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PLAY.orchestra has started outside the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank, so I thought I'd start a thread to discuss it. I suppose discussion could be had in the Laboratory and Music foras, but I figured as this is a type of interactive art/music installation, it's better off in the Art fora.
The following is taken from the BBC News website article "Virtual orchestra strikes a note":
"The public has been invited to take part in what has been described as the first virtual orchestra.
Plastic cubes, attached to a light and a speaker, have been laid out on a full size orchestra stage outside the Royal Festival Hall on London's South Bank.
Sitting on a cube activates a musical note and as more people sit down, more of the score is revealed ...
... People can also record their own sound and then send it to the orchestra using this technology ...
These sounds will then be added to the online sample library and some will be used as part of a new piece of music being composed for the culmination of the project ...
The event runs from Friday until 2 October, and each Saturday there will be live events with live Philharmonia musicians and sound recording equipment. "
So, aside from the interactive aspect of this project (which I'd also like this thread to be able to discuss), what strikes me first, and what I personally like about these cubes, is that apparently you can really feel the vibration of each instrument when you sit on them; "coming from inside them", as a guy on the news said. But of course, this may be no different to sitting on a guitar amp for a while, but from the BBC News item I saw, the feeling may be more subtle than a normal HiFi speaker.
I've always had hearing problems (nothing too major), but sound is of course vibrational, so the "tactile value" of music (as opposed to registering it as "sound") is a sensation that can be very comforting and useful to me. Indeed, when I write songs on my (borrowed) steel string guitar, I often find myself slouched with (say) my chin actually touching the body of the guitar. Indeed, I find this also helps me tune the strings.
Therefore, the idea of an interactive orchestra where you can sit on a cube and feel each individual instrument really excites me. I think for this reason (and others) it's a beautifully simple idea, and I hope to make it down there in the next few weeks and actually experience it for myself.
So, what do you reckon?
Anyone been there already, yet?
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FYI: Link to Royal Festival Hall webpage on "PLAY" |
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