nature / morte (2006) - generative sound environment for Günther Brus

Generative sound installation for a photo documentation on Viennese Actionism. Part of the exhibition "AUSTRIA: 1900-2000" at the Essl Museum in Klosterneuburg. The sound-environment nature / morte has been conceived by the composer Karlheinz Essl especially for this exhibition. An artificial world of sound, generated by a computer programme written in Max/MSP in realtime, intends to “earthen“ the freeze-frames and bring into play again the lost dimensions of time and sound. Through listening, in a subliminal way, the connection between the analytical eye and the non-rational levels of the unconscious is intended to get re-established, in order to enable the listeners to re-experience the sensual overall coherence of time and sound. The title "nature / morte" (French still-life; literally: ‚dead nature’) reflects these dialectics between nature dynamically unfolding and lifeless statics. A stream of sound, pouring into the Rotunda via four loud-speakers, is recurrently halted – as if stemmed –, in order to be released again afterwards, with all its power. Info: http://www.essl.at/works/nature-morte.html