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The Prix Ars Electronica Archive is a collection enabling search and viewing of all the submissions since 1987. The award-winning projects are documented with catalogue texts and audio-visual media. All other submissions can be searched by title/artist and displayed with year, category in list form. Please cite the credits (artwork name, artist and photographer) and only use the materials if your article is related to Ars Electronica.
Theatre#_
The concept of “Theatre#_” is extremely simple. With the technical means available—lighting, a smoke machine, air-conditioning systems or microphones, for example—an in-situ performance is created for which the space itself is fundamental—which also explains the seemingly arbitrary title. “Theatre#_” stands for a complete audiovisual experience, a performance without actors and a concert without instruments or musicians.
“Theatre#_” takes place in a theater. The leading role is played by the technical media. Utilitarian objects come to life on stage. A microphone hung on a cable swings around like a snake, or two monitors carry on a wordless conversation by rolling toward one another or by flashing on and off. Moreover, the room takes on unexpected personal traits: a wall light suddenly illuminates a hollow space, in the ceiling, the fluorescent lights are bickering, flicking nervously. In this mechanical ballet, technical materials—readymades— are made anthropomorphic. Together with the space, they become a unified, living organism.
Every bit as important as the visual aspect of “Theatre#_” is the musical experience it generates. Orchestrated action of the equipment and the technical functions of the room produce sound, simultaneous with their actions. The microphone circling the stage, for example, produces a swelling crescendo, a shrill feedback; the flickering fluorescent lights emit soft zooming tones. All the sounds are brought into a minimalist, electronic composition in a live performance. But at the same time, it builds on the tradition of mechanical music and performance. It can also be seen as an acoustic, theater-technical composition in the atmosphere of “glitch” music.
“Theatre#_” takes place in a theater. The leading role is played by the technical media. Utilitarian objects come to life on stage. A microphone hung on a cable swings around like a snake, or two monitors carry on a wordless conversation by rolling toward one another or by flashing on and off. Moreover, the room takes on unexpected personal traits: a wall light suddenly illuminates a hollow space, in the ceiling, the fluorescent lights are bickering, flicking nervously. In this mechanical ballet, technical materials—readymades— are made anthropomorphic. Together with the space, they become a unified, living organism.
Every bit as important as the visual aspect of “Theatre#_” is the musical experience it generates. Orchestrated action of the equipment and the technical functions of the room produce sound, simultaneous with their actions. The microphone circling the stage, for example, produces a swelling crescendo, a shrill feedback; the flickering fluorescent lights emit soft zooming tones. All the sounds are brought into a minimalist, electronic composition in a live performance. But at the same time, it builds on the tradition of mechanical music and performance. It can also be seen as an acoustic, theater-technical composition in the atmosphere of “glitch” music.
Supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation, the Arts Council of Finland, AVEK, the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, the Avanto Festival, the Argos Festival, the Transmediale Festival and the Paris Quartier d’Été Festival
Mikko Hynninen (Fl) is an artist whose primary materials are sound and light. He has collaborated on major theatre and dance productions as a lighting designer, composer and sound designer. His latest solo works include "Alphabet", composition for the Helsinki Computer Orchestra employing twenty-nine laptop performers.