https://granularsynthesis.info Granular Synthesis Tue, 31 Mar 2020 14:41:46 +0000 https://granularsynthesis.info en https://granularsynthesis.info/Works Tue, 31 Mar 2020 14:27:05 +0000 Granular Synthesis https://granularsynthesis.info/Works https://granularsynthesis.info/MODELL-3 Tue, 31 Mar 2020 14:29:34 +0000 Granular Synthesis https://granularsynthesis.info/MODELL-3 MODELL 3 1992-1993Audiovisual Performance and Installation4-Channel portrait Video, 6-Channel AudioFeaturing Performer Michael Krammer &nbsp; <img width="3072" height="2048" width_o="3072" height_o="2048" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/125afe3cd04fdf818668762bee5cc1c1935f054e9b3ea405779f140cde8d8955/M3-Arena.jpg" data-mid="65272133" border="0" alt="Arena - Zeitschnitt, Vienna, 1992 - Photo: Granular~Synthesis" data-caption="Arena - Zeitschnitt, Vienna, 1992 - Photo: Granular~Synthesis" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/125afe3cd04fdf818668762bee5cc1c1935f054e9b3ea405779f140cde8d8955/M3-Arena.jpg" /> <img width="2979" height="1678" width_o="2979" height_o="1678" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/df8f4ea4095c015ae9ee86af81bc43a466c75724a5193afa07df2945fea2a0e9/M3-Bruessel.jpg" data-mid="65272140" border="0" alt="Arena - Zeitschnitt, Vienna, 1992 - Photo: Granular~Synthesis" data-caption="Arena - Zeitschnitt, Vienna, 1992 - Photo: Granular~Synthesis" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/df8f4ea4095c015ae9ee86af81bc43a466c75724a5193afa07df2945fea2a0e9/M3-Bruessel.jpg" /> <img width="2034" height="1400" width_o="2034" height_o="1400" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e7163dcf5c70c7956b72b6e178235943ab9e62d527e1c74f61d76d1aa60fd1c1/Modell3-Brussels-Setup.jpg" data-mid="70624403" border="0" alt="Setup @ Halle de Schaerbeek, Brussels 1993 - Photo: Granular~Synthesis" data-caption="Setup @ Halle de Schaerbeek, Brussels 1993 - Photo: Granular~Synthesis" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e7163dcf5c70c7956b72b6e178235943ab9e62d527e1c74f61d76d1aa60fd1c1/Modell3-Brussels-Setup.jpg" /> <img width="2910" height="1975" width_o="2910" height_o="1975" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4a6fd6ec37bb7588feee4e3e52bbbbc8e89859b0722fa6493bfe6f691f6522ac/M3-Bruessel-geruest-2020tune.jpg" data-mid="71698162" border="0" alt="Setup @ Halle de Schaerbeek, Brussels 1993 - Photo: Granular~Synthesis" data-caption="Setup @ Halle de Schaerbeek, Brussels 1993 - Photo: Granular~Synthesis" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4a6fd6ec37bb7588feee4e3e52bbbbc8e89859b0722fa6493bfe6f691f6522ac/M3-Bruessel-geruest-2020tune.jpg" /> <img width="2623" height="1845" width_o="2623" height_o="1845" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f5a5cfb8ab228dc2ffa336ac856e2dfbcd647ea73c8d677b42719055e4edbb46/kurt_ulf_michaelKrammer-.jpg" data-mid="70623315" border="0" alt="Kurt Hentschl&auml;ger, Michael Krammer, Ulf Langheinrich - somewhere early 90's." data-caption="Kurt Hentschläger, Michael Krammer, Ulf Langheinrich - somewhere early 90's." src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f5a5cfb8ab228dc2ffa336ac856e2dfbcd647ea73c8d677b42719055e4edbb46/kurt_ulf_michaelKrammer-.jpg" /> <img width="1800" height="2443" width_o="1800" height_o="2443" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/97d37fe14d0b9c505e37359336ee94b8dcdf88f565bbc0318b846f7ebca0da6c/M3_ANTW-MK-cleaned2020.jpg" data-mid="71699891" border="0" alt="Michael Krammer performing Live, Halle de Schaerbeek, Brussels 1993 - Photo: Granular~Synthesis" data-caption="Michael Krammer performing Live, Halle de Schaerbeek, Brussels 1993 - Photo: Granular~Synthesis" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/97d37fe14d0b9c505e37359336ee94b8dcdf88f565bbc0318b846f7ebca0da6c/M3_ANTW-MK-cleaned2020.jpg" /> <img width="1500" height="1003" width_o="1500" height_o="1003" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/86168b8f020aebd3e210df7932a565b8714daa4479320b08d6e828855ff9d1ae/ARENA_M-.jpg" data-mid="81815884" border="0" alt="Michael Krammer setting up for live broadcast from a space adjacent to the actual venue. While 3 of the 4 projected heads in Modell 3 were pre-recorded &amp; edited, he appeared live on the 4th screen, attempting to mimic and superced his clone heads. Zeitschnitt, Arena, Vienna 1992 - Photo: Granular~Synthesis" data-caption="Michael Krammer setting up for live broadcast from a space adjacent to the actual venue. While 3 of the 4 projected heads in Modell 3 were pre-recorded &amp; edited, he appeared live on the 4th screen, attempting to mimic and superced his clone heads. Zeitschnitt, Arena, Vienna 1992 - Photo: Granular~Synthesis" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/86168b8f020aebd3e210df7932a565b8714daa4479320b08d6e828855ff9d1ae/ARENA_M-.jpg" /> MODELL 3 An multimedia live environment by Kurt Hentschläger and Ulf Langheinrich. 1. The Environment: Four video projectors project images onto four backdrop screens (measuring 2 x 3 metres upright size) hanging from the ceiling; the images originate from three U-matic players and one camera recording live. The images show the full-screen portrait of a male head against a white background. Each of the images can be switched to any of the projection screens by means of a video crossbar. Model (performer) Michael Krammer is located in the same building at the same time. One proof of the model's actual presence is the fact that his increasing perspiration shows in the video transmission as the performance goes on. The head's live presence is not in opposition to the mounted and denatured images; in fact, the dual picture of the head (on tape and live) quotes a specifically media-related constellation of performance and representation modes. The features of the head, identical from the angle of performance dependencies, are presented at two different levels, which can always be exemplified by cross-switching or switching through via the video crossbar. Sounds from the U-matic tapes' soundtracks are reproduced via the concert-volume p.a. system geared to creating a physical sensation of pressure. In addition, Ulf Langheinrich combines minimised sequences of control data on a computer to complete the energy-laden mass of sound. The image and sound mixing desk is situated opposite the projection screens, with the space in between being used to accommodate the audience. 2. Looping the Loop: Significant sections (grains) are selected from the tape material, which shows the male head singing/talking/yelling and moving as the performer beats his breast (an act invisible to the eye of the camera). These sections are reproduced and positioned at random. Compared to the original sequences, the final product is denatured by re-arranging, looping, repeating and mixing existing synthesised sequences. In terms of length, the individual grains range from single frames to entire sequences of frames. The editing computer chops and mixes the sequences of images and sounds recorded by the camera like a blender to re-structure them freely outside the time continuum of the video tape. With all sense of time and position lost, natural perception is undermined and confronted with an artificial sequence of images that is actually no longer a sequence. Each image seems to be newly generated in potential simultaneity, i.e. timelessness. Video tapes differ from (celluloid) film in that there is no possibility to edit by literally cutting individual frames out and replacing them in a different spot. Frames can only be replaced by others when new recordings erase the old ones or when they are transcribed from the master copy. This is specific to the medium and the only way to make up for the relative shortcoming (compared with film) is to devote an adequate amount of time and to use an editing computer.&nbsp;Kurt Hentschläger and Ulf Langheinrich use this shortcoming for the better in that they break with the time continuum by using a mounting technique that is not oriented to film, but the circumstances involved in the use of magnetic tape. 3. The Causal Nexus: It was the LumiËres, who, in the early days of film history, placed individual pictures in chains of cause and effect to create action, with each picture containing the cause of the following one. Film builds causal thinking in terms of three-dimensional space and time, the latter being invariably one-dimensional. Gaps in such causal reasoning (for the first time in film history found in MeliËs) mean that individual links in the chain of pictures have been left out. When one first views the rushes after a day of shooting the chain of pictures seems to confirm the principle of causality prevalent in Western philosophy (from Aristotle to Descartes and Newton). Hume identified causality as a "necessity of the soul", an idea Hollywood remains committed to until today. Mounting, not the editor's invisible cut makes cause precede effect in a feature film, thus giving the moving picture its special qualities. To compute things (an expression derived from the Latin word "com-putare", consider together) basically means to look at things in a certain context. Hentschlager's and Langheinrich's mounting technique, which transforms, changes or re-structures Krammer's head or its symbolical representation in the picture, corresponds to the nature of computing. New contexts contradicting our every-day causal thinking evolve, they can only be interpreted in terms of mechanical gestures. The lungs turn into an amplifier (voltage-controlled amplifier), the vocal cords and larynx become an oscillator (VCO), palate and pharynx turn into a filter (VCF). The technical correlate of image and sound ceases to exist and reveals its contents along technical lines. Reality, or rather, reality as we perceive it, is put to a radical test via the perception of mounted/dismounted pictures. A gap opens between so-called "natural" reality on the one and artificial, denatured reality on the other hand - if one defines nature as experience, as Kant does when stating something along the following lines: "Materially, nature is, after all, the essence of all objects of experience."*) The experience mediated by the projection of the head is highly technical, it is an experience that provides an insight into the nature of technology. "Data also denote dice," says Friedrich Kittler, "as the formerly aesthetic or orderly cosmos of the philosophers turned into a big game of dice through the workings of technology, data processing is able to recombine its operational values aleatorically under all the mathematical rules available until there is no more actual need for reality."**) The aleatoric practice is what Hentschlager/Langheinrich apply to the video image because, given the image grains synthesized by technical means, there is no more need to ask for, let alone reconstruct, nature on the basis of a context of cause and effect. The frames are considered the materialization of a category that is of an abstract nature itself. The thematic structure of the image-text is not translated into reality in the sequences of images, but in the process that "cracks" them up into randomly computable frames or brief sequences of frames. Images can be replaced by other images and extended to form sequences or images in succession without changing the text of the performance. 4. Hermetic Traits: The film is torn, there is no more beginning and ending, and there is no way out either. Hentschlager and Langheinrich counteract the unconsciously hermetic traits in an illusionistic chain of images guaranteeing self-contained action and suspense by denaturation and layering, which in turn make us aware of hermetic traits in the shape of un-timing. Un-timing does not only denote the re-arrangement of events on the time axis, but primarily an act of layering for the purpose of compression. Polyrhythmic textures of melodies evolve. Parallels to techniques of sound syntheses, such as sampling, wave tables and granular syntheses, are intentional. Bits taken from originally continuous optic and acoustic processes are singled out to form live-less isolated events and turned into the basis of a new construction. According to Hentschlager/Langheinrich the tapes work "like individual oscillators of a space-occupying sound/image generator". "It opens a field of interfering individual levels in space. In many cases, transparency, solidity and hermetic traits are qualities that can be experienced simultaneously in this field, which is the actual site of granular synthesis." A kind of hermetic instant evolves. 3.1 is a model that relinquishes objective reality, or rather the objectivity of the camera lens, for the sake of a new epistemology of the video image. The synthesized images do not want to achieve identity, imitation and illusion, but their destruction. The image of the head is no longer a head, it is a machine; this idea lays the foundation for the self-reflective practice of the performance. The machine extracts traits from the world to simulate the world anew...until the machine provides an insight into the world as a natural experience of the machine? - Thomas Feuerstein Catalogue text for TRANSIT 92 *Immanuel Kant (1783): Prologomena zu jeder könftigen Metaphysik. Werke, vol. IV, Königlich Preussische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1911, p. 295. **Friedrich A. Kittler: Fiktion und Simulation, in: Ars Electronica (ed.): Philosophien der neuen Technologie, Berlin 1989, p. 69 ----------------------------- Cezanne mit Ohren. Anmerkungen zum Kunstwerk im Zeitalter der technischen Reproduzierbarkeit Den Autonomieanspruch der Malerei hat Maurice Denis im späten 19. Jahrhundert damit begründet, daß ein Bild, bevor es etwas darstelle, zunächst eine ebene Flache sei, die mit Farben in einer bestimmten Ordnung bedeckt sei. In diesem emanzipativen Schritt manifestiert sich die Berufung auf die immanenten Bedingungen des Mediums als primäres Legitimationsmoment der künstlerischen Arbeit. Bevor ein Bild etwas repräsentiert, etwas darstellt oder als Zeichen für etwas fungiert, meint es eine Konstruktion von Bedeutung, die Generierung einer symbolisch-sprachlichen Ordnung, die sich der Wahrnehmbarkeit und Lesbarkeit anbietet . Wenn Hentschläger und Langheinrich nun ihr audivisuelles Material in einzelne Frames oder Grains zu frei verfugbaren Grundbausteinen fur eine neu zu generierende audivisuelle Syntax zerlegen, stehen sie in einer Tradition, die ihre Vorläufer in Cezanne, den Pointilisten und Kubisten oder - mit einem Blick auf die Wortsprache - in Marinetti finden kann. Hier liegt der kunstlerische Ansatz iher Arbeit begrundet - trotz der historischen Distanz und trotz der mediaien Differenz. Angesichts ihrer Produktion, der eine Analyse ihrer Mittel und Medien als Bedingung vorausgeht, bewegen sich Hentschlager und Langheinrich auf dem Feld der Moderne - mit dem Ziel eine moglichst komplexe Reprasentanz von Wirklichkeit, vermittelt in einer kunstlerischen symbolischen Ordnung, zu entwickeln. Dieser Ansatz spiegelt sich auf verschiedenen Ebenen wider: Schon der Titel ,,Modell" postuliert die Reprasentanz fur etwas. Die Struktur ihrer ,,Modelle" ist gekennzeichnet durch die Verdichtung samtlicher Komponenten zu einer komplexen Grammatik, in der die audivisuellen Partikel einer ubergeordneten Komposition eingeschrieben werden. Diese Kompositionen folgen einer zeitlich-performativen Struktur, in deren Verlauf die artifiziellen Bewegungs- und Klangmomente den realzeitlich authentischen Elementen eines life anwesenden Modells bis zur ununterscheidbaren Fusionierung einander angenahert oder evident voneinander entfernt werden. Die visuelle Struktur operiert mit Symmetrien und Intervallen und wird durch eine akustische Struktur kommentiert. Die Spannung zwischen den einzelnen Ebenen ergibt sich aus ihrer wechselseitigen Beeinflussung und Verschiebung. Auf diese Weise wird eine asthetische Struktur erzeugt, in der die artifiziellen und real eingespielten Sequenzen aufeinander bezogen werden, indem ein Switchen zwischen den Ebenen des Realen und Konstruierten moglich und notwendig wird. Vielleicht liegt darin die ,,Modellhaftigkeit" ihrer Arbeiten, in denen die Differenz zwischen den Milieus nicht als Verlust, sondern als Chance betrachtet wird. &nbsp; &nbsp; -Andreas Spiegl, Institute Of Contemorary Art, Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna https://granularsynthesis.info/MODELL-5 Tue, 31 Mar 2020 14:33:35 +0000 Granular Synthesis https://granularsynthesis.info/MODELL-5 Motion Control MODELL 5 (aka MODEL 5)1994-1996Audiovisual Performance and Installation4-Channel Portrait Video, 12-Channel Audio Featuring Performer Akemi Takeya <img width="2362" height="3634" width_o="2362" height_o="3634" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/bb9812ed1893c283a9d8f5865027968f07c1f1bbf64206267583bca7c9c3f110/MODELL5-02-c-Kunstverein-Hannover-big.jpg" data-mid="65358793" border="0" alt="Kunstverein Hannover, 1995 - Photo: Kunstverein Hannover" data-caption="Kunstverein Hannover, 1995 - Photo: Kunstverein Hannover" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/bb9812ed1893c283a9d8f5865027968f07c1f1bbf64206267583bca7c9c3f110/MODELL5-02-c-Kunstverein-Hannover-big.jpg" /> <img width="3688" height="1461" width_o="3688" height_o="1461" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7ed6e5755eac96a78b5e4ddf9335bccb2df5d6d673914438514782d9705785ec/M5-metatronictruemediapsychosisloud-sticker.jpg" data-mid="76438893" border="0" alt="Tour sticker &copy; Granular~Synthesis" data-caption="Tour sticker © Granular~Synthesis" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7ed6e5755eac96a78b5e4ddf9335bccb2df5d6d673914438514782d9705785ec/M5-metatronictruemediapsychosisloud-sticker.jpg" /> <img width="705" height="457" width_o="705" height_o="457" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ee87c35499a96c3f24a0b0e87f13b36d0ac3e0a2627a737d76b616f184ee9fc0/modell-5_starter.jpg" data-mid="65358778" border="0" alt="Kunstverein Hannover, 1995 - Photo: Kunstverein Hannover" data-caption="Kunstverein Hannover, 1995 - Photo: Kunstverein Hannover" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/705/i/ee87c35499a96c3f24a0b0e87f13b36d0ac3e0a2627a737d76b616f184ee9fc0/modell-5_starter.jpg" /> <img width="2022" height="2569" width_o="2022" height_o="2569" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/44a1269e6e3dc268ebf82c4eb05fc2411124acfb636aad636e751982faf0eab4/GS_MAK_96_01--.jpg" data-mid="79821417" border="0" alt="MAK_Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna, 1995 - Photo: Bruno Klomfar /Gebhard Sengmueller" data-caption="MAK_Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna, 1995 - Photo: Bruno Klomfar /Gebhard Sengmueller" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/44a1269e6e3dc268ebf82c4eb05fc2411124acfb636aad636e751982faf0eab4/GS_MAK_96_01--.jpg" /> <img width="1404" height="936" width_o="1404" height_o="936" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b36d31db10350dfb92c9ddd67646dc75985b94fcfdb8295777a73915ac6a61d9/GS-Modell5-Eindhoven09.jpg" data-mid="70523971" border="0" alt="GS-Retrospective, STRP Eindhoven, 2009 - Photo: Granular~Synthesis" data-caption="GS-Retrospective, STRP Eindhoven, 2009 - Photo: Granular~Synthesis" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b36d31db10350dfb92c9ddd67646dc75985b94fcfdb8295777a73915ac6a61d9/GS-Modell5-Eindhoven09.jpg" /> <img width="5616" height="3744" width_o="5616" height_o="3744" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/dd09b022a8c2c757c796e319d2cc4af090eb4a7da87af0fab7392bb139a901aa/Modell5-Eindhoven09-4103.jpg" data-mid="70523978" border="0" alt="GS-Retrospective, STRP Eindhoven, 2009 - Photo: Granular~Synthesis" data-caption="GS-Retrospective, STRP Eindhoven, 2009 - Photo: Granular~Synthesis" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/dd09b022a8c2c757c796e319d2cc4af090eb4a7da87af0fab7392bb139a901aa/Modell5-Eindhoven09-4103.jpg" /> <img width="3616" height="2629" width_o="3616" height_o="2629" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f5b3385546c639fbd833c3b25d05f64ee80a118a415eee78c9ac2a44818a9f7e/P1057123.JPG" data-mid="70598738" border="0" alt="Technical concept sketch, 1994 &copy; Granular~Synthesis" data-caption="Technical concept sketch, 1994 © Granular~Synthesis" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f5b3385546c639fbd833c3b25d05f64ee80a118a415eee78c9ac2a44818a9f7e/P1057123.JPG" /> <img width="3759" height="2706" width_o="3759" height_o="2706" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/843ba4a749ec137f1166b0fcbed45a0eb3bd9704ba7f6d02b8a1720776b3e12f/P1057125.JPG" data-mid="70598721" border="0" alt="Concept sketch, 1994 &copy; Granular~Synthesis" data-caption="Concept sketch, 1994 © Granular~Synthesis" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/843ba4a749ec137f1166b0fcbed45a0eb3bd9704ba7f6d02b8a1720776b3e12f/P1057125.JPG" /> <img width="2547" height="1799" width_o="2547" height_o="1799" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3aa8aff2f9596539463b8ab88a95f4d9c125452d429b3e0d2fc45a2feb52de80/M5_drama-DIAGR-.jpg" data-mid="70786016" border="0" alt="Composition sketch, 1994 &copy; Granular~Synthesis" data-caption="Composition sketch, 1994 © Granular~Synthesis" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3aa8aff2f9596539463b8ab88a95f4d9c125452d429b3e0d2fc45a2feb52de80/M5_drama-DIAGR-.jpg" /> <img width="3036" height="2720" width_o="3036" height_o="2720" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8d5807bb26d668e54165114579837cb24b9162383bdaf5c04c5a89073366d2a0/P1057118.JPG" data-mid="70598734" border="0" alt="Editing concept sketch, 1994 &copy; Granular~Synthesis" data-caption="Editing concept sketch, 1994 © Granular~Synthesis" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8d5807bb26d668e54165114579837cb24b9162383bdaf5c04c5a89073366d2a0/P1057118.JPG" /> <img width="3908" height="2362" width_o="3908" height_o="2362" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4732a614b927f4e713df4875783c6ad307e5c5034e97ac82b174249009813beb/MODELL5-03-MAK-Vienna-photo-by-Komfar-Sengmueller-big.jpg" data-mid="65358794" border="0" alt="MAK_Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna, 1995 - Photo: Bruno Klomfar /Gebhard Sengmueller" data-caption="MAK_Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna, 1995 - Photo: Bruno Klomfar /Gebhard Sengmueller" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4732a614b927f4e713df4875783c6ad307e5c5034e97ac82b174249009813beb/MODELL5-03-MAK-Vienna-photo-by-Komfar-Sengmueller-big.jpg" /> <img width="1982" height="1361" width_o="1982" height_o="1361" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4236eb9f0d7c10468e0d9dc9e926828dacac3deafabe4818e10c776a7e85443a/KU_UL_AK-.jpg" data-mid="70786313" border="0" alt="Kurt Hentschl&auml;ger, Ulf Langheinrich, Akemi Takeya, London, 1994" data-caption="Kurt Hentschläger, Ulf Langheinrich, Akemi Takeya, London, 1994" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4236eb9f0d7c10468e0d9dc9e926828dacac3deafabe4818e10c776a7e85443a/KU_UL_AK-.jpg" /> MODELL 5 MODELL 5, premiered 1994 at the ICC London, has been described as one of the most exhilerating experiments in bringing digital video to a theatrical setting. Using a technique derived from the principals of the sound design technique called “granular synthesis” but applied to the rather large grains of single video frames (visual content and sound), GRANULAR~ SYNTHESIS&nbsp;manages to evoke from a few expressions on the face of the performer Akemi Takeya, a frenzied exploration of&nbsp; the alter ego within touching distance Motion Control&nbsp; Shared Pain: Man and Machine --------------------------------- Birgit Flos MOTION CONTROL MODELL 5 by GRANULAR SYNTHESIS at the Kunstverein A media event of the extreme kind lay ahead: Granular Synthesis' Modell 5 (co-produced by HULL TIME BASED ART, England, which premièred at the London ICA, with further performances in Ljubljana, Vienna, and at the Ars Electronica festival in Linz in June 1995). It is hard to describe what awaited the audience at the Kunstverein in terms of concentrated performances. One thing is sure: Granular Synthesis events are among the most consistent, intense and sensual experiences presently offered in "media art". The two artists Kurt Hentschläger and Ulf Langheinrich seem to be the people least interested in the spectacular attributes describing their work. Any account of extreme acoustic and visual experiences will drift towards the anecdotal all too fast. What is at stake here is not a presentation of top achievements in new technology praising the glossy aspects of media surfaces or liminal acoustic experiences but research on our time and its representation in the media (which is no less than a matter of life and death). By manipulating (video) images and sound (video sampling and audio loop techniques) a new visual and acoustic structure is built - different qualities, a new affective space is created - machine-generated aesthetics and sensuality. Granular Synthesis: a name derived from the word "grain", "granum" in Latin, a term from electro-acoustics - the smallest possible particles (in this case image/sound segments from the video material) are taken out of the causal and temporal sequence in single frames, processed as independent portions and re-combined in a rather manipulated, artificial temporal sequence. MODELL 5.6, the title of the performance at the Kunstverein, indicates that this is one piece out of an open-ended series of experimental set-ups. For example, Modell 5.2 was shown at the 4th International Biennial of Nagoya, Japan (ARTEC) and awarded the Grand Prix for the best work in the open competition - hence, we are dealing with a work in progress. Hentschläger and Langheinrich have worked on this research series since 1992: MotionControl - the subtitle of Modell 5 - sounds comparatively harmless as a program, yet again it is threatening, in a way: controlling motion, manipulating material, machine, time experience, pulse frequency. At the Kunstverein, the video analyses of the head of Akemi Takeya, a Japanese performer, were projected directly onto the white walls (the dimensions were 4 x 3 m each). The head made minute asynchronous moves: eyes looking sideways so slowly as if the movement would never end, a horizontal flicker, an almost imperceptible movement of the neck, with closed eyes and half-open mouth. The face was shoved up and down in such forceful and jerky motion that the flesh seemed torn from the bone, almost revealing the skeleton structure: gums, palate. Her head fluttered, bounced, twitched, vibrated, breathed, hesitated etc. At the same time, Hentschläger/Langheinrich acted as operators on site, serving the final mix of image and sound on-line. All interventions in the original material are time-based. Sound and image are not separated, not even in the smallest of segments. This process causes interesting technical/conceptual problems: the density of events in sound processing is much higher than in image processing (the definition on the sound level is higher than that the video definition) The digital and analog machines have to treat the image and sound analysis differently. "Sound is what accounts for the highest degree of nervousness." At up to 200 beats per second and 6,000 watts it oscillates between collapse and transparency. No special effects are used to create the images. The material is treated violently: time lapse, slow motion, real time video scratching, enlargement, amplification, dissolution. The head moves like no head ever moves but still each individual segment is "true" in media terms. Material and machines are pushed to the limits. An imagery that is fully immanent in machines is generated while the aesthetics of machines is called into question at the same time. Absurd combinations of numbers are required from the machines, "errors" are provoked, software and hardware have to give their all. The artists aim at producing a "state of mind", at staging an extremely charged affective space. Out of the logic and absurdity of the machines, something is created which eventually pinpoints a spiritual quality hard to describe in the drone and noise of the images and sounds, in "leveling out" (U. Langheinrich). Potential strands of an action are broken off and lost before they can make sense in a narrative, monotonous shifts (or shifts of monotonies) into complex acoustic and visual interference "bespeak" the power and powerlessness of the machines and bodies, and the power and powerlessness of the operators who manipulate the machines and bodies. They reach a psychological-emotional state: arriving on wrong tracks, through disappointment, refusal, pain. The head, eyes, mouth, everything seems emotionally accessible, legible while they dissolve in their sensuality at the same time. The only thing that remains are drone and white noise. Level surface and line. In Kubrick's "2001 - A Space Odyssey", Hal the Computer sings a children's song before it dies, and it is the only being in the movie that dies a sentimental death, a machine afraid of death. Kubrick's movie comes up when the artists talk about MODELL 5: its alleged inconsistency - sub-stories are offered but not developed any further, films within the film emerge but none is completed. The performer's head serves as the primal image, the fixed point, delicate, fragile and beautiful. It all starts with seduction. The human head as an affirmative element invested with meaning in Western art - the portrait inevitably promises a "human" story, familiar connotations are activated. However, any known context of meaning ends in the dissolved movements, is stalled in denaturalized redundancy, in machine pain. The semantic void is too loud to be amenable to meditative reception. MODELL 5 is accurately defined in terms of duration (44 minutes) but different whenever it is performed though the basic structure remains the same. The frontal images, the rhythmic structures generate contradictory emotions and great strain. Entertainment is offered and almost violently denied. At the highest level of energy, enjoyment reaches the limit. Kurt Hentschläger, born in Linz in 1960; Ulf Langheinrich, born in Wolfen, Anhalt-Saxony, in 1960,. They live in Vienna. Both are co-founders of the artists' group "Pyramedia". An abridged version of this article appeared in the daily "Der Standard" on March 17, 1995 when MODELL 5 was shown at the Vienna MAK. ---------------------------- The piece Motion Control MODELL 5 by the group "GRANULAR SYNTHESIS " is a direct descendant of video art with a penchant towards techno dance and rave parties. The group, composed of two Austrian artists, has taken over the stage in one of the La Victorine movie studios for the purpose and the duration of one concert. The concept of this "multi-media monument", as the work is described by its authors, consists in a video projection on four giant screens showing, in close-up, the head of Japanese model Akemi Takeya with a soundtrack played on several synthesizers broadcast over an extremely powerful PA system in surround. Practically motionless at first, the face of the model, eyes closed in desperation, gradually starts making jerky moves. The movements, almost imperceptible in the beginning, are underscored by music which is basically composed of sound samples over a continuous bass line enveloping them; the bass is nearly palpable as it fills the studio. The sequences accelerate as the piece advances until they go into a frenetic, captivating trance. Extremely high-pitched rifts accentuate the piece, accompanying sudden deformations in the model's face which are broken down electronically in rapid succession. There is no doubt that the expression "tremendous presence on the screen" has never been more to the point. Is that the hidden face of multi-media? -Denis Fortier ----------------------------- “It all starts with seduction. The human head as an affirmative element invested with meaning in Western art - the portrait inevitably promises a "human" story, familiar connotations are activated. However, any known context of meaning ends in the dissolved movements, is stalled in denaturalized redundancy, in machine pain. The semantic void is too loud to be amenable to meditative reception. The frontal images, the rhythmic structures generate contradictory emotions and great strain. Entertainment is offered and almost violently denied. At the highest level of energy, enjoyment reaches the limit.” Birgit Flos, DER STANDARD ------------------------------ Every prejudice against Techno-Culture certainly has its justification - except in this case. Never before has more frenetic applause followed, without a doubt deserved by one the most intensive and, at the same time, open and free theatre evenings I have ever visited. (Tagesspiegel/ Arnd Weseman about ISEA 95) ------------------------------- The artistic treatment of alienation has not&nbsp; been experienced at its more frighteningly beautiful for a long, long time. (Kurier) -------------------------------- The performance of the GRANSYN, which unbelievably impresses and, at the same time, deeply affects the observer, verged on the bounds of the acceptability and bearability....Here at&nbsp; Klangart ("Sound Art") a total novelty was displayed in the form of GRANSYN.&nbsp; (NOZ) ---------------------------------- CREDITS By GRANULAR SYNTHESIS : Kurt Hentschläger &amp; Ulf Langheinrich Sample session performed by Akemi Takeya Edited on various AVID Suites in England and Austria between 1994-96 Produced by: Mike Stubbs, at HTBA (Hull Time Based Arts) in Hull England. Co-produced by PYRAMEDIA Vienna. Funded and sponsored by: The Curator of the Austrian Minister for science, research and the arts Stella Rollig The Curator of the Austrian Minister for science, research and the arts Markus Brüderlin Archimedia Institute Linz Arts Council of England BMWFK - Austrian Ministry for science, research and the arts BMAA - Austrian Ministry for foreign affairs FISCHER Film Linz-Wien Kulturabteilung Land Niederösterreich Kulturamt Stadt Linz Medienwerkstatt Wien MEDA - Mission for visionOberösterreich Kultur WUK - Werkstätten und Kulturhaus Wien WIEN Kultur Yorkshire &amp; Humberside Art Board Special thanks to: Mike Stubbs, Bettina Bartsch-Herzog, Christine Boehler, Birgit Flos, Verena Formanek, Werner Frey, Kurt Hennrich, HILUS, Dirk Langheinrich, Zelko Wiener https://granularsynthesis.info/SWEETHEART-1997 Tue, 31 Mar 2020 14:38:13 +0000 Granular Synthesis https://granularsynthesis.info/SWEETHEART-1997 SWEETHEART 1997 Single Channel Video, Stereo Sound <img width="705" height="455" width_o="705" height_o="455" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/482734c787d8873e527c55dd700d95a6ed4e3a1b45390474a0d524fb6943eeb6/sweet-heart_starter.jpg" data-mid="65201468" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/705/i/482734c787d8873e527c55dd700d95a6ed4e3a1b45390474a0d524fb6943eeb6/sweet-heart_starter.jpg" /><img width="2234" height="1669" width_o="2234" height_o="1669" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e46c1381811c1285b96c44b99a24486c177c110c0fda9f9acfd6bda593897655/SWEETHEART_1-2020-.jpg" data-mid="78951106" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e46c1381811c1285b96c44b99a24486c177c110c0fda9f9acfd6bda593897655/SWEETHEART_1-2020-.jpg" /> SWEETHEART SWEETHEART was commissioned for the visionary exhibition series MEDIEN APPARATE KUNST, curated by Birgit Flos in Vienna. Performer for the initial recording for camera was again Akemi Takeya.Created as a series of short audiovisual weird clips to appear throughout the program of ORF - the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation - the work was eventually broadcast in “Kunststuecke”, a program dedicated to art and culture within ORF. &nbsp; The ambitious original concept of having SWEETHEART pop up throughout the entire daily program, as surprising and bewilderig media fragments, was, after numerous promising meetings, rejected by the internal ORF rating department as way out of context and ill befitting for a general and likely disturbed television audience. All in all quite a Kafka experience and sociologically rewarding, even though it failed to fulfill its destiny. Thanks really to Birgit Flos who wholeheartedly pursued with us a possibly impossible project.&nbsp; https://granularsynthesis.info/WE-WANT-GOD-NOW Tue, 31 Mar 2020 14:34:54 +0000 Granular Synthesis https://granularsynthesis.info/WE-WANT-GOD-NOW WE WANT GOD NOW 1995Single-Channel Video, Stereo Sound Featuring Performer Michael Ashcroft <img width="3087" height="2362" width_o="3087" height_o="2362" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0b42ce9ddd27e6d34b3861d6e5c3591e456d03fea47dabfc969c7130e98fc33c/WE-WANT-GOOD-NOW-01-videostill-c-granularsynthesis-copy-big.jpg" data-mid="65456217" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0b42ce9ddd27e6d34b3861d6e5c3591e456d03fea47dabfc969c7130e98fc33c/WE-WANT-GOOD-NOW-01-videostill-c-granularsynthesis-copy-big.jpg" /> <img width="3087" height="2362" width_o="3087" height_o="2362" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/90e26c3f67d55f04c7c940283641eac9d579393d1bc7b6afc8112831d56324a6/WE-WANT-GOOD-NOW-02-videostill-c-granularsynthesis-copy-big.jpg" data-mid="65456218" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/90e26c3f67d55f04c7c940283641eac9d579393d1bc7b6afc8112831d56324a6/WE-WANT-GOOD-NOW-02-videostill-c-granularsynthesis-copy-big.jpg" /> <img width="3082" height="2362" width_o="3082" height_o="2362" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d16de1e55d2377191636bc30febf28ca09a515e22cfb2a74a917de8d598e4b4f/WE-WANT-GOOD-NOW-04-videostill-c-granularsynthesis-copy-big.jpg" data-mid="65456220" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d16de1e55d2377191636bc30febf28ca09a515e22cfb2a74a917de8d598e4b4f/WE-WANT-GOOD-NOW-04-videostill-c-granularsynthesis-copy-big.jpg" /> <img width="3087" height="2362" width_o="3087" height_o="2362" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9bcbfa55aad9b26abe2cb4d116ef0220d5be49a6df386af2fbed2eb17f0910f7/WE-WANT-GOOD-NOW-03-videostill-c-granularsynthesis-copy-big.jpg" data-mid="65456219" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9bcbfa55aad9b26abe2cb4d116ef0220d5be49a6df386af2fbed2eb17f0910f7/WE-WANT-GOOD-NOW-03-videostill-c-granularsynthesis-copy-big.jpg" /> WE WANT GOD NOW Originally created for “We Want God Now”, a performance work of UK dance company “Man Act”, featuring Michael Ashcroft. The video and most of the audio is composed from ~10 seconds / video samples from a seven minute dedicated performance for camera of dancer and performer Michael Ashcroft recorded in 1995 in Cardiff.&nbsp; After the collaboration with MAN ACT the piece became a standalone work, a one hour long audiovisual single screen composition. https://granularsynthesis.info/AREAL Tue, 31 Mar 2020 14:38:56 +0000 Granular Synthesis https://granularsynthesis.info/AREAL <img width="3661" height="2362" width_o="3661" height_o="2362" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5c1fe62da2891cfc25f97455ea388a110ad7b5926c7788ef3d8e41db8f4229ea/AREAL-300dpi-31x20-image01cgransyn.jpg" data-mid="71695134" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5c1fe62da2891cfc25f97455ea388a110ad7b5926c7788ef3d8e41db8f4229ea/AREAL-300dpi-31x20-image01cgransyn.jpg" /> AREAL 1997-2003 Audiovisual Immersive Performance&nbsp; Series&nbsp; Single Channel Video (across several screens), 5 to 12 Channel Audio AREAL is a laboratory; it has interpreted, re-mixed and combined material from various GS works, over time. <img width="2148" height="1460" width_o="2148" height_o="1460" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e02be9698f3fe1b52841b42adc7d81be22a3a981924ce13ccc8283104c81c680/AREAL-02-_c_-by-granularsynthesis-big.jpg" data-mid="65456544" border="0" alt="AreaLight - Exit Festival, Paris, 2004 - Photo: Granular~Synthesis" data-caption="AreaLight - Exit Festival, Paris, 2004 - Photo: Granular~Synthesis" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e02be9698f3fe1b52841b42adc7d81be22a3a981924ce13ccc8283104c81c680/AREAL-02-_c_-by-granularsynthesis-big.jpg" /> <img width="3661" height="2362" width_o="3661" height_o="2362" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1cefb36bea64b13b3d3c45047e94ee048f846092d2992e688ca4a006143b7af3/AREAL-03-MOMA-LYON-cgransyn-big.jpg" data-mid="65456548" border="0" alt="Musiques en Scene / Musee d'Art Contemporains, Lyon, 2000 - Photo: Granular~Synthesis" data-caption="Musiques en Scene / Musee d'Art Contemporains, Lyon, 2000 - Photo: Granular~Synthesis" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1cefb36bea64b13b3d3c45047e94ee048f846092d2992e688ca4a006143b7af3/AREAL-03-MOMA-LYON-cgransyn-big.jpg" /> <img width="1500" height="827" width_o="1500" height_o="827" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ea7106d99ab3d366740a619d9ad3247c1d724fbb4b9c7eab86f3c96c2c13aefe/Areal-GS-Elelktra2000_4653-.jpg" data-mid="82039422" border="0" alt="Elektra, Montreal, 2000" data-caption="Elektra, Montreal, 2000" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ea7106d99ab3d366740a619d9ad3247c1d724fbb4b9c7eab86f3c96c2c13aefe/Areal-GS-Elelktra2000_4653-.jpg" /> <img width="2500" height="1737" width_o="2500" height_o="1737" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e96b6e7e59684b8a6b5a8b92a3545193ae306adff43c083036a7238b3608394c/AR-3-mag-cleaned2020-2500pix.jpg" data-mid="78108064" border="0" alt="Vergessen Festival, St.Veit. 1998 - Photo: Bruno Klomfar / Gebhard Sengmueller" data-caption="Vergessen Festival, St.Veit. 1998 - Photo: Bruno Klomfar / Gebhard Sengmueller" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e96b6e7e59684b8a6b5a8b92a3545193ae306adff43c083036a7238b3608394c/AR-3-mag-cleaned2020-2500pix.jpg" /> <img width="3592" height="2362" width_o="3592" height_o="2362" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/45dc137dfc6af460a2f30f2ddc04c3b8ee955b9229496a6f8fc0e7b3814bb92c/AREAL-02-c-by-granularsynthesis-big.jpg" data-mid="65456547" border="0" alt="Steirischer Herbst, Graz, 1997 - Photo: Granular~Synthesis" data-caption="Steirischer Herbst, Graz, 1997 - Photo: Granular~Synthesis" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/45dc137dfc6af460a2f30f2ddc04c3b8ee955b9229496a6f8fc0e7b3814bb92c/AREAL-02-c-by-granularsynthesis-big.jpg" /> <img width="3661" height="2362" width_o="3661" height_o="2362" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5c1fe62da2891cfc25f97455ea388a110ad7b5926c7788ef3d8e41db8f4229ea/AREAL-300dpi-31x20-image01cgransyn.jpg" data-mid="71695134" border="0" alt="Steirischer Herbst, Graz, 1997 - Photo: Granular~Synthesis" data-caption="Steirischer Herbst, Graz, 1997 - Photo: Granular~Synthesis" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5c1fe62da2891cfc25f97455ea388a110ad7b5926c7788ef3d8e41db8f4229ea/AREAL-300dpi-31x20-image01cgransyn.jpg" /> <img width="1500" height="950" width_o="1500" height_o="950" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f049c53ca1810a8349023a043a5f53ef5ae19d629f2b0c2285bbdefa1f4b788a/AA_SKIZZE-.jpg" data-mid="82039039" border="0" alt="Steirischer Herbst, Graz, 1997 - Sketch: Granular~Synthesis" data-caption="Steirischer Herbst, Graz, 1997 - Sketch: Granular~Synthesis" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f049c53ca1810a8349023a043a5f53ef5ae19d629f2b0c2285bbdefa1f4b788a/AA_SKIZZE-.jpg" /> AREALAREAL re-mixed- and combined various GS works, its currrent gestalt is an abstract, predominantly flickering, audiovisual landscape. In its early editions AREAL lasted for several hours. Conceived as part improvisation and also endurance test for audiences it became GS media performance laboratory. Staged in various, changing architectural setups, both frontal, surround and inbetween, it was shape shifting by default. While the title of the work remained the same, over time the work did anything but. "Small coarse-grained units of information jerk and shake in light/against-the-light mode. The biological unit "human being", tolerated here to a certain extent, humbly tries to withstand a Wall of Sound which is to get more and more infernal during the following hours...” AREAL emerged in its first version from our experience with “X-tended Thrill”, a collaboration with “Sensorband" at the ICC - Nippon Telecoms’s then new, ambitious IntercommunicationCenter, Tokyo, in 1997. AREAL-A premiered at the ”Steirischer Herbst” Festival later in 1997, followed by AREAL-V at the ”Vergessen” Festival (both in Austria). At that time AREAL was sourcing images and sounds from both WE WANT GOD NOW and FORM.&nbsp; Not one recording, sadly, exists, due to GS then ironclad belief that documentation of live / ephemeral events stands in contradiction to such work itself and thus must be not allowed. By today’s standard of recording technology also, SD video cameras could barely record in the dark or in high contrast scenarios so recordings would usually disappoint. GS sound was always multi channel, delivered on top of a massive infrabass foundation, which, again, squeezed into stereo and listened to via home speakers could in no way reflect the actual physical experience of an audience attending the live event. &nbsp; &nbsp; https://granularsynthesis.info/NOISEGATE Tue, 31 Mar 2020 14:39:36 +0000 Granular Synthesis https://granularsynthesis.info/NOISEGATE NOISEGATE-M6 1998-2000 Realtime, partially Interactive Audiovisual Installation 6-Channel Video, 12-Channel Audio Featuring Performer Michael Krammer <img width="1800" height="1188" width_o="1800" height_o="1188" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/077d3bfc4f89ca516cd1bffa4ad00ee728d060588ce4262a466ea2d436ad69b9/NG-30pnt-.jpg" data-mid="70626730" border="0" alt="NOISEGATE premiere, Museum of Applied Art, Vienna, 1998. Image &copy; Klomfar &amp; Sengmueller" data-caption="NOISEGATE premiere, Museum of Applied Art, Vienna, 1998. Image © Klomfar &amp; Sengmueller" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/077d3bfc4f89ca516cd1bffa4ad00ee728d060588ce4262a466ea2d436ad69b9/NG-30pnt-.jpg" /> <img width="2523" height="1795" width_o="2523" height_o="1795" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3f151215dabf3317bb8ed5d6be576edde559ceaf66f106d804513bcbe6936f39/M6-offSCREEN.jpg" data-mid="70626454" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3f151215dabf3317bb8ed5d6be576edde559ceaf66f106d804513bcbe6936f39/M6-offSCREEN.jpg" /> <img width="4504" height="2362" width_o="4504" height_o="2362" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e33f9755595aaaa1db0afd46e7fb4adbc08e805a4f492ddae289efbff937803a/NOISEGATE05300DPI_38X20.JPG" data-mid="78962030" border="0" alt="Installation in dormant underground subway station, temporary exhibition site Kunstverein Hannover." data-caption="Installation in dormant underground subway station, temporary exhibition site Kunstverein Hannover." src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e33f9755595aaaa1db0afd46e7fb4adbc08e805a4f492ddae289efbff937803a/NOISEGATE05300DPI_38X20.JPG" /> <img width="3543" height="2362" width_o="3543" height_o="2362" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f698b7a04e8cb9a25c3216f9a8d68b47cdcfb300622c459e7d3a236ab634e5ef/NOISEGATE-04-kunstverein-hannover-c-granularsynthesis-big.jpg" data-mid="65457157" border="0" alt="Exhibition site, Kunstverein Hannover." data-caption="Exhibition site, Kunstverein Hannover." src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f698b7a04e8cb9a25c3216f9a8d68b47cdcfb300622c459e7d3a236ab634e5ef/NOISEGATE-04-kunstverein-hannover-c-granularsynthesis-big.jpg" /> <img width="2362" height="3310" width_o="2362" height_o="3310" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/becf4321aec6261405b06dc0336883297ed18ccc732e67954b95eda5447696bb/NOISEGATE-03-kunstverein-hannover-c-granularsynthesis-big.jpg" data-mid="65457154" border="0" alt="Exhibition site, Kunstverein Hannover." data-caption="Exhibition site, Kunstverein Hannover." src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/becf4321aec6261405b06dc0336883297ed18ccc732e67954b95eda5447696bb/NOISEGATE-03-kunstverein-hannover-c-granularsynthesis-big.jpg" /> <img width="1800" height="1353" width_o="1800" height_o="1353" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/608cd7bb694810a8d570199b34decac3500f749fd2b39b5df59e71e96d566d14/M6-predator-green2-.jpg" data-mid="78963042" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/608cd7bb694810a8d570199b34decac3500f749fd2b39b5df59e71e96d566d14/M6-predator-green2-.jpg" /> <img width="2362" height="3517" width_o="2362" height_o="3517" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/583e7e40d0d83eec2f6dba2cf4122044f66d311115ec259fb54695d6df7e0cd4/NOISEGATE-06-recording-chair-photo-by-klomfar-sengmuellerl-big.jpg" data-mid="65457159" border="0" alt="Custom-made head-box chair for NOISEGATE initial performance recording. Collection of MAK Vienna" data-caption="Custom-made head-box chair for NOISEGATE initial performance recording. Collection of MAK Vienna" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/583e7e40d0d83eec2f6dba2cf4122044f66d311115ec259fb54695d6df7e0cd4/NOISEGATE-06-recording-chair-photo-by-klomfar-sengmuellerl-big.jpg" /> <img width="5467" height="3534" width_o="5467" height_o="3534" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/683cee73074c19bab71caef629d7719ff750ed9d063a469db150165d9563985e/NG-41mag-.jpg" data-mid="78962729" border="0" alt="Original AV Recording Session with Michael Krammer in custom-made head-box chair, Vienna, 1997" data-caption="Original AV Recording Session with Michael Krammer in custom-made head-box chair, Vienna, 1997" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/683cee73074c19bab71caef629d7719ff750ed9d063a469db150165d9563985e/NG-41mag-.jpg" /> <img width="2678" height="3631" width_o="2678" height_o="3631" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f290ea5e8b2ac705eaeefec6a337d9097e7faabe0614615243e5df9b273a592d/NG-poster-no-logos.jpg" data-mid="81813308" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f290ea5e8b2ac705eaeefec6a337d9097e7faabe0614615243e5df9b273a592d/NG-poster-no-logos.jpg" /> NOISEGATE “From the exterior and upon first entering NOISEGATE, the installation had a terrifying air about it. There was something tangibly uncomfortable about walking into a completely dark space towards a brutal noise - the source of which was initially unseen. For a few, fleeting seconds the mind's subconscious took over and dredged up horrific images from mankind's past. Some stood staring at the vast images, others wandered around absorbing the noise and light indirectly. The almost imperceptibly slow movements of the green faces caught newcomers unaware as they occasionally, very suddenly and dramatically flickered into a blue/white negative - like some painful X-ray experience - a disturbing, harsh screeching in the noise stuttering as the images rapidly changed, caused the woman in front of me to physically jump out of shock. But once immersed in the installation the effect was quite different. I experienced something strangely calming, which at the same time stimulated the audio/visual/tactile senses in ways the body isn't used to. “ Rob Dyer "NOISEGATE" National Museum of Photography, Film &amp; Television, Bradford 28 July - 10 September, 2000 "A tangibly uncomfortable dark space and brutal noise" GRANULAR SYNTHESIS are Vienna-based duo Kurt Hentschläger and Ulf Langheinrich who specialise in spectacular audiovisual installations. NOISEGATE debuted in 1998 and is currently touring the world. In between the likes of Vienna, Munich and New York it was then slightly surprising to see Bradford listed as the city of choice for the installation's UK debut. But the National Museum of Photography, Film &amp; Television (NMPFT) was the ideal venue and since I was going to be in Bradford for the annual InFest festival I had the perfect opportunity to check out the mysterious NOISEGATE. The NMPFT in Bradford is a large building over five floors and a basement level. I was strolling around, several floors up from the installation, killing time until it opened at 2.30pm, when suddenly the building began to vibrate to an alarming droning noise. It sounded as though some huge piece of technical machinery had gone wrong in the basement and was close to exploding. I immediately checked my watch - 2.30pm - NOISEGATE had begun. By the time I'd made my way to the entrance to the installation, people were already hovering around the doorway which was guarded by a member of the Museum's staff. A middle-aged woman emerged from behind the door with a grimace on her face, "It's just noise" she said with a mixture of what seemed like confusion and disgust. The doorman handed out information sheets to the odd mix of people with quizzical looks on their faces hovering around the entrance area - drawn by the curious, loud noise. He and the sheets acted as a filter to the prospective patrons. The standard warnings about strobe lighting, extremely dark environment etc. were accompanied by a few sentences attempting to 'acclimatize' people to the large space they were about to enter. These included notes on the very loud noise levels and vibrating floor. Bearing in mind that at least half of those queuing were families out for 'a nice day' at the museum, the warnings about the unusual nature of the installation concluded with a somehat cautious "we hope you enjoy the experience". You entered the NOISEGATE space through a pitch black corridor, which quickly opened into an equally dark and bare gallery area (approximately 150 cubic feet). People were gathered toward the rear of the room - some standing with their backs against the wall, others sitting on the floor. In front of them were three walls angled towards the back wall, each wall with two huge video screens next to each other. Green-toned images of a man's face on each of the six screens were the only source of light in the installation. A surround sound system pumped out scraping, droning, white noise and bass tones. I sat down. Very slowly the images moved and flickered - suddenly animated for a few seconds. A man hitting his face against glass, grimacing (recalling the lady who left NOISEGATE as I entered it), the image half negative, half skeletal, switching from sudden flurry of juddering movement to (almost) still visage. Although the audio was extremely loud it was never uncomfortable, never too loud, perhaps a result of the impressive sound system and clever choice of sound waves. Many people walked in one side of the room only to see what was on offer and immediately walk across the space and out the other side. Very young children walked in with their parents and intuitively sat down - leaving their older family members groping for some point of reference. Some even laid out upon the wooden floor to feel the vibrations of the frequencies pass through their whole bodies - as if feeling it through their feet alone wasn't enough. Copying their innocent exploration, I too laid down. With my palms on the floor, head facing the black void above, I couldn't see the images on the screens but could see the shifting colours of the ambient light they created. I felt like part of the installation, part of the NOISEGATE. Being in a cinema in that brief moment when the house lights go down but before the screen lights up was the only remotely similar experience, but the noise made all the difference. Some stood staring at the vast images, others wandered around absorbing the noise and light indirectly. Ignorant kids did their best to scream and shout but the frequencies of the noise almost completely drowned out their voices and the relentless drone quickly out lasted any breath they could summon up. The almost imperceptibly slow movements of the green faces caught newcomers unaware as they occasionally, very suddenly and dramatically flickered into a blue/white negative - like some painful X-ray experience - a disturbing, harsh screeching in the noise stuttering as the images rapidly changed, caused the woman in front of me to physically jump out of shock. From the exterior and upon first entering NOISEGATE, the installation had a terrifying air about it. There was something tangibly uncomfortable about walking into a completely dark space towards a brutal noise - the source of which was initially unseen. For a few, fleeting seconds the mind's subconscious took over and dredged up horrific images from mankind's past. But once immersed in the installation the effect was quite different. I experienced something strangely calming, which at the same time stimulated the audio/visual/tactile senses in ways the body isn't used to. It reminded me very much of some of the installations at the Sonic Boom event at the Hayward Gallery in London earlier this year - although on a much larger scale than anything seen there. It was a truly memorable encounter and one that I'd recommend to anyone adventurous. Rob Dyer, Dark Stark Magazine ________________________________ Robin Rimbaud crosses the NOISEGATE with GRANULAR SYNTHESIS excerpts “…With the quality of a gigantic aquarium each screen project images of&nbsp; the disembodied head of Viennese dancer and performer Michael Krammer, caught as if behind the screen, enclosed and compressed in the darkness. As the image breaks and dissolves a massive sonic field envelopes you in dislocated abstract tones, which move in synchronisation with the granulated images. A sense of pressure in time and space is created by the apparent entrapment of this cloned colossus within the screen each thrust of Krammer’s head into the glass case held within reverberating around the arena. (….) In a sense we are all encased in this contracted space. The experience grows into the suite. We learn more about the movement and structure of the work as we attend to its changing moods; the swelling of the sound and disintegration of the images….” -Robin Rimbaud WIRE 1998&nbsp; _____________________________ Das Presse-Online Archiv Erscheinungsdatum: 20.01.199820. Ressort: Kultur/Medien Höllentore und maximales Lärmen "Noise Gate M6" im Museum für angewandte Kunst: Der Dialog Mensch-Maschine bestimmt auch die neueste Video-Installation des Künstlerduos "Granular Synthesis". VON JOHANNA HOFLEITNEREin gefragter Medienkunst-Exportartikel ist das in Wien ansässige Künstlerduo "GRANULAR Synthesis". Seit sechs Jahren arbeiten der Deutsche Ulf Langheinrich und der Linzer Kurt Hentschläger an ihrem Projekt. Zur Zeit halten sie bei Variante "M6", welche nach der MAK-Schau durch Europa touren wird. Auch diesmal produziert GRANULAR Synthesis ein gen unendlich maximiertes Lärmen, Dröhnen, ein unaufhörliches Rauschen von Bildern, Klängen. Von Beginn an wurden GRANULAR Synthesis von einem Medienfestival zum nächsten gereicht - mit der stets neuesten Variante ihrer nach oben hin offenen Reihe "Modell x.x", an deren Fortschreibung und Maximierung sie wie Software-Engineers arbeiten. Immer steht der je und je neu zu inszenierende, von den Künstlern mittels Synthesizern und Video-Samplern gesteuerte Dialog Mensch-Maschine im Zentrum der Auftritte. So steht auch der Name des Teams für die Methode: "GRANULAR Synthesis" bedeutet in etwa "Zusammenfügung von Körnern" - womit die Grains, die Moleküle der Videobilder und der Töne gemeint sind. Zentraler Bestandteil des ästhetischen Prozesses ist die kontinuierliche Verbesserung der High-Tech-Apparate. Da nimmt es nicht wunder, daß sich die Titel der "Modelle" ausnehmen wie die Bezeichnung der neuesten Variante eines Computer-Programmes. Traten die beiden bisher mit Performances, die einen wild-pulsierenden Theaterabend lang dauerten, in Erscheinung, so feiern sie nun im Wiener MAK mit der Raum-Klang-Installation "Noise Gate M6" Premiere im Sinne einer musealen Ausstellung. Schon im Foyer dröhnen dumpfe Bässe, das Gebäude scheint zu vibrieren. Zutritt zur Ausstellungshalle erlangt man durch eine kalte Schleuse, die einer Fahrstuhlkabine ähnelt - Klaustrophobie ist programmiert. Hat man die Pforte passiert, ist man von Finsternis umgeben - ein bedrohlicher Bauch des technologischen Zeitalters, einzig ausgefüllt von der hämmernden Masse elektronischer Klangfasern. Rundum in den sechs Wandfeldern des lichteren, durch eine weitere Schleuse erreichbaren Umgangs: ein Video-Cordon mit riesenhaft vergrößerten Männerköpfen. Durch digitale Bearbeitung sowie Sensoren, die die Bewegung des Publikums aufnehmen, zerbröseln die Bilder, um sich aus der Vibration heraus dann neu zu organisieren. Mit "Noise Gate M6" zeichnen GRANULAR Synthesis ein brutales Porträt des Posthumanismus, rechtzeitig zum Fin de millennium. Hier wird der Besucher an die Grenzen des Erträglichen geführt, erlebt 20 Minuten lang ein Wechselbad der Gefühle. Einzig, doch entscheidend, bricht sich diese Gratwanderung in der Ironie des ästhetischen Spieles. Sich für diese coole Installation zu erwärmen, ist unmöglich. Genau dieses Paradoxon ist der springende Punkt.&nbsp;_____________________________________ Le Devoir, Montreal, Quebec April 17, 1999 Between Spell and IrritationNOISEGATE GRANULAR SYNTHESIS Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal,185 rue Sainte-Catherine OuestOpen until May 16 Bernard Lamarche At present, the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art (MACM) is housing a major work, major in terms of its monumental scale, and of the underlying high-tech. It is an overwhelming video work by the Austria duo Granular Synthesis (GS) who have been widely acclaimed by critics wherever they showed their works and who are by no means making their début in the development of monumental installations of this kind. In the framework of the 1995 ISEA&nbsp; in Montreal GS presented MODELL 5, repeated images of the face of a young women in convulsions set to haunting music amplified to the point of the unbearable. Formed in 1991, the duo consisting of Kurt Hentschläger and Ulf Langheinrich specializes in sound and visual environments in which the feelings of alienation and confinement are stimulated by the bodies of the spectators and the models who are part of the imagery being absorbed by the machinery so that a virtual version of a complex cyborg evolves, hysterical, caught up between and shaken by rule-bound programming and drifting emotions. Synthetic Granulation In their productions, the team uses a technique of audio signal sampling, synthetic granulation, from which they also derived their name. The signal is split up and the grain thus isolated can be reduced and re-arranged in new sequences in a process of sampling or cloning. Not only does the new technique make it possible to explore micro-tonal variations of timbres digitized this way, it also allows for an alignment of these sounds along a time matrix fundamentally alien to them. Thus certain effects of familiarity are undermined by the non-linear re-organization of sounds and images. This is what the visitor can experience in the basement of the MACM. The materiality of the amplified sound causes unique sensations: the rib cage vibrates to the beats of the noise music while complex ways of toying with the stereo sound make you believe in auditive hallucinations because the sounds you hear are split into several signals. The deafening installation uses a highly sophisticated technique called granular synthesis. Visitors enter a hall in total darkness, and following a pathway marked by lights, they are led into the heart of the machinery and walled in by very loud industrial noise. In the hall, visitors are surrounded by a huge enclosure of six giant screens enveloping them with brutal force. These screens show sequences of film, a kind of vibrating variation on the same visual theme, the order of which follows an unpredictable logic. A head, alternatingly shown in positive and negative projection, falls prey to irritating convulsions seemingly due to a disturbance in the program. The stern face is seized by trembling fits, passing through various stages of suffering and catatonia while the pervasive noise becomes twice as strong through the thuds._______ https://granularsynthesis.info/FORM Tue, 31 Mar 2020 14:40:28 +0000 Granular Synthesis https://granularsynthesis.info/FORM WARNING: This video may potentially trigger seizures for people with photosensitive epilepsy. Viewer discretion is advised. FORM 1999 Single Channel Video, Stereo Sound Featuring Performer Michael Ashcroft Commissioned originally as contribution to Robert Lepage’s stage work “Zulu Time” <img width="3091" height="2362" width_o="3091" height_o="2362" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/dc0c2a4e11cab7e4d32f8cbf81e5ae8fdc61527d852a2ca3310d8873f9c29c6b/FORM-02-videostill-c-granularsynthesis-big.jpg" data-mid="65457426" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/dc0c2a4e11cab7e4d32f8cbf81e5ae8fdc61527d852a2ca3310d8873f9c29c6b/FORM-02-videostill-c-granularsynthesis-big.jpg" /> <img width="3275" height="2400" width_o="3275" height_o="2400" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e92cdcdd260e8415c96299c35374f0aa7eba276c143101cabe30e9e3b5751d9e/FORM03.jpg" data-mid="70783071" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e92cdcdd260e8415c96299c35374f0aa7eba276c143101cabe30e9e3b5751d9e/FORM03.jpg" /> FORM Video samples from a&nbsp; seven minute performance of Michael Ashcroft recorded in 1995 in Cardiff, UK continued to be a source of inspiration for many years after.It was originally shot to obtain human torso performance footage for WE WANT GOOD NOW, a one hour long video work for the British performance group Man Act (of which Michael was a member). The WE WANT GOOD NOW video, we edited in 1995 for the dance performance of “Man Act” had a rather short life, as a work on stage at least. The raw video material however has been later used by GS in many forms / clones, e.g. in Xtended Thrill and AREAL. One work composed also from just a few seconds of raw footage of WWGN is FORM. It was first commissioned as a contribution to Robert Lepage’s stage show Zulu Time. FORM now is shown as a single channel stand alone video work. https://granularsynthesis.info/POL Tue, 31 Mar 2020 14:41:05 +0000 Granular Synthesis https://granularsynthesis.info/POL POL 1998-2000 Realtime Audiovisual Performance &amp; Installation 4-Channel Video (on 7 screens), 12-Channel Audio (4 mono + 4 stereo) Featuring Performer Diamanda Galas <img width="3661" height="2362" width_o="3661" height_o="2362" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/922c3405dd13832e325a3aacd14ddcd11b625b7bd9843d789ec6e5aa9e06eef3/POL-03-seven-screens-pure-light-c-E-Valette-big.jpg" data-mid="65457873" border="0" alt="Exit Festival Creteil, Paris, 2000" data-caption="Exit Festival Creteil, Paris, 2000" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/922c3405dd13832e325a3aacd14ddcd11b625b7bd9843d789ec6e5aa9e06eef3/POL-03-seven-screens-pure-light-c-E-Valette-big.jpg" /> <img width="2476" height="1665" width_o="2476" height_o="1665" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/56d718f8e6c35db852e4419ebd173dc94b5bdfe417be03797adc64642155a7ef/POL2-pc.jpg" data-mid="70629369" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/56d718f8e6c35db852e4419ebd173dc94b5bdfe417be03797adc64642155a7ef/POL2-pc.jpg" /> <img width="2362" height="3219" width_o="2362" height_o="3219" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f9b29a6072078be92225d57e69f9ce781660de9a874ee07e0af281a9df9a494a/POL-06-Portrait-Diamanda-Galas-c-granular-synthesis-big.jpg" data-mid="65457886" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f9b29a6072078be92225d57e69f9ce781660de9a874ee07e0af281a9df9a494a/POL-06-Portrait-Diamanda-Galas-c-granular-synthesis-big.jpg" /> <img width="1613" height="1075" width_o="1613" height_o="1075" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3bbdb230806de0497420f16010525a700dae9b440e57f463521d44e9dcd8f305/POL-Eindhoven-4400-.jpg" data-mid="70630690" border="0" alt="GS-Retrospective, STRP Eindhoven, 2009 - Photo: Granular~Synthesis" data-caption="GS-Retrospective, STRP Eindhoven, 2009 - Photo: Granular~Synthesis" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3bbdb230806de0497420f16010525a700dae9b440e57f463521d44e9dcd8f305/POL-Eindhoven-4400-.jpg" /> <img width="2081" height="1439" width_o="2081" height_o="1439" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f47c40d8bdd85cfaf789a0179a77e30640358eaba8ea324fb4a076c2a4588fb4/POL-Eindhoven-4389-.jpg" data-mid="70630689" border="0" alt="GS-Retrospective, STRP Eindhoven, 2009 - Photo: Granular~Synthesis" data-caption="GS-Retrospective, STRP Eindhoven, 2009 - Photo: Granular~Synthesis" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f47c40d8bdd85cfaf789a0179a77e30640358eaba8ea324fb4a076c2a4588fb4/POL-Eindhoven-4389-.jpg" /> <img width="1685" height="1123" width_o="1685" height_o="1123" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4a0e0bfd417e67f0ce9eb374013032f597b7bdfce19a66538388bbaa1de750cb/GS-POL_Eindhoven-4342-.jpg" data-mid="70630686" border="0" alt="GS-Retrospective, STRP Eindhoven, 2009 - Photo: Granular~Synthesis" data-caption="GS-Retrospective, STRP Eindhoven, 2009 - Photo: Granular~Synthesis" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4a0e0bfd417e67f0ce9eb374013032f597b7bdfce19a66538388bbaa1de750cb/GS-POL_Eindhoven-4342-.jpg" /> <img width="3308" height="2550" width_o="3308" height_o="2550" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cf8dd5b23e1c03175583a9945ebb187c64ba290bbefcbb50a1da3dd2eed12319/WACKEN4_5X6CROSSAXIS.jpg" data-mid="70632266" border="0" alt="Typical POL setup: 7 portrait screens in arc shape, 8 stack audio in corners low and high, discrete voice speaker per each screen and row of subwoofer bins below screens." data-caption="Typical POL setup: 7 portrait screens in arc shape, 8 stack audio in corners low and high, discrete voice speaker per each screen and row of subwoofer bins below screens." src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/cf8dd5b23e1c03175583a9945ebb187c64ba290bbefcbb50a1da3dd2eed12319/WACKEN4_5X6CROSSAXIS.jpg" /> <img width="1500" height="1006" width_o="1500" height_o="1006" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b7346d5a539e4e984656ad77752d0e3054d7aeb06f460d7fb23c918a6b880338/POL_cockpit_Elektra1999-cleaned-brighter-.jpg" data-mid="81872238" border="0" alt="Setup @ Elektra, Montreal 1999 - Photo: Jocelyn Boulais" data-caption="Setup @ Elektra, Montreal 1999 - Photo: Jocelyn Boulais" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b7346d5a539e4e984656ad77752d0e3054d7aeb06f460d7fb23c918a6b880338/POL_cockpit_Elektra1999-cleaned-brighter-.jpg" /> <img width="1200" height="844" width_o="1200" height_o="844" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f19e58a83d120fc2f13a10db69ebdba5dfe0385f9f64c56b8d6e4ad90c93c735/POL11mas-.jpg" data-mid="81875819" border="0" alt="Setup @ Elektra, Montreal 1999 - Photo: Granular~Synthesis" data-caption="Setup @ Elektra, Montreal 1999 - Photo: Granular~Synthesis" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f19e58a83d120fc2f13a10db69ebdba5dfe0385f9f64c56b8d6e4ad90c93c735/POL11mas-.jpg" /> <img width="1250" height="762" width_o="1250" height_o="762" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/55fe94fe227358fa547dc6684bd67251423439d5279853f6026452a847bb3414/POL-rear-view-seven-screens-tech.jpg" data-mid="65457892" border="0" alt="Setup POL: Behind the screens, subwoofer cabinets with &quot;voice&quot; speaker per screen atop of subwoofers " data-caption="Setup POL: Behind the screens, subwoofer cabinets with &quot;voice&quot; speaker per screen atop of subwoofers " src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/55fe94fe227358fa547dc6684bd67251423439d5279853f6026452a847bb3414/POL-rear-view-seven-screens-tech.jpg" /> <img width="2478" height="1343" width_o="2478" height_o="1343" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5067131b1533456ca78f173cf39a4d66d2edf14c945298edf99c082a07de597a/POL-mix.jpg" data-mid="70630075" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5067131b1533456ca78f173cf39a4d66d2edf14c945298edf99c082a07de597a/POL-mix.jpg" /> POL Original Voice and Performance Samples: Diamanda Galas. POL was commissioned by Hull Time Based Arts, Hull GB and co-produced by Ars- Electronica, Linz, Austria, Maison des Arts Creteil and Manege Maubeuge, as well as Institut für Bildmedien / ZKM Karlsruhe, Germany, with support of WIEN Kultur. Premiere version 1.0: ISEA Liverpool, 1998.Premiere version 3.0 : Salzburger Festspiele Zeitfluss, 1999 GRANULAR~SYNTHESIS Ars Electronica Catalogue, 1998 This written information is an attempt to edit further into the hearts and minds of future generations. The information I share will be personal and reflective. My relationship with Kurt Hentschläger and Ulf Langheinrich and to GRANULAR=SYNTHESIS has become close.&nbsp; Their phrase “we have a serious problem”, as the hard drive crashed a week before the premiere of MODELL 5 back in 1994 could never have been more false, since then the three of us have all experienced personal catastrophes, invariably in the middle of production. The language they use to describe their work is formal. We share a joke between us; “Granular &amp; Synthesis” a duo, Kurt on guitar and Ulf on bongo!&nbsp; They both have a disdain for acoustic music and “the expressive arts”. They are obsessed with specific technology to produce and perform the work, for example their insistence on having 30 kW of less than 40Hz sub-bass for the new performance projection POL is not formalist or macho, but it is necessary because they know what this sound technology can do: The objective of this volume is not merely to be loud, but because specific tones, pitches and shifts trigger physiological effects on the body and subsequently evoke deep psychological resonance. Despite being hard, loud, technological art work, the work of GRANULAR=SYNTHESIS is effectually some of the most “human” contemporary art. Their attention to formal detail, working with single frame or within the single frame in long sequences of audio and video is an acute process which leads to maximum effect. The audience are subjected to a heavy onslaught of stimuli; - bombarded with light, video and audio projection - attempts to intellectualise or understand give way to the sheer physicality of the work, the audience are both affronted and seduced. Fascinated, overwhelmed and suffering in that overload gives rise to that state of mind which allows a submerging into the work - attempts to rationalise or understand defeated. Letting go of self consciousness - letting go of oneself. Disturbing, frightening, seductive and erotic. My first exposure to the work of GRANULAR= SYNTHESIS at the AVE Festival in Arnhem, Netherlands (MODELL 3) reminded me of one of my earliest childhood TV experiences watching the 1939 version of the Wizard of Oz&nbsp;(Fleming), I was scared by&nbsp; the wizard at the end of the yellow brick road. Dorothy, played by Judy Garland, learns at the end of this tale, that the wizard is, in fact, the projection of an insecure, ordinary man, I now know this was a live video projection. This maybe leads back into the motivation of why we make Art. It is also in the context of science fiction that I have always associated&nbsp; MODELL 5&nbsp; and the Japanese face of&nbsp; Akemi Takeya,&nbsp; with one of the most resonant moments in any film for me, that in Blade Runner at night time when the air ship cruises overhead with an apparently embedded media projection hoarding of a Japanese woman's face. Artists image ideas, manifest the conceptual and realise fiction.&nbsp; Artists are good at simulating what scientists work at and they make up stories that may be true and in so doing make things real.&nbsp; Stelarcs performance Body I Ping has always reminded me of dressing up and fetishising the body, however Stelarc has provided an early manifestation of a real working cyborg. GRANULAR=SYNTHESIS have made real a series of virtual beings.&nbsp; Wanting to escape from using images of the single head they used&nbsp; the torso in We want God Now, X-tended Thrill and AREAL A, however the attraction of the face seems too compelling and again in POL they are working with the female face.&nbsp; It is implicit that the face will be re-processed and as much trace of her original expressive qualities removed.&nbsp; NOISEGATE was originally titled “deep sea”.&nbsp; The effect initially required was one of the aquarium or zoo. Virtual beings caged behind glass or screen.&nbsp; The need to create characters expressive and existential in existence has been drawn upon before, and yes, the effect of the slowed down&nbsp; and blurred “roar” in MODELL 5 does give the appearance of a moving Francis Bacon painting; this for me is the paradox. There are these characters who are caged and their images digitally stripped naked, somehow the fetish of the pixel and the frozen electronic image of the human form is a zeitgeist for the era in which we were brought up, the seventies and eighties. Our ability to invent technologies that can see finer and finer details in time and space can only mean that humans abilities to notice difference will become more sensitive. The processes of deconstruction and analysis in the histories of video and Media Art are apparent. Digital video has taken this further with the deconstruction of each frame into the units which make the image, the pixels, GRANULAR=SYNTHESIS work is about the process of reconstruction. They have outstripped software and in order to develop their work through live audio-visual sampling have had to devise new software.&nbsp; "There was and still is nothing on the market that would fit our needs. In 1996 we sat down and started to layout an audio-visual machine that would merge our experiences from working with Non-linear video-editing systems as well as from audio-sampling. The goal was to access video and synchronised audio from such a device single framewise in real-time. The trigger and control protocol was definitely to be MIDI, as we wanted this instrument to easily fit into the rest of our set-up. It was furthermore essential to be able to load different (audio-video) samples into RAM, to switch between them and to read them out dynamically. Also we wanted the software to run on PC, as we need independent machines for each image/sound projection . Developing the software was exciting and because of our excellent software designer and programmer, Dirk Langheinrich the program does exactly what we always wanted: VARP 9 (the name of the baby) runs stable... last time we have had that feeling with ATARI. Before we accomplished our goal (by the end of 1997) Dirk and us found ourselves completely exhausted by almost 100 beta-versions, "fascinating" hard/software incompatibilities and so forth. Amazingly the software itself (naturally) represents so much of our aesthetic knowledge that a big compositional part of recent work is embedded in the software. Most rewarding was to find out about aesthetic possibilities that we knew and dreamed about but simply were out of reach to edit "by hand". Things like applying flickerframes in an adjustable frequency within a series of other frames or modulating one visual sample (series of frames) with another, or (super exciting) visual floating - timewise mirroring of movement within a series of frames."&nbsp; They are very detailed in their approach to time and data. The fascination with deconstructing narratives and real time movement has much in common with the tradition of scratch video and cut-up movies. The difference being that the found-footage movie appropriates, re-processes, re-structures appropriated material, whereas GRANULAR=SYNTHESIS go to great pains to capture their own images working within very strict conditions; constructing machines (or seating modules) to hold their subjects in. In the recently recorded raw material of the female form, pre-processed the woman appears as a pinned butterfly exhaling its last disharmonic chant; a multiphonic guttural noise.&nbsp; This captured material will then be re-processed and synthesised, forming new narratives; developing a specialised meshed-media art form which has impact for a large number of younger people.&nbsp; This cross over audience is un-reliant on academic education and their pleasure and fear has always provided me personally with that extra edge of something to personally promote their work within the context of Hull Time Based Arts programme.&nbsp; What many of the HTBA artists or projects share is there ability to subvert and entertain through content or placement; the interventions, the pranks and strategies.&nbsp; They intervene in audience expectations, physical location or the system they operate on. What makes GRANULAR=SYNTHESIS different from other HTBA interventionist artworks is that of context, the performance projections MODELL 3, MODELL 5 and POL are interventions into different contextual environments, that of industrial space, club and disco. The scale and power of the projection tools and the physicality of the sounds and imagery created are truly spectacular. A lot of people expect and respond to the spectacular - whether the spectacle of duration, the extreme, or the grand.&nbsp; It is of real interest to witness many people enjoying a de-constructive art work.&nbsp; The work of GRANULAR=SYNTHESIS is not directly political but it does affect change. The possibilities offered with dial-up multi-channel TV on demand with its promise of choice and the illusion of freedom still stands little chance of competing with the new cinema. Trance inducing performed cinema, physical and visceral. Mike Stubbs, 28.6.98 (co-edited by Gina Czarnecki) ----------- Sculpture May 1999 Vol.18 No. 4 Liverpool Hearing the Noise: Revolution International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA98) “One of the most painful and distressing pieces I have ever experienced was POL by Austria’s GRANULAR=SYNTHESIS, a name&nbsp;Kurt Hentschläger and Ulf Langheinrich have been using since 1991 for their collaborations. For this piece, which took place in the well-known Cream club, they worked with singer Diamanda Galas, who often vocalizes sounds that seem to have been produced by a machine. A flickering image of her face was projected on seven screens, and the whole room vibrated with sound, making the viewing of the piece an intense physical experience. The projected image flickered so rapidly that the viewer was never quite sure if it was the face of a man or a woman. Through deconstructing the human form and voice, the artists created a yearning for wholeness and coherence.”"...An hour has passed. This will never end. I do not feel like moving any longer, or protesting, or looking away. I am staring, hypnotized. What if she was on the brink to ecstasy? One would say that she was smiling...I stretch out on the floor, too. Overwhelmed.The bass sounds have stopped. The blood pounding in my veins is taking over again, Nothing but white light and silence..."-Zoe Leoudak ---------------------------------- FASTEN&nbsp;YOUR&nbsp;SEATBELTS In LE DEVOIR By François TOUSSIGNANT Granular Synthesis' lively multimedia kills and resuscitates. ACREQ/ELEKTRA presents &nbsp; POL by GRANULAR=SYNTHESIS (Kurt Hentschläger and Ulf Langheinrich)&nbsp; Usine&nbsp;C, 12th and 13th November 1999. Many of us still remember the old caricatures in which Beethoven, Berlioz, Wagner, Mahler or Bartok are accused of "causing a row" or bursting eardrums. And how easy it would be now for a critic lacking true conviction to say the same of POL by GRANULAR= SYNTHESIS. More's the pity! It's true we couldn't have tolerated much of an increase in decibel level, and that the listener, seated directly on the ground, was physically tested by both the volume and intensity of the frequencies used; that the whole of Usine C was shaking; that our eyes were almost burnt out of our sockets by the succession of images on all seven screens; but even if we take all of this into account, it is of no more than superficial significance. Because with this music which grabbed rather than seduced its audience (from Beethoven to Stockhausen) as it gathered momentum, GRANULAR= SYNTHESIS had created a work of art. With this multimedia experience the company set itself the ambitious goal of achieving the noble heights more commonly associated with the Romantic movement's Gesamtkunstwerk (total artwork). In two sustained waves, we are presented with a suite of music and video images that are so intense that, alongside, anything short of their imaginative force pales. It's difficult to describe. It opens with a pinpoint on the monitors resembling 'blank' TV screens. And from this 'nothingness' which varies in tincture, like old photographic paper, from one monitor to the next, a form emerges: the body of Diamanda Galas. This is less proof of their faith in the power of repetition and more of their interest in microphotographic imaging (photographs of breathing taken at a millionth of a second which succeed one another in 'real' cinematographic time.) A dot of skin, a dot on the screen: always the same, but never identical, like an 'empty' TV screen.&nbsp; At the same time, white noise pours from the loud speakers. Here again, it's always the same, and yet different. An overwhelming blast of low register sequences, on top of which phase-changes are mixed to create rhythms that are as predictable as they are random. Sometimes the screens and the loud speakers are synchronised, at others they play completely independently of each other. There too a rhythm begins to develop with the gentle pace of a Bruckner symphony. This is followed by a very long, and decidedly more abstract "blue section". It is at this stage that the following initiation procedure comes into play. With eyes already saturated by images - or rather, intense colour - and ears almost anaesthetised by the sound (it's loud, almost dangerously so, but is never violent), the whole body becomes a receptive and perceptive organ. The music and video combine to reach us through the sense of touch, clearing a new path and imposing their new sensitivity. In contrast to the usual bombarding of the senses that occurs at raves or discos, here there is intent. It has been thought out and has a clear direction, the unqualified assumption that is the essence of all art. POL's use of machines is totally unrelated to both their vulgar usage in American films and on the dance floor. Resulting from Section IV of Stockhausen's Hymen - in essence a fantastic and unnatural technological outgrowth - and the static quality of certain Warhol films, Liechtenstein-like imagery (enlarging points (pixels) to such a degree that that they almost become objects in themselves) and Californian repetition (as with Adams where nothing moves and yet ....), the universe that POL proposes invents a whole new space. The senses and sense, both physis and mens are as much as they are put together. As Eros often unites with Thanatos, there is unavoidably violence, but poetry too. The ground upon which we first set foot never wears down and has fertile compost in abundance. This is what we gain from such an achievement. Which is to say? Probably as much as we have from the fugal counterpoint. At the glorious artistic close of this huge technological success, we remain astounded. If we don't 'understand' everything, we have gained a good grasp of it, even if only as a result of protecting ourselves enough to withstand it. There is no denying that the work is heavy, teutonic, and has close ties with Oktophonie, by their guru Stockhausen; It is equally true that the quality of some photographs (of flies or streaks) is not very good. Nevertheless outside of its undeniable effect in entertainment terms alone, POL commendably and completely takes its place within a greater historical continuum. If we only want to experience it briefly (n'freaker), why not; it is also possible - and therein lies its strength - to reflect upon it, and find it both distressing and moving all over again. Unfortunately it is not physically accessible to all (I repeat, it is a trying experience). Every artform has its own limits, in this case the sensorial demands imposed on its audience. If it is possible to reinvent a vocabulary and tools of expression, it is not as simple to transform the capacity of hearing. Call it art, if it pleases you. Extreme art, it definitely is. Art, it surely is. Art&nbsp; that would be disgusted to be restricted to the intellectualism of 'creation'. ------------------------- LIBERATION "POL", Musical Fascism or Precursory Genius? "POL", the performance by GRANULAR= SYNTHESIS, two Austrians who bombard the audience with visual and auditive flashes, caused strong polemic reactions at the Ars Electronica festival. Some people came out in a state close to ecstasy, others, and quite many of them, furiously left the hall before the performance was over. The only way to report on the event is to juxtapose a witness's account with what the artists say about their intentions. ----------- A Spectator' Report "Aching Heart, Aching Ears, Aching Head" The hall is lit by subdued red light. Discomfort from the start. Five giant screens have been set up in a semi-circle, and there are no seats for the audience. Am I supposed to sit on the floor? On screen, a woman's head advances and retreats, the movement is disrupted by white flashes. In a high-pitched voice she cries out "ahahahahahahahah", sampled to infinity over deafening bass sounds. The nude, photographed through a red filter, opens and closes her mouth, trembling. Now she is screaming, the volume is turned up a notch until it makes the floor resound and the heart vibrate. We are trembling. My eardrums are going to explode. The girl's face is seized by spasms. Some people in the audience stretch out on the floor, crossing their arms behind their heads. Others leave. My head is aching. I cannot stand it any longer, I put my fingers in my ears. A gigantic pneumatic drill is breaking everything up. My body is vibrating. The lights in the hall go out. Help! What if everything collapses? My heart, my ears, my head are aching. The strobe light is at it again, even stronger, and now it is my eyes that are suffering. Images split into fractals to the rhythm of bass beats. How do they set about hurting you even more? The noise of a different drill interrupts the pneumatic drill connected with the forty surround speakers. The girl, bathed in red, shouts herself hoarse, her face is completely deformed. My nose is trembling, and so is my body, my hair ... She wrinkles her eyebrows to the rhythm, her mouth is open, she snarls - blinding lights. I cannot watch any longer. The volume continues to be turned up, the images become ever more jerky. The girl lowers her head, she is the incarnation of suffering. Can one get used to such an explosion of sound? An hour has passed. This will never end. I do not feel like moving any longer, or protesting, or looking away. I am staring, hypnotized. What if she was on the brink to ecstasy? One would say that she was smiling...I stretch out on the floor, too. Overwhelmed. The bass sounds have stopped. The blood pounding in my veins is taking over again, Nothing but white light and silence. Applause. - Annick Rivoire ----- GRANULAR~SYNTHESIS explains: "Put the Audience in an Extreme State" "There are so many nice installations entirely devoid of danger which give all the power to the machines without there being any meaning behind them. Art has the potential to change your life. It is important that the audience cannot escape. This is not an 'intellectual' spectacle even if there is a major concept behind it. It is about catharsis, about arousing emotions. We had to improvise and be more violent than foreseen because certain machines were not working. We wanted to put the audience in an extreme state between joy, ecstasy and pain. POL, which refers to the magnetic poles, is like a center of energy devouring the spectator. In our dramatic concept growing pressure and respite alternate. The extreme intensity makes it possible to wipe everything out, to arrive at nothingness. A nothingness like a desert, a world of hidden richness. We found a way of creating very loud sounds without hurting anybody: we only work with very high and very low frequencies. Any middle frequency that would actually be dangerous in due to the sound volume is suppressed. The same goes for the images: the more they oscillate, the less you want to move. It shakes you but at the same time you find it hard to move. The voice and the images are musical material. Using a single interface, we mix audio and video which enables an intuitive and progressive process (1). It is quite unusual for us to see people leave a performance before it is over, but it was the première of a work in progress. One day a friend described what we are doing as 'wildly boring'. That's pretty smart." Recorded by Annick Rivoire (1) The GRANULAR SYNTHESIS invention is based on the principle of synthesizing sound by means of computers. Very short sound particles, so-called grains of sound, are sampled, duplicated, mixed and then arranged in time. GRANULAR SYNTHESIS apply this technique to videos. The pieces of voice recordings, images and sounds are sampled live to produce "visual music". Caption: The GRANULAR SYNTHESIS performance put spectators on the brink of the unbearable, a state the artists took responsibility for. https://granularsynthesis.info/SINKEN Tue, 31 Mar 2020 14:41:46 +0000 Granular Synthesis https://granularsynthesis.info/SINKEN SINKEN 1999 Single Channel Video, Stereo Sound, Duration 20:19 Featuring Performer Michael Ashcroft Created originally for Orchestre National de Lille, as part of a project of- and performed by french Collective Art Zoyd. <img width="1500" height="1000" width_o="1500" height_o="1000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5411165eb97b99d236ae7203a8ef9220a520a0bd9333199e0cea7b33209af230/sinken_orchester--.jpg" data-mid="81885116" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5411165eb97b99d236ae7203a8ef9220a520a0bd9333199e0cea7b33209af230/sinken_orchester--.jpg" /><img width="3109" height="2362" width_o="3109" height_o="2362" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c1e3dc35766aa9ad757f00de099d79b18d5441a19d1c159e3ddcd75c4500b81d/SINKEN-01-videostill-c-granularsynthesis-big.jpg" data-mid="65458709" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c1e3dc35766aa9ad757f00de099d79b18d5441a19d1c159e3ddcd75c4500b81d/SINKEN-01-videostill-c-granularsynthesis-big.jpg" /><img width="3113" height="2362" width_o="3113" height_o="2362" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6829e49e18f3d4670cc5ca0c86d56aba397f21469c6b2282cd33c7f021ec3582/SINKEN-03-videostill-c-granularsynthesis-big.jpg" data-mid="65458712" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6829e49e18f3d4670cc5ca0c86d56aba397f21469c6b2282cd33c7f021ec3582/SINKEN-03-videostill-c-granularsynthesis-big.jpg" /><img width="2128" height="1594" width_o="2128" height_o="1594" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2279c9c111819d78253678e180b77d6f1ecbc4a0757140f05b110971484cb3fb/SINKEN-still-2020-200dpi.jpg" data-mid="81892278" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2279c9c111819d78253678e180b77d6f1ecbc4a0757140f05b110971484cb3fb/SINKEN-still-2020-200dpi.jpg" />SINKEN The overall tenor of SINKEN is contemplative, featuring a sense of slow motion and time standing still. The audience usually first passes through a phase of frustration, with the absence of dramatic development, before reaching a state of heightened concentration and trance like relaxation.The digital audiovisual material is almost entirely abstract, yet still organic and clearly alive and breathing. It stems from processed and zoomed in human torso footage, becoming close up texture rather than discernible human form, and eerily so.A unrelenting glissando, played by 48 string instrument musicians of the live orchstre, is met by minimal, pumping and flickering, audiovisual movements. Sonically, SINKEN is starting off with a narrow band of detuned violins, sliding downwards in perceived pitch, and eventually ending in a physical rumble of deep double bass notes. The final bass part is supported by pre-recorded and amplified double bass sounds. At that time the video has started flickering in stroboscopic dark blue and black . The orchestral score, although conceptually simple, proved to be unusually demanding for the musicians. Video/Audio samples from a seven minute dedicated performance for camera by british performer Michael Ashcroft, recorded in 1995 in Cardiff, have served G~S as a source of inspiration for many years. After the initial production for WE WANT GOD NOW and later FORM the material finally also became the foundation for SINKEN, a composition for string-orchestra and parallel audiovisual track. SINKEN was commissioned by Art Zoyd and Orchestre National de Lille for the “Dangerous Visions” program of 1999 for shows in Maubeuge and Lille in northern France. It had two more presentations at the Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City with the National Orchestra of Mexico and at the Donau Festival, St.Poelten with the Niederoesterreichisches Tonkuenstlerorchester. The SINKEN video is projected across a four screens forming a panoramic stretch. Together with to the composition played by the string orchestra, the electronic soundscape, as part of the video, is diffused through surround speakers, around the audience.