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Ars Electronica 2003
Messa di Voce
Tmema (USA), Jaap Blonk (NL), Joan La Barbara (USA)
Two fascinating vocalists and two extraordinary software artists create an unprecedented symbiosis of sound and image, of real voices and virtual graphics.
Messa di Voce (Ital., "putting the voice") is a new concert performance, in which the speech, shouts and songs produced by a pair of abstract vocalists are radically augmented in real-time by custom interactive visualization software. The performance touches on themes of abstract communication, synaesthetic relationships, cartoon language, and writing and scoring systems, within the context of a sophisticated, playful, and virtuosic audiovisual narrative.
Tmema's software transforms every vocal nuance into correspondingly complex, subtly differentiated and highly expressive graphics. These visuals not only depict the singers' voices, but also serve as controls for their acoustic playback. While the voice-generated graphics thus become an instrument which the singers can perform, body-based manipulations of these graphics additionally modify the sounds of the singers' voices - thus creating a cycle of interaction that fully integrates the performers into an ambience consisting of sound, virtual 3-D objects and real-time processing.
Commisioned by Ars Electronica with the support of SAP, la Fondation Daniel Langlois pour l’art, la science et la technologie, Eyebeam Atelier, The Rockefeller MAP Fund, and the Arts Council England.
Tmema is Golan Levin and Zachary Lieberman.
Composers / Performers: Jaap Blonk, Joan La Barbara
Source: Sabine Starmayr
Cross-reference: The right to reprint is reserved for the press; no royalties will be due only with proper copyright attribution.
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