FB5pp

Recently I have started a collaborative project with Christian Graupner.  Exploring the edge between cliché and expressive language the installation FeeedBack5 opens up a field of experimentation to create a new form of inter-connectivity between video characters, sound generators and visitors / players.  It takes its inspiration from Jimi Hendrix who popularised controlling sonic chaos, & Robert Palmer ‘s 1980?s ‘Simply Irresistible’ video that parodied iconic imagery and stereotypes.   Exploring these cliches the multi-screen environment *FeeedBack5* extensively celebrates the female feedback guitar.

The multi-channel installation FeeedBack 5 (FB5) relies on the stimulating effect of the guitar-feedback sound and beauty – focussing on pure bodily excitement in aesthetic and social contexts – before becoming meaningful . It places the audience in a situation to close and manipulate inter-media feedback loops and to become an integral part of a complex musical circuit.

This Friday, 7th December we will present the prototype of FB5 (FB5pp) at LEAP, Berlin. FB5pp demonstrates the evolving audio features of the pipelined multi-screen media installation.

One by one, female visitors are invited to put on headphones and to wear a ‘prepared’ electric guitar. In doing this they accept to play the main role in an intense re-performance, by becoming a experienced feedback guitar player and creating their own rich soundscape .

A smartphone and additional sensors are mounted on the guitar to transmit accurate 3D motion and position data to an external system which provides a reactive real-time soundtrack giving direct response to players activity and creating a close-to-real simulation. Surrounding visitors can observe the player becoming one with the instrument in swaying movements but are not able to listen to the spectacular soundtrack but.

In addition from being an exciting standalone sound installation FB5pp fires the imagination for the pipelined multi-channel / multi-user audiovisual work FeeedBack 5 The setup serves for casting and test shootings that will develop to the complex piece which will be realized in early 2013.

Concept and Realisation: Christian Graupner (Humatic) & Alan Gleeson