The sound installation filmachine is a collaboration between Keiichiro Shibuya, a sound artist and composer, and Takashi Ikegami, a scholar in the area of complex systems science. Filmachine is a virtual soundscape and a gigantic machine, which generates acoustic space / time / motion structures. Based on “The Third Term Music”, a new data-music construction / composition theory that advocates applying the process of complex systems science, this 3D sound installation is made through elaborately computerized sounds.

The 24-channel speakers are made up with three layers of eight speakers, each suspended evenly in the shape of column 7.5 m in diameter and about 5 m tall. The sound composition for this 24-channel installation is generated using “Huron”, a unique 3D acoustic system and LED lighting system that is totally controlled by computers through the real-time sound data at db level and 3D positions. Piles of floor boxes are unevenly arranged so that the visitor can experience the sounds at different levels and positions. On entering the installation, visitors lose their familiar feeling of stability owing to the undulating floor. Visitors can move freely in the installation, experiencing auditory feelings of space and movement caused by the sound in motion at a specific spot.

This work was produced by the artists while they were working at the YCAM. The installation filmachine was organized by the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media (YCAM).

Concept, composition: Keiichiro Shibuya (ATAK) + Takashi Ikegami (The University of Tokyo). Multiphonic 3-dimensional programming: evala [ATAK, port]. Program development: Yuta Ogai (The University of Tokyo). Lighting control programming: Daito Manabe. Production assistant, maria [ATAK]. Technical support: YCAM InterLab. Project curator: Kazunao Abe (YCAM)