“I Hear the Distant Tossing of Trees Across the Park” is a networked installation using realtime data streaming from remote places to bring an abstract environment to life.
It is an immersive multi-sensory space exploring the complex impact of networked situations on human perception and inviting the user to rest and contemplate in the twilight atmosphere of flickering lights.
An autonomous system of remote networked machine agents equipped with microphones ( A.O.S.C. – Agents of Synchronicity ) transforms the actual environmental soundscapes at five distant places into a collective realtime composition of light, tactile experience and electronic soundscapes in the installation space.
The networked places are Lviv – Ukraine, Toronto – Canada, Londrina – Brazil, Sydney – Australia, Bonaforth – Germany.
The installation consists of a network of rubber bands stretched in the room, a sand-covered floor, three platforms (equipped with tactile transducers) for sitting, a 5-channel sound system + sub woofer and 2 x 5 LED strips with 38 LEDs each controlled by micro controllers.
An autonomously operating algorithm (Max/MSP patch) processes the received data streams and generates the soundscape in real time by means of FM synthesis for the 5-channel sound system and the tactile transducers and also the control signals for the LEDs.
“I hear the distant tossing of trees across the park.“ This is a quote from the book “Touching the Rock: An experience of blindness“ by John M. Hull. For years Hull has been constantly losing his sight until complete blindness. He describes the change in his perception and the sharpening of his other senses.
blackhole-factory explores the question of how we can perceive the complexity of remote, interconnected spaces. Do we need to sharpen our senses or do we need a broader sense?
Collaborators:
Ostap Manulyak and Mykhaylo Barabash: Lviv, Ukraine – hosts of agent02
Rob Cruickshank: Toronto, Canada – host of agent03
Chris Vine: Londrina, Brazil – host of agent04
Roger Mills: Sydney, Australia – host of agent05
Produced 2017/ 2018 by blackhole-factory, funded by Stiftung Braunschweigischer Kulturbesitz and Stadt Braunschweig, Kulturinstitut.