A4 commissioned a new audiovisual performance titled Fluid Ontologies from Transsonic, an experimental transmedia duo that creates immersive site-specific performances and installations bridging the vibrations of light and sound. Trained as musicians, both look into the ontology of sound and how musical experience can be transformed beyond its common material—sound. They explore light as an expanded musical material. They research and create performances, improvising between lights and sounds as equally important but dialectical musical materials. In “Fluid Ontologies,” Transsonic continues to expand their intermedial artistic practice in performances.

This project focuses on the use of laser feedback instruments, using lasers as sound sources and solar panel microphones, combining them with light bulb instruments, fog machines, and synthesizers, as well as machine learning-based latent timbre spaces. With the incorporation of 4-channel spatialization, Transsonic extends the dimensions in their artistic work and develops a new kind of electronic instrument by using solar panel microphones and laser sound sources, creating a unique audiovisual experience. In particular, the aim is to explore and define new concepts of the instrumentality of light as the starting point and origin of sound, integrating the entire body.

Transsonic (Viola Yip and Nicola L. Hein) is a Berlin-based transmedia duo. Since 2018, they have been joining forces to develop new works at the intersection of instrument building, incorporating new technologies and developing embodied performance with sound and light. They have been commissioned by Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, Seanaps Festival Leipzig, and Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry at the University of Chicago. They have also presented at New York University, Experimental Intermedia (NYC), CCRMA at Stanford University, Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt, Sonic Lab in SARC at Queen’s University Belfast, Huddersfield, Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, Oxford University, New Interface and Musical Expression (NIME) conference, Klex Festival in Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong Arts Center, De Tanker in Amsterdam, Musikhochschule Lübeck, Blurred Edges Festival in Hamburg, Alte Feuerwache in Köln, Experimentik Berlin, and Radialsystem Berlin.

Commissioned by A4

Premiere
NEXT Festival 2024
30.11.2024
https://nextfestival.sk/2024/