Sounding Spaces
Future Perfect is a large scale media opera, commissioned by Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music (IRCAM), Pompidou Centre, Paris and Zentrum für Kunst und Medien (ZKM), Karlsruhe, Germany
The performance work features a 360 degree spatial audio (ambisonic) score, a VR film and an innovative system to allow layers of the performance to occur across the audience's smartphones.
This short documentary was produced by the ZKM | Videostudio and outlines the conceptual framework for the work and the technological developments.
Listed as the "Hottest thing to do on a cold weekend" in the state press in Karlsruhe, Germany, Future Perfect was a highlight of »inSonic 2018: Algorithmic Spaces« festival at ZKM.
As a guest artist at the IRCAM (Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music) in Paris and at the ZKM in 2018, I developed an immersive 3D video performance for High Order Ambisonics and Virtual Reality with layers of the musical score being performed in realtime across the audiences smartphones.
The smartphone performance technology was developed by myself and members of the Sound, Movement and Interaction team and Acoustic and Cognitive Space teams at IRCAM, Paris. I perform the smartphone layers live on the audiences's smartphones (spatialization, granulation and synchronous sample playback) - these layer adds texture and spatial qualities to the experience of the live performance and transforms the audience into part of the ecosystem of the work.
This video render of Future Perfect below, does not include any of the smartphone audio layers which I perform live across the audiences's smartphones - there are things you would hear over the 49 loudspeaker dome that are squished into a single sound field here, but it gives you a good idea of the score. There are some small areas on this film that are silent for what probably feels too long due to the missing smartphone layers - in performance, these are the smartphone/audience solo sections.
I produced the 3D film using 360VR footage I shot in Paris and animations of photographs of plants found in urban parks in Paris and Karlsruhe. The opening VR footage was shot near the Pont Marie, Paris in February 2018 while I was in residence at Cité des Arts International.