Works by Björn Eriksson, Tina M Pearson and Norman Lowrey

Ten composers, artists and musicians spread through Europe and North America meet in a networked virtual world. There, together as avatars, they design and play new otherworldly virtual instruments while experimenting with identity, perception, telepathy and collectivity. The instruments determine movement, audio emissions, and the release of particles and textures that give visual indications of sounds made independently by individual players in real time. There is no streaming involved – the performance is created completely within the networked 3-D environment world Second Life.

Bjorn Eriksson’s Fragula moves from granulated sine waves, square waves and sawtooth-shaped sounds through arpeggiated synthetic figures into samples of an old harmonium with imprecise playing. Each sound control triggers a specific small or big movement and animation of the avatar, while exploding each avatar’s sound sack into colour.

PwRHm: Breathing the Network Electric by Tina M Pearson uses two sets of sine tones tuned to the harmonic series of the AC currents of North America and Europe. Separated by continents, AC frequencies and instrument sets, the two groups of performers play according to their individual breath rhythms while exploring sonic phenomena effects and the pure just intoned sonic relationships that occur when they meet within the 3-D virtual world. A separate set of instruments built on the processed field recordings of electric motors from each continent gives added possibilities.

In Whirled (Trance) Formations by Norman Lowrey invites performers to transform themselves through Singing Masks as “vehicles of transformation.” The result is a spontaneously playful shaping of sound, light, and motion, using virtual mask instruments to connect with alternate realities, modes of cognition, or underlying fabrics of energies.

PERFORMERS:

Blaise DeLaFrance Voom (Biagio Francia), Agropoli, Italy

Frieda Korda (Frieda Kuterna), Antwerp, Belgium)
Groucho Parx (Brenda Hutchinson), San Francisco, USA

Gumnosophistai Nurmi (Leif Inge), Oslo, Norway
Humming Pera (Tina M Pearson), Victoria, Canada

Maxxo Klaar (Max D. Well), Regensburg, Germany
Miulew Takahe (Björn Eriksson), Sollefteå, Sweden

North Zipper (Norman Lowrey), New Jersey, USA
Paco Mariani (Chris Wittkowsky), Regensburg, Germany

Zonzo Spyker (Viv Corringham) (New York, USA)

Virtual set by Frieda Kuterna, Liz Solo, Tina Pearson and Norman Lowrey
Virtual Instruments built by Andreas Mueller and Norman Lowrey
Animations by Andreas Mueller, Tim Risher and Norman Lowrey
Performed at Odyssey Art and Performance Simulator in Second Life

http://avatarorchestra.blogspot.ca/