Orrery for Casa da Música

Instrumentation: 

Interactive Electronics (Kyma), 4 - 8 channels of audio, and 2 cardioid microphones.  

Duration: 

10 - 15 minutes

Premier:

18 September 2011, Kyma International Sound Symposium, Casa da Música, Porto, Portugal.

An orrery is a mechanical model of the solar system or simply the sun, earth and moon, that demonstrates the different bodies relative motions. "Orrery for Casa da Música" is constructed of interactive sound objects which are modeled on astrophysical phenomena, such as planets, moons, binary stars, pulsars, comets, and Lagrange points. Imagine a mechanically programmed orrery that includes free agents, elements that interact with the sonic behavior of the space. The sonic ecology of the performance space defines the behavior, relative motion and sonic transformation of these sound objects, creating a unique universe at the moment of its creation (performance). Like the universe of our everyday experience, we are immersed--a part of the experience--and we define the beginning(s) and ending(s) through our comprehension of disparate elements whose existence and relationships extend beyond the boundaries of our perception.