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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.
Heart Chamber Orchestra
Peter Votova,
TERMiNALBEACH,
Erich Berger
Original: HCO-move2-1.jpg | 1600 * 600px | 351.7 KB
Original: HCO3.jpg | 1600 * 600px | 289.8 KB
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The “Heart Chamber Orchestra”—HCO—is an audiovisual performance. The orchestra consists of 12 classical musicians and the artist duo TERMiNALBEACH.
Each musician is equipped with a heartbeat sensor. The heartbeats of the musicians control a computer composition and visualization environment. The musical score is generated in real time by the heartbeats of the musicians. They read and play the score from a computer screen in front of them. HCO forms a structure where music literally “comes from the heart”.
The sensor network consists of 12 individual sensors, each fitted onto the body of a musician. A computer receives the heartbeat data. Software analyses the data and uses various algorithms to generate the real-time musical score for the musicians, the electronic sounds and the computer-graphic visualization.
While the musicians are playing, their heartbeats influence and change the composition and vice versa. The musicians and the electronic composition are linked via their hearts in a circular feedback structure. The emerging music evolves entirely during the performance.
The resulting composition is the expression of this process and of an organism forming itself from the circular interplay of the individual musicians and the machine.
HCO takes the idea of a traditional symphony as a framework. Each of the movements and their forms will illuminate the ongoing process from different sides.
Computer graphics generated from the HCO data establish a different sensual and narrative layer. The interplay of audio and video allows for a synaesthetic experience for the audience. The heartbeats of the musicians and their relation to each other become audible and visible.
HCO is not a composition in the traditional sense. It draws its inspiration from music, art and science.
Each musician is equipped with a heartbeat sensor. The heartbeats of the musicians control a computer composition and visualization environment. The musical score is generated in real time by the heartbeats of the musicians. They read and play the score from a computer screen in front of them. HCO forms a structure where music literally “comes from the heart”.
The sensor network consists of 12 individual sensors, each fitted onto the body of a musician. A computer receives the heartbeat data. Software analyses the data and uses various algorithms to generate the real-time musical score for the musicians, the electronic sounds and the computer-graphic visualization.
While the musicians are playing, their heartbeats influence and change the composition and vice versa. The musicians and the electronic composition are linked via their hearts in a circular feedback structure. The emerging music evolves entirely during the performance.
The resulting composition is the expression of this process and of an organism forming itself from the circular interplay of the individual musicians and the machine.
HCO takes the idea of a traditional symphony as a framework. Each of the movements and their forms will illuminate the ongoing process from different sides.
Computer graphics generated from the HCO data establish a different sensual and narrative layer. The interplay of audio and video allows for a synaesthetic experience for the audience. The heartbeats of the musicians and their relation to each other become audible and visible.
HCO is not a composition in the traditional sense. It draws its inspiration from music, art and science.
A project by TERMiNALBEACH initiated and produced by TEKS—Trondheim Electronic Arts Centre in cooperation with the Trondheim Sinfonietta.
TERMiNALBEACH formed by Erich Berger and Peter Votava aka PURE.
Erich Berger (AT/FI), an artist and cultural worker is interested in information processes and feedback structures, which he investigates with installations, situations, performances and various interfaces. His work is shown internationally in festivals, exhibitions and galleries. http://www.randomseed.org
PURE (AT/DE), composer, musician and developer, has released over 30 CDs and vinyls of solo and collaborative works in different styles under various pseudonyms on labels such as Mego (AT) and Staalplaat (NL). His latest album, Ification, was released at the end of
2008 on the Portuguese label Crónica. http://www.pure.test.at
Erich Berger (AT/FI), an artist and cultural worker is interested in information processes and feedback structures, which he investigates with installations, situations, performances and various interfaces. His work is shown internationally in festivals, exhibitions and galleries. http://www.randomseed.org
PURE (AT/DE), composer, musician and developer, has released over 30 CDs and vinyls of solo and collaborative works in different styles under various pseudonyms on labels such as Mego (AT) and Staalplaat (NL). His latest album, Ification, was released at the end of
2008 on the Portuguese label Crónica. http://www.pure.test.at