Imaginary Berlin
Description: This piece invites the audience to create a collaborative soundscape based on audio streams from the area of Berlin and by using their mobile devices. Influenced by the collaborative music piece Imaginary Landscape No. 4 (1951) by John Cage, 12 audio streams from Berlin-inspired radio stations will be emitted from a central laptop connected to a PA system. The audience will be able to pick one audio stream at any time by moving horizontally their mobile phones, and control the volume of the selected audio stream by moving vertically their mobile phones. The original Cage’s piece was designed for 12 pairs of performers, here the emphasis remains in the group participation and creation of a larger musical network by the potential generation of delays and localized sounds within the same space.
Authors: Anna Xambó
Role: Concept and implementation.
Technologies: The piece combines the localized speakers from the audience’s smartphones with the loudspeakers from the performance venue. The access to a wireless Internet connection will be needed for the audience and to a wired Ethernet connection for the central laptop. The WACastMix web interface will be projected.
Code:
Performances
- Music Performance of Imaginary Berlin @ WAC 2018. Factory Berlin, Berlin, Germany. September 19, 2018.
Publications
- Xambó, A., Lerch, A. and Freeman, J. “Music Information Retrieval in Live Coding: A Theoretical Framework”. Computer Music Journal, 42(4), Winter 2018, pp. 9-25.
Acknowledgments
This work relates to the AudioCommons project, which is funded by the European Commission through the Horizon 2020 programme, research and innovation grant 688382.