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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.
Commissioned 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
Joan La Barbara, born 1947, has been called one of the great vocal virtuosas of our time. A pioneer in the field of contemporary and sound art, she has developed a unique vocabulary of experimental and extended vocal techniques, including multiphonics, circular singing, ululation and glottal clicks. In addition to her own compositions, she has premiered landmark compositions written for her by noted American composers, including Robert Ashley, John Cage, Rhys Chatham, Charles Dodge, Morton Feldman, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Morton Subotnick and James Tenney.
Jaap Blonk, born 1953, is a composer, voice performer and sound poet. In reciting poetry, especially the works of Antonin Artaud and Kurt Schwitters, he discovered the directness and flexibility of vocal utterance, whether using meaningful words or not. At present, he has developed into a prolific writer/composer and a specialist in the performance of sound poetry, supported by a powerful stage presence and an almost childlike freedom in improvisation.
Tmema is Golan Levin and Zachary Lieberman:
Golan Levin (USA)is an artist, composer and designer interested in developing artifacts and experiences which explore supple new modes of computational expression. His work has focused on the design of systems for the creation, manipulation and performance of simultaneous image and sound, as part of a more general examination of communications protocols for individual engagement and non-verbal dialogue.
Levin's work spans a variety of online, installation and performance media, and includes such pieces as the Dialtones Telesymphony (2001), a concert whose sounds are wholly performed through the carefully-choreographed ringing of the audience's own mobile phones. Levin was granted an Award of Distinction in the Prix Ars Electronica for his Audiovisual Environment Suite interactive software (2000) and its accompanying audiovisual performance, Scribble (2000). Most recently, Levin and collaborator Zach Lieberman developed RE:MARK and Hidden Worlds (2002), a pair of permanent installations commissioned by the Ars Electronica Center in Linz, which combine the themes and techniques of augmented reality and speech visualization. Levin's projects have been selected for funding by such sponsors as the New York State Council on the Arts (2001), The Greenwall Foundation (2001, 2002), The Daniel Langlois Foundation (2001), and the Ars Electronica Festival (2000, 2001, 2002). Other projects have included commissions for Turbulence.org, PBS, and the Whitney Museum.
Levin received degrees from the MIT Media Laboratory, where he studied with John Maeda in the Aesthetics and Computation Group. Prior to this, he worked as a research scientist and interaction designer at Interval Research Corporation for four years. He currently resides in New York City, where he teaches interaction design at the Parsons School of Design, and is represented by the Bitforms Gallery.
Zachary Lieberman (USA). Artist-engineer. Concerned with themes of kinetic and gestural performance, interactive imaging and sound synthesis. Graduated with a BA in Printmaking from Hunter College, New York in 2000; received an MFA degree in Design and Technology at Parsons School Of Design, NY in 2002. Since 2001, adjunct faculty in the Design and Technology department at Parsons. In 2002, Siemens Artist-in-Residence at the Ars Electronica Futurelab, Linz, Austria; in 2003, Artist-in-Residence at the Summer Workshop In Performance Telematics (SWIPT-2), Arizona State University. Upcoming commissions include Issue 12 of the Remedi project, and the 2002/Doublecell volume of Singlecell.org. Other projects include contributions to Mark Napier's "net.flag", commissioned by the Guggenheim Museum, and "My News/Your News," a reactive sculpture developed with Romy Achituv for the Gwangju Biennial, Korea.
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