Blast of Invisible Relations – a virtual version of Steve Reich’s “Drumming” composition
BLAST OF INVISIBLE RELATIONS (dir. by Ksawery Kaliski and Piotr Ceglarek) is an experience of a virtual reality concert created for artistic and educational purposes, created in VR/AR Studio. The aim of the project is to broaden the boundaries of reception, to understand complex musical structures and to create the possibility of deeply engaging participation in the sensual experience of this work using virtual imaging and immersion. The composition that forms the basis of the project is Drumming, a work created 50 years ago by one of the most outstanding American minimalists and structuralists – Steve Reich.
The project assumes active participation of the audience in the concert space. The use of interac3ve solu3ons allows to control and influence the visual and audio-visual course of the concert, and through the body layout and the choice of the movement path to redirect attenton to a selected part of the composition. The participant can watch the sequences of the piece, sounds and images of the musicians looped in time from different sides.
The project provides three modes of participation: (1) music lover mode, (2) educational mode and (3) blast mode. Each of them determines the choice of a dedicated narrative path with separate possibilities of interaction and different means of influencing the viewer.
In mode (1), the reception focuses on experiencing a multi-channel three-dimensional sound (ambisonic sound) and broadening the possibilities of primarily phonic, on contemplating the structure. It responds to the needs of a viewer with a great deal of musical knowledge. The visual layer is also important here, although it has a complementary function.
In mode (2), the suggested recipient is a person whose level of understanding of experimental contemporary music does not have to be high, needs to be guided and encouraged to learn acoustic phenomena. The acquisition of knowledge takes place through experience.
Mode (3) is aimed at the fullest possible representation of the assumptions of the Minimalist composers (combining the tradition of European music with the experience of the concept and functions of Far Eastern music). The sense of the fusion of image, space and sound leading through the state of trance, primal rhythms, the sense of presence in the inter-space is to introduce the participant into the metaphysical experience.
World-class musicians (Mi?osz P?ka?a, Joanna Serafi?ska, Wojciech Myrczek) and a sound director (Andrzej Artymowicz) cooperate in recording the music layer. Specialist ambition microphones will be used to record each instrument on a separate soundtrack. This allows to achieve the highest quality acoustic conditions. Almost tangibly present sound surrounding the recipient from all sides allows to immerse oneself in the sounds of individual instruments, which captivate with their clarity and depth of sound.