| >>xenakis-emulator | |||||
| digital audio-visual adaptive/interpretative animation | |||||
| Motivation | Iannis
Xenakis was born in Romania in 1922. His family returned to Greece
in 1932. He studied architecture and math and became a resistance
fighter, fleeing from Greece to France in 1947, where he worked
in the office of Le Corbusier. He was a student of Olivier Messiaen,
and as first composer within New Music, he used mathematical probability
in composition, becoming the inventor of stochastic music.Xenakis
composed pieces for orchestra, scenic works for chorals, ballet
music, and radio compositions. |
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| Working
in the office of Le Corbusier, Xenakis collaborated on the monastery
La Tourette from 1953-1955, developing the design and the placement
of the vertical elements for the strip windows on the western façade
of the building. The motif of “decreasing-increasing”
of intervals of the vertical posts is derived from the composition
“Metastassis”, on which Xenakis worked at the time as
well. Metastassis for orchestra is defined by the extraordinary
and debut implementation of glissandi within a composition. The
glissando – the sliding movement within the tonal scale, for
instance with a string instrument – is the defining motif
of both the composition and the façade design for the monastery
La Tourette. This connection is interpreted within an adaptation
of both works. |
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| Analysis | Measurement
of the façade division results in definition of a system
consisting of 48 intervals that comprise the increasing-decreasing
appearance of the façade. These intervals can be interpreted
as the 1st to 48th factor of a smallest common interval. Beyond
that, minima and maxima can be identified, meaning points of largest
and lowest density in the façade system, as well as the distances
between them. |
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| Interpretation |
The increase-decrease of the façade intervals is set equal
to the increase-decrease of notes along the tonal scale. The largest
distance equals the deepest note, the smallest equals the highest
note. The length of the façade determines the length in time
of the adaptation. For this purpose, the distances of the façade
intervals are transcribed from millimeters into seconds and programmed
accordingly. |
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| A sequencer program controls a synthesizer. For each of the four window strips of the façade, a particular patch or sound is chosen. The choice of different instruments for audio tracks, each representing a façade strip, enables auditory recognition of the different strips/tracks. In addition, a rhythm track is programmed that highlights the sound events of the four tracks and the temporal distance between them via a bass drum sound created by a drum machine. Also, the points of maximum and minimum density are accentuated with a hi-hat sound of the drum machine. | |||||
| The increase-decrease of the glissando is represented by a continuous sound, mixed as an additional track creating a background ambience, reflecting the combine motif of both of Xenakis’ works. It is programmed, recorded, and sampled separately and arranged as repetitive sample within the additional track. | |||||
| Animation | The
façade strips of the monastery La Tourette with their characteristic
pattern of divisions are the basis for the visual representation.
The objective here is to connect visual image and audible sound.
The animation displays the façade strips as abstract floating
objects extracted from the context of the actual building. The animation
is then combined with the adaptation music. A camera follows the
façade strips in a parallel movement in such a manner that
permits the simultaneous and synchronous transmission of the adaptation
music. At the same time, a horizontal bar appears below the façade
strips, featuring an image of the waveform of the adaptation music.
A thin vertical bar indicates the synchronous movement of camera
and adaptation music across the façade strips. |
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| Credits | Mark
Kammerbauer & Alexandra Schnellbögl (1999) |
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| >>presented by the nexialist organization | mark kammerbauer et. al. | 2000-2009 | |||||
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