. By associating the harmonic purity of the voices with the almost tangible intensity of lasers, HYMN invites us to a timeless journey, where sound and light are transformed into an immersive, intense and sensitive experience.

Ray McClure and Casey McGonagle

Visual Voice Virtual Reality
VVVR (Visual Voice Virtual Reality) is a voice controlled tool for self exploration and well being. It combines virtual reality and audio effects to temporarily free the mind from language and cultivate awareness of the present moment. In VVVR two people sit across from one another and are represented in the virtual space with corresponding avatars. When either person makes sound it is translated into glowing geometry that flows from their mouth. The vocal audio is harmonically processed and fed back through the headphones.

Cod.Act

Sound City
Suspended from the ceiling by two springs and equipped with an oscillating weight fixed inside its body, a Sound City loudspeaker shakes in a disorderly manner in space. The music it plays reacts directly to the movements as if the musicians were inside the loudspeaker and trying in vain to adapt their playing to the turbulences. The originality of the movements comes from the pulsations and interferences produced by the interaction of two coupled harmonic oscillators (the spring and the pendulum) not having the same natural frequency. The two pneumatic jacks to which the springs are attached control the amplitude of the swings.

Barozzi / Veiga

Headquarters ‘Ribera del Duero’
Fabrizio Barozzi and Alberto Veiga began their career together in 2004 in Barcelona. EBV is an architectural practice devoted to architecture, urbanism for both public and private sectors. EBV has won numerous prizes in national and international competitions. Projects that stand out for their singularity include the rehabilitation of the Santa Clara Convent in the historic city centre of Úbeda, Andalucía (under construction); the Congress Hall of Águilas, Murcia (built); the Headquarters of Ribera de Duero in Roa, Burgos (built); and the Philharmonic Hall in Szczecin, Poland (under construction)

DANIEL PALACIOS

Waves
FILE FESTIVAL
A long piece of rope generates 3D waves floating in space by the physical action of its movement: the rope which creates the visual waves also simultaneously creates the sound by cutting through the air, making up a single element. The installation is affected by those who watch it. When the audience moves around it they influence the movements of the rope, generating visual and acoustic sound waves from harmonic patterns to complex ones.

IANNIS XENAKIS

Terretektorh
Terretektorh shows more concern for harmonic organization than the earlier, iconoclastic Pithoprakta, with its scatterings of knocking sounds and massed effects. Still, the concentration is decidedly on texture and movement, with narrow lines being bundled with a number of others in the same register to create a rawer sonic intensity that still has some basis in melody. Xenakis concentrates on the high and low registers, as did Varèse before him, and adds some unusual sound effects into the mix as well.

In Terretektorh and Persephassa, Xenakis creates the impression of movement by transferring musical material between groups of musicians using techniques developed from musique concrète. These works are further innovative because of the unique seating arrangements in which the space for the performers and audience are superimposed.
In this thesis,  demonstrating Xenakis’s early approach to spatial composition. The thesis builds on the work of other scholars and provides more insight as to how these fascinating pieces work.

HENRYK GORECKI

הנריק גורצקי
헨릭 고 레츠 키
亨里克·戈雷茨基
ヘンリク·グレツキ
Хенрик Гурецкий
symphony of sorrowful songs

Symphony no.3, Symphony of Sorrowful Songs is an hour-long work that demands the attention of the listener. It is made up of three movements, all labelled Lento, their slow, deliberate pace having a ritualistic prayer-like quality, with the intensity of Gregorian chant. They have an extremely slow deliberate harmonic progression and build to a slow controlled climax.

RADIAL AND BLAUS

MID AND PLAYMODES
radial and blaus
‘radial’ and ‘blaus’ are two interactive lighting installations, both a result of the collaboration between catalonia-based digital research collectives MID (media interactive design) and playmodes. ‘blaus’ introduces the abstract realm of three dimensional geometry through the mediums of audio and illumination – this could manifest as a cube or a blossoming flower, a grid or a jellyfish, a mutant framework of reflecting lights which submerge the audience into a multi-faceted universe, driven by hidden forces of the architecture. ‘blaus’ is an immersive space where audio-visual elements relate
intimately to impact on the visitor. the process led the designers to build most of the software and hardware elements themselves, by means of algorithm design, digital fabrication techniques and craft handwork. on the hardware side, the use of open source technologies, such as arduino, allowed us to create a flexible electronic system easily addressable by opensound – control data. ‘duration open source software by
james george was used in order to independently control, compose, and play a full score for the laser diodes, servomotors, lights and music.on the sound design side, all music and sound effects are made through the use of audio programming environments such as predate and reactor.
custom digital instruments are made in order to exactly match the resonant frequency of the space and its harmonics.
‘blaus’ is an immersive space where audio-visual elements relate intimately to impact on the visitor.

POSTCOMMODITY

The Night is Filled With the Harmonics of Suburban Dreams

The Night is Filled With the Harmonics of Suburban Dreams provides an Indigenous critique of water, energy and sustainability policy discourse. It offers an absurd metaphor that mimics the unbalanced feedback loop generated by markets and consumers locally and globally, where an economy driven by the Judeo Christian Western scientific worldview simultaneously produces scarcities and an industry of “sustainability.”

LASAL

Harmophon

This video only shows a short part of a longer incoming installation, which explores the relationship between 2 Harmonic waves in different graphical/musical ways.98 pair of points trigger notes depending on the collision position in the Y axis.Panning depends on the X position. For this piece the phase and velocity of booth waves are synchronised to collide in a harmonic chord.In the installation it would be possible to see/hear more complex relationships with longer running time.The chaotic converges in harmonic, the complexity converges in simplicity.

Cod.Act

振り子の合唱団
CYCLOID-E

This piece, which comprises a series of tubular pieces arranged horizontally and activated by a motor, generates a particular sound through its movement, which is unexpectedly harmonic. The artists have taken their interest in the mechanisms that generate wave motions as a starting point to create this sculpture: five metal tubes joined together feature sound sources and sensors that allow them to emit different sounds based on their rotations.
The sculpture runs through a series of rhythmic movements, like a dance, creating, in the words of the artists themselves, “a unique kinetic and polyphonic work, in the likeness of the “Cosmic Ballet” to which the physicist Johannes Kepler refers to in his “Music of the Spheres” in 1619.” This work is part of the reflection on the possible interactions between sound and movement developed by the artists since 1999, using electronic devices and inspired by the aesthetics of industrial machinery.

ARVO PART

Арво Пярт
Fratres
Structurally, Fratres consists of a set of nine chord sequences, separated by a recurring percussion motif (the so-called “refuge”). The chord sequences themselves follow a pattern, and while the progressing chords explore a rich harmonic space, they have been generated by means of a simple formula. Fratres is driven by three main voices. The low and high voice are each restricted to playing notes from the D harmonic minor scale (D, E, F, G, A, Bb, C#); the middle voice is restricted to the notes of the A minor triad (A, C, E). The entire piece is accompanied by drones in A and E, which are primarily heard in the refuge between each sequence.The chords are created by the movement of the three voices: the low voice starts at C#; the high voice starts at E. Both the low and high voices are moved up or down the D harmonic minor scale at the same time, with the direction of the movement depending on the position within the sequence. The middle voice starts at A and plays a different pattern (A, E, E, C, C, C, C, A, A, E, E, C, C, A). The generated chords create harmonic ambiguity, since both C# and C are present, yielding an A major or A minor feel.

LEON THEREMIN

ליאון טרמין
레온 테레민
Лев Термен
théremin

he invented an electronic device known as the theremin, which was a unique musical instrument that could be played without physical contact. Rather than plucking strings or pressing keys, the musician need only move their hands around antennas located on the device.The device became a popular curiosity and he proceeded to tour Europe in order to demonstrate it. In 1928, he moved to New York City in the United States, where he played a theremin in the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in 1928. In 1929, he was granted a patent for the device by the United States. He decided to give RCA the rights to manufacture and sell the theremin for a lump sum payment and a percentage of the sales.In the early 1930s, Theremin purchased a laboratory in New York that he used for experimenting with electronic musical instruments. One of the products of his lab was the Rhythmicon, which was purchased by Henry Cowell, a composer. In 1930, a group of ten “thereminists” performed at Carnegie Hall.Theremin also began researching a method to cause lights and sound to respond to the movement of dancers. His system became popular with ballet and dance clubs throughout the country.

MEMO AKTEN

Simple Harmonic Motion study #5d

Behind the different incarnations, at the heart of the project lies the concept of creating complexity from simplicity. Through the use of custom software, a number of ‘agents’ are created and assigned a simple behavior. Each follow an extremely simple repetitive pattern of movement and sound. On their own, each agent is relatively monotonous, basic and mechanical. The repetition duration, motion and sound of each agent is precisely tuned such that the collection of all agents moving together, creates a unique, evolving and complex composition – both visually and sonically. The seed of inspiration comes from the motion of pendulums and other fundamental oscillatory phenomena which exhibit simple harmonic motion. The project extracts and amplifies these complex patterns, both through visual abstraction and emphasis; and also through sonifying the phenomena and creating musical patterns driven by the same equations that dictate the behaviour.

MANUELA DONOSO AND LUISA PEREIRA

The Harmonic Series

File Festival

Created by Manuela Donoso and Luisa Pereira, The Harmonic Series is a collection of mechanical devices , software, sculptures and prints that explore the relationship between musical and visual harmony.Inspired by the nineteenth century mathematician Jules Lissajous who invented a device to visualize sound vibrations using two tuning forks and a beam of light reflected from one mirror to the next to a screen, Manuela and Luisa have re-created and extended this experiment using recent tools. An electronic version of the device replaces the tuning forks with microphones and speakers, allowing people to sing different musical intervals, and contrast the resulting figures with the more chaotic ones generated by percussive sounds. An application plays groups of three notes and plots 3d Lissajous figures for their frequency ratios. The frequency ratios for major, minor and diminished chords are 4:5:6, 10:12:15 and 20:24:29 respectively. These chords were plotted using the app, and then printed as posters and sculptures that reveal a tight relationship between aural and visual harmony.