AOM Benefit for Odyssey June 14, 2013

AOM presents

A Benefit for Odyssey

Friday June 14, 12 noon SLT

At Odyssey http://slurl.com/secondlife/Odyssey/139/205/802 

Odyssey Art and Performance Simulator has housed a remarkable array of artists who are pushing the edges of art and identity in the virtual world Second Life.

The Avatar Orchestra Metaverse began at Odyssey in 2007, and is rehearsing there now in preparation for its July 2013 performance at the first annual Deep Listening Art and Science Conference in Troy, New York.

Odyssey is funded by the artists who use it, and is voluntarily managed currently by artist Liz Solo. AOM is excited to host this event to help raise funds for Odyssey's continued existence, to thank Liz and previous managers (Sugar Seville and Fau Ferdinand) and to reflect on our shared time in Second Life together .

We invite you to immerse yourself with AOM

Friday June 14, 12 noon SLT

at Odyssey ... 

... where you will be greeted individually, serenaded by the ethereal tones of AOM voices and instruments and invited to join us ...

... lounging, breathing, sounding, and bouncing around with flying fruit, giant chickens and other fantastic creations designed by AOM set builder Frieda Kuterna aka Frieda Korda. In exchange for donations to Odyssey, you will receive a unique AOM instrument conceived by vocalist-sound artist Viv Corringham aka Zonzo Spyker and built by AOM luthier extraordinaire Norman Lowrey aka North Zipper.

See you there!

NYE 2012 – Overnight for Dreaming Avatars

From Monday Dec. 31 at 2:00pm Second Life Time 
to Tuesday Jan. 1, 2013 6 am SLT
(SLT = Pacific Time Zone)

In Parallel: Dreaming into Alternate Universes 

with Norman Lowrey aka North Zipper

A Virtual Celebration of the New Year Across 9 Time Zones.

Join us for the closing ceremony of Ione’s 17th Annual Dream Festival 
in an overnight celebration of the New Year in Second Life.

You are invited to log on at any time, receive a Dreaming/Sleeping Cap animation
for your Avatar, sound Dreaming into Alternate Universes instruments, and dream
together with us from Central European Time (CET) to Pacific Time.

We recommend that you log on early and simply leave your Avatar in its Dreaming
state if you have to actually be at a live party or engage in real life sleep!

We’ll be meeting at the Odyssey Arts site, location of their recent End of the World
event: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Odyssey/145/201/352

You can also contact North Zipper (aka Norman Lowrey) for teleportation to the
site. If you have any questions contact Norman Lowrey at nlowrey@drew.edu.

AOM at Odyssey Performance Festival December 21 2012

To celebrate the new long cycle beginning this day

The Avatar Orchestra Metaverse performs at the Odyssey Performance Art Festival

December 21, 2012, 10 am SLT at the AOM space at Odyssey in Second Life

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Odyssey/98/181/351/?title=AOM-21DEC

and projected live at 

Museum Sorgdrager, Ameland (The Netherlands) 

and at the Black Bag Media Collective Studio, St. John’s, Newfoundland (Canada)

New Mayan-inspired mask instruments designed by Norman Lowrey will be shared with Second Life audience, and will introduce a seamless sound trip as only AOM can deliver.

With additional instrumental mixes conceived and/or built by AOM members Andreas Mueller, Pauline Oliveros, Viv Corringham, Bjorn Eriksson, Shintaro Miyazaki, Sachiko Hayashi and Tina Pearson and with elements from the work of Stelarc. Set by Frieda Kuterna.

For full Festival details:

http://odysseysimulator.blogspot.ca/

and

://metalive.wordpress.com/2012/12/20/21-22dec-2012-odyssey-performance-art-festival-in-sl/

AOM at the Newfoundland Sound Symposium

Avatar Orchestra Metaverse

Liz Solo and Tina Pearson

Newfoundland Sound Symposium

Long Shoreman's Protective Union Hall

St John's Newfoundland

Saturday, July 14, 2012

3:30 PM local

PROGRAM

Fragula by Bjorn Eriksson, Solleftea, Sweden (2007)

Aleatricity by Andreas Mueller, Regensburg, Germany (2009)

PwRHm by Tina Pearson, Victoria, BC, Canada (2008)

In This Far Now by Tina Pearson, Victoria, BC, Canada and Liz Solo, St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada with contributions from Frieda Kuterna, Max D Well, Norman Lowrey and the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse (2012)

PERFORMERS

Telematically via Second Life

Andreas Müller (Bingo Onomatopoeia), Regensburg, Germany

Frieda Kuterna (Frieda Korda), Regensburg, Germany

Brenda Hutchinson (Groucho Parx), San Francisco, USA

Liz Solo (Lizsolo Mathilde), St John’s Newfoundland, Canada

Max D. Well (Maxxo Klaar), Regensburg, Germany

Bjorn Eriksson (Miulew Takahe), Solleftea Sweden
Tina M. Pearson (Humming Pera), Victoria, BC, Canada

Norman Lowrey (North Zipper), New Jersey, USA

Chris Wittkowsky (Paco Mariani), Regensburg, Germany

Viv Corringham (Zonzo Spyker, Minneapolis, MN, USA / London, UK)

Onsite

Liz Solo (virtual instruments, virtual camera, voice, movement)

Tina M Pearson (virtual instruments, conducting, voice, accordion)

P R O G R A M   N O T E S   and   B I O S

Fragula

Composition and sound samples by Bjorn Eriksson.

Instrument design, animations and receivers by Andreas Mueller.

Fragula, a play with the words “fragment”, “fragile”, “fragula” and “Dracula”, was one of the first pieces of AOM, and continues to be a widely performed signature piece. One of its major ideas is to have the orchestra to wander from a fragile and fragmented digital synthesized sound texture into a more analog acoustic and not so fragmented sound texture, and then come back to where it all started. This is aurally symbolized in the granulated synthesized sounds of sine waves, square waves and sawtooth shaped sounds. Arpeggiated synthetic figures then gradually transform into the sounds of an old harmonium with imprecise playing.  A time stretched harmonium provides a transitional sound between the digital and analog sound sources. 
Three sets of instruments are played simultaneously, creating chordal sound textures.  

Björn Eriksson (Sweden) is a musician, composer and sound artist. He studied electronic engineering and music, and practiced professional sound engineering in Stockholm. He further explored the field of radio art, field recording and electoacoustic music. He teaches sound and internet media art and has been involved in various networked collaborative sound art and music projects and collectives such as Tapegerm Collective, Locus Sonus, sobralasolas!, .microsound, Placards, Vickys Mosquitos, nomusic sometimes under the artist names of International Garbageman and Miulew. He is also one of the forming members of MäAM and Avatar Orchestra Metaverse (AOM) where he composed two pieces called respectively Rue Blanche and Fragula.

Aleatricity

Composition, instruments, particles and set by Andreas Mueller.

Aleatricity is 200 years of science, technology and cultural history put into a noisy little piece, with Frankenstein as the glue sticking it all together. Aleatricity uses only samples generated by circuit-bent instrument and homemade oscillators. Thus, these sounds cannot be assigned to a definite pitch or scale, they seem to be aleatoric at first glance. But upon a closer look at the technology of their electronic generation, one quickly realizes that they are not: they are created by unambiguous laws of digital logic, following simple yes/no-decisions. This is reflected in the title: "Aleatricity" is a blend of "aleatoric" (random) and "electricity", two words whose close relation is being illustrated by the visual realization in Second Life: the accidental discovery of the nerve-system by Luigi Galvani and the act of writing against the boredom of a rainy summer by Mary Shelley, which procreated the world's first science-fiction novel "Frankenstein" are brought into a visual and acoustic relation which exemplifies that seemingly unconnected things are often closely related.

Andreas Mueller, member of the media-art group Pomodoro Bolzano, started exploring the sonic universe with a tape recorder during elementary school, when he tried out things from a book on tape-experiments from the school's library. During his teenage years in the eighties, while playing guitar in noisy bands, he started publishing experimental tracks through the international tape-trader scene. Despite detours into other fields of art his focus has stayed on audio-art, performing mainly under the name Transponderfish. He has made computer-aided music for more than 20 years, and his background in both Linguistics and research programming fuel his unique perspective. With his avatar Bingo Onomatopoeia he researches the creative potential of the virtual reality in Second Life: by networking, collaborating with other artists, building instruments for the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse and by performing. Recently he built a large-scale interactive media-installation for the Regensburg high-school Von-Müller-Gymnasium, both as artist with Pomodoro Bolzano, as well as a programmer, custom building the required software in Processing.

PwRHm

Composition, instrument design and sine tones by Tina Pearson

Instrument design, construction and processed field recordings by Andreas Mueller.

Particle receiver and set for first version by Sachiko Hayashi

Commissioned by the Deep Listening Institute, 2008

PwRHm explores electricity and connectivity through the relationship of two sets sine tones tuned to the harmonic series of the Alternating Currents of the North American (60 Hz) and European/Asian (50 Hz) electric systems; modified field recordings of electric motors and generators from each continent; and the live breath rhythms of the globally dispersed players. Each avatar/player plays one or more instruments according to their present geographic location to create the soundworld of the piece, with breath rhythms determining pacing and intensity. The main group of players sounds two sets of sine tones juxtaposed, offering an intimate exploration of the insides of a just minor third, and the resulting textures of beats and difference tones. Two soloists play a selection of tuned generator and motor sounds. The piece is a question about the possibilities of musical expressiveness with such pared down materials in a context of telematic conducting and improvisation in a visually charged environment, ie) can we meet like this and make a new kind of wired music?

In This Far Now (A Cyber Song of Longing)

Composition: Liz Solo and Tina Pearson

Virtual Singing Masks and animations: Norman Lowrey

Set design: Frieda Korda and Max D Well

Texts: Liz Solo, Tina Pearson, Frieda Kuterna, Max D Well, Bjorn Eriksson

In This Far Now is an evolving story in mixed form inspired by a collective realization of the depth of our journey in hybrid realities. Having met in the virtual world of Second Life, Liz Solo and Tina Pearson meet here in St John’s to move forward their mutual questions about where the virtual and non-virtual meet, where they differ and if there is a difference. Within the “home” and safety of the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse’s strongly developed telematic improvisation skills, the onsite performers and virtual performers attempt a kind of hybrid communication using gesture, sound, voice, text and memory. While becoming increasingly digitized, hybridized and wired in many aspects of their lives, the artists also draw upon a recognition of pervasive longing, for a real or imagined past, present or future that has had a significant influence on their work.

Norman Lowrey is a mask maker/composer, Chair of the Music Department at Drew University with Ph.D. from the Eastman School of Music. He is the originator of Singing Masks, which incorporate flutes, reeds, ratchets and other sounding devices. He has presented Singing Mask ceremony/performances at such locations as Plan B and SITE Santa Fe in Santa Fe New Mexico, Roulette and Lincoln Center in New York, and at the site of pictograph caves outside Billings, Montana. His most recent work has been making virtual versions of his masks for use by the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse online in Second Life. http://www.users.drew.edu/nlowrey/

Frieda Kuterna (Antwerp, Belguim) and Max D. Well (Regensurg) are media artists who collaborate and perform in multi media platforms as the “Vireal Couple’ ∞Compagnous de Route∞, researching the UniMetaInterTransVerse, the fringes between real and virtual life, vireality and constant neuropuncture. Max D Well is also a member of the Pomodoro Bolzano media art Collective in Regensburg, Germany, investigating Media and Performance Art, Multiple Avatars, Scouting, Manouver and Networking, Expanded media projects and Pataphysics. Frieda Kuterna is an actor and a costume, fabric and photo artist whose work has been seen in gallery spaces and sets in “real” and networked platforms. http://www.pbspace.de/

Liz Solo is a cross-disciplinary, cross-platform interventionist specializing in performance. She is co-founder and director of the Black Bag Media Collective in St. John's, and is the current manager and Curator of the Odyssey Contemporary Art and Performance Simulator in the online world of Second Life. Liz's band, The Black Bags are preparing to release their first full length recording due in the Fall of 2012 and her multi-media video piece “the machine” is also expected this year. Liz is a member of the online artist collectives the Second Front, the Third Faction and the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse, which she and Tina Pearson bring to Sound Symposium XVI. http://www.lizsolo.com

Tina M Pearson is a composer and musician whose practice juxtaposes sonic phenomena, perception and modes of human interaction. She performs with voice, flute, glass and accordion, and telematically with physical, electronic and virtual instruments. She enjoys creating collaborative projects that play with the boundaries between languages, disciplines and cultures, and between creators, performers and audiences. Her music has been commissioned for dance, video, film, radio and spoken word performances and presented throughout Europe and North America. Tina currently performs with LaSaM, the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse and OPEN ACTIONS.  http://tinapearson.wordpress.com/

Thanks to Milly and Tony, Mike Kean, Black Bag Media Collective, Odyssey Contemporary Art and Performance Simulator, the Newfoundland Sound Symposium and LSPU tech crews, Kathy and Jean, and thanks especially to Lyssa Pearson. 

All photos from onsite screen shots during live performance in St. John's by Lyssa Pearson.

Machinima release: Rotating Brains / Beating Heart

The Avatar Orchestra Meteverse is pleased to announce the release of the machinima

 Rotating Brains / Beating Heart 

May 12, 2012

 The full length machinima can be viewed on Youtube here

Information about the making of Rotating Brains / Beating Heart can be found here
 

Rotating Brains / Beating Heart

A virtual reality performance collaboration featuring

Pauline Oliveros, Stelarc and the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse

Fifteen performers, two timekeepers, one conductor

Separated by geography, connected in virtual space

Avatars, objects, sounds, images and lights

Synchronized in real time

Recorded live at the RMIT Melbourne simulator in Second Life

during a networked performance for

New Adventures in Sound Art Sound Play Festival

November, 2010, OCAD University, Toronto, Canada

Machinima by Steve Millar

Rotating Brains / Beating Heart

Created by

Stelarc, Pauline Oliveros, Franziska Schroeder, Tina Pearson, Norman Lowrey, Andreas Müller

and the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse

Scored and conducted by

Tina Pearson

Performed by

Stelarc

Rotating avatar (Stelarc Luik), Stelarc automatons, voice

Daniel Mounsey

Rotating Stelarc automatons, floating texts

Pauline Oliveros

Flying avatar (Free Noyes) and drones

Norman Lowrey

Giant brain sound and images

Avatar Orchestra Metaverse

Floating avatars and virtual audio-visual instruments

Andreas Müller (Bingo Onomatopoeia, Regensburg, Germany)

Biagio Francia (BlaiseDeLaFrance Voom, Agropoli, Italy)

Brenda Hutchinson (Groucho Parx, San Francisco, USA)
Carolyn Oakley (Carolhyn Wijaya, Boulder, Colorado, USA)

Tim Risher, (Flivelwitz Alsop, Durham, North Carolina, USA)

Peter Wong (Gargamel Frequency, San Francisco/Oakland, CA, USA)

Tina M. Pearson (Humming Pera, Victoria, BC, Canada)

Norman Lowrey (North Zipper, New Jersey, USA)

Chris Wittkowsky (Paco Mariani, Regensburg, Germany)

Ryan Ross Smith (Pow Zero, Berkeley, CA, USA)

Seidi Palonen (Saara Edring, Helsinki, Finland)

Viv Corringham (Zonzo Spyker, Minneapolis, MN, USA / London, UK)

with

Leif Inge (Timekeeping)

and

Ze Moo (Additional automatons)

Set Design

Stelarc and Daniel Mounsey

Composition and Sound Design

Norman Lowrey, Andreas Mueller, Pauline Oliveros, Tina Pearson, Stelarc

Stelarc Luik Automatons and Animations

Designed by Stelarc, scripting and construction by Daniel Mounsey

Automaton Choreography

Stelarc

Flying avatar (Free Noyes) Choreography

Pauline Oliveros, Norman Lowrey

Avatar Orchestra Choreography

Tina Pearson, Tim Risher and Avatar Orchestra Metaverse

Virtual giant brain 5-Channel Audiovisual Mixer

Designed and Built by Norman Lowrey

Sound samples from the human nervous system and outer space

Images of the human nervous and circulatory systems

Virtual 9-Channel Audio Drone Mixer

Conceived by Pauline Oliveros

Designed and built by Norman Lowrey

Sounds from Alvin Lucier, Pauline Oliveros, Franziska Schroeder, Tina Pearson,

Viv Corringham and Stelarc

Avatar Orchestra Virtual Instruments

Designed by Tina Pearson and Andreas Müller

Built by Andreas Müller

Sounds of the human circulatory system from Tim Risher,

in-womb heartbeats from Lilith and Doris,

mechanical processes from Andreas Müller,

tuned sine tones from Tina Pearson

Avatar Orchestra animations

Built by Tim Risher

Second Life performance filmed and edited by Steve Millar

Audio recording from Second Life by Andreas Müller

Filmed at RMIT Melbourne Simulator in Second Life

Rotating Brains / Beating Heart was originally created as a mixed reality collaboration

Premiered at the 2010 Digital Resources for the Humanities and the Arts Conference at Brunel University, UK

By Stelarc, Pauline Oliveros, Avatar Orchestra Metaverse,

Franziska Schroeder (saxophone) and Martin Parker (electronics)

THANKS TO

RMIT University (Melbourne), OCAD University (Toronto), New Adventures in Sound Art, Nadine Thériault- Copeland, Darren Copeland,

Hector Centeno, Hannah Dean, Bentley Jarvis in Toronto, Canada;

Franziska Schroeder at Sonic Arts Research Centre in Belfast, Ireland, Dr. Lisa Dethridge at RMIT in Melbourne, Yael Gilks (Fau Ferdinand), Ze Moo, Dennis Moser, Sachiko Hayashi, Max D Well, Steve Millar (Arahan Claveau).

New Adventures in Sound Art Residency funding for Tina Pearson provided by the SOCAN Foundation, Canada

Avatar Orchestra Celebrates Pauline Oliveros' Eightieth

photo by Frieda Korda

  Happy AOMBirthday, Pauline

"Life begins at Eighty"

-Pauline Oliveros

On the occasion of AOM member Free Noyes/Pauline Oliveros' Eightieth birthday year, AOM will perform a concert as a birthday present for Pauline.

Mixed Reality Birthday Celebration

Friday April 20, 

1pm SLT Odyssey
4 pm Concert Hall at Drew University
Madison, NJ

Hosted by AOM member North Zipper / Norman Lowrey at Drew University, this mixed reality event will feature two new pieces created for the occasion, as well as newly designed versions of two signature pieces from the repertoire.

We want to keep the details a secret so that we can surprise Pauline, who will be in attendance in both Second Life and Drew, but suffice to say that there will be accordions and sine tones a plenty!

If you are in the vicinity of Madison, New Jersey, please join the celebrations. 

We will have room for ten (low prim load) Second Life avatars if you wish to join us there. Please comment on this blog listing to receive an invitation. (First come, first served.)

Avatar Orchestra at Locus Sonus March 24, 2012

The Avatar Orchestra performed a live AOMprovisation at the recent Locus Sonus Symposium #7 in Nantes, France, organized by Locus Sonus Director Jerome Joy. The Symposium's theme was Internet Auditoriums:

This symposium will focus on auditoriums, their interrelations and influences within a technological framework and from the point of view of artistic assimilation and reception. Our intention is to clarify both current and past issues, which up until now have possibly been considered from a unique viewpoint. Thus, this reflexion convokes various domains: sound anthropology, sociology of communication, history and geography of sound spaces, acoustics, architecture, musicology, radiophonic studies, art history, aesthetics, philosophy, etc. And of course, artistic and musical creativity. (from the Symposium description)

AOM member Pauline Oliveros was a key guest presenter and performer at the Symposium, and was the onsite "conduit" between AOM, Locus Sonus and the audience.

AOM members performed in real time with a collection of virtual audio-visual instruments designed by its members. The instruments included giant pianos, particle emitting sine tone globes, delicately crafted Singing Masks, flying Fragulas, glitch-based exoskeletons triggering enormous biology experiment shapes and many others.

Performing in Second Life from around the globe:

Viv Corringham / Zonzo Spyker, USA/UK
Björn Eriksson / Miulew Takahe,  Sweden
Biagio Francia / Blaise de la France,  Italy

Brenda Hutchinson / Groucho Parx, USA

Leif Inge / Gumnosophistai Nurmi, Norway
Frieda Kuterna / Frieda Korda,  Belgium

Norman Lowrey / North Zipper, USA
Andreas Müller / Bingo Onomatopoeia, Germany

Pauline Oliveros / Free Noyes, USA

Seidi Palonen/ Saara Edring, Finland

Tina Pearson / Humming Pera, Canada
Tim Risher /  Flivelwitz Alsop, USA

Liz Solo / Lizsolo Mathilde Canada

Max D. Well / Maxxo Klaar,  Germany
Chris Wittkowsky / Paco Mariani,  Germany

Audio recording here.

Immersed with the Avatar Orchestra - A Benefit for Odyssey

Saturday, March 24 1 pm SLT

Odyssey Art and Performance Simulator, Second Life

http://map​s.secondli​fe.com/sec​ondlife/Od​yssey/133/​161/306

Bring your musical mind

bring your Lindens

and prepare to be immersed, soothed, inspired, mesmerized, energized and downright amazed.

Join the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse Saturday, March 24 in a celebration of their 5 years working at Odyssey Art and Performance Simulator in Second Life. Odyssey hosts some of the most adventurous and thought-provoking art-making in virtual reality. It exists through the volunteer management of Liz Solo and Fau Ferdinand. Funds raised will help fund the cost of renting the Second Life simulator from Linden Labs.

Guests will be given an insider experience of the Orchestral dynamic and offered virtual audio-visual instruments, animations, seats and the chance to play music with AOM in exchange for donations to Odyssey.

This is a rare opportunity to have access to a limited set of AOM instruments and instruction and to experience the deep telematic experience of playing with the seasoned members of the Orchestra in this platform.

The program features the creations of AOM's three instrument builders / script artists and members of AOM's performing core. (See list here)

PROGRAM

Tim Risher's RITUAL,
in which the audience will be surrounded by undulating chanting sounds and the ritualistic dance of avatars.

Norman Lowrey's IN WHIRLED (TRANCE)FORMATIONS, with guest participants
preceded by a demonstration of Norman's amazing set of Singing Masks, which are offered for sale to support Odyssey. Participants will be instructed in HUD use and invited to perform this piece with AOM. (see photos and video below)

Andreas Mueller's WEE NO KRESH and ALEATRICITY,
preceded by the sale of dancing animations and sounding instruments that will enlighten your understanding of virtual dancing and rhythms.

SATURDAY MARCH 24 1 - 2 pm SLT
ODYSSEY http://map​s.secondli​fe.com/sec​ondlife/Od​yssey/133/​161/306

See you there!

How to buy Lindens:

http://com​munity.sec​ondlife.co​m/t5/Engli​sh-Knowled​ge-Base/Bu​ying-and-s​elling-Lin​den-dollar​s/ta-p/700​107

Payments can also be made via Paypal to Odyssey - Email Odyssey: odysseyart​ssl@yahoo.​ca

Singing Masks offered by donation (minimum 500 Lindens)

Norman Lowrey's Singing Masks are modeled on Real Life Singing Masks. Info here. Each virtual Singing Mask / HUD embodies a set of specific earth element gives the wearer the ability to play a set of short and long sounds, emit particles, and perform ritualized animations.


Virtual Singing Masks and Sampanophones in action here. 

 

Singing Mask and Sampanaphone photos and posters by Flivelwitz Alsop aka Tim Risher

Images from Vancouver Calling, Improvising across platforms

The Avatar Orchestra Metaverse performed in a networked composition by Pauline Oliveros during her presentation, via Skype, at the Canadian New Music Network Forum 2012 in Vancouver, January 22.

Randy Raine-Reusch introducing Pauline and AOM

The composition was performed after Pauline's presentation of the Deep Listening Institute's Adaptive Use Musical Instruments (AUMI) program, demonstrated by Jackie Heyen, also via Skype.

After the demonstration, musicians attending the Forum were invited to participate in the piece. Some were instructed how to play with the three AUMI programs installed on iMac computers in front of the stage.

Others were provided monitors that gave a view of two groups of AOM performers in Second Life and given information about the virtual instruments and visual representations of sound.

Pauline gave the performance instructions for Vancouver Calling to all the live players - musicians in Vancouver on acoustic instruments, AUMI players in Vancouver, Jackie playing AUMI via Skype in New York, and the Avatar Orchestra in Second Life. See the score here.

And then the global multi-platform telematic performance.

Vancouver Calling - AOM and Pauline Oliveros

The Avatar Orchestra Metaverse will make an appearance at the Canadian New Music Network Forum 2012 - Connecting Practices, Geographies and Cultures. The Forum takes place in Vancouver, BC, Canada January 19-22, 2012.


Reflecting the times and the rapid evolution of the practice and dissemination of new music, Forum 2012 brings together some of the most innovative thinkers in North America to discuss what is ahead for the art form and its networks.

From the Forum 2012 brochure:

"While music practitioners are redefining their roles within their home communities through intercultural collaborations and partnerships with education, environment, social, health and other groups, networked platforms have opened pathways for collaboration and dissemination in a globally interconnected context. Emerging technologies are transforming the way music is conceived, composed and performed through radical new instruments, interfaces and robotic intelligences.


New music is stepping more and more beyond conventional concert venues to inhabit an array of contexts and places that stretch both the music and the experience. Similarly, a blur between composer and performer and between audience and practitioner is evolving the art form as philosophical ideas and interactive methodologies become integrated into the practice of new music.


In the midst of these deep and far-reaching developments, at the core of Forum 2012 is a reminder and a recognition that the heart of any musical practice, whether ancient, modern or radically new, is about connecting — with sound, with place and with each other."

AOM will fit right in!

For this occasion, American composer and long-time AOM member Pauline Oliveros has composed a mixed reality composition, Vancouver Calling, for AOM, the Adaptive Use Musical Instruments system and onsite improvisors.

Stay tuned ...

Avatar Orchestra at Odyssey March 26

This one's for you, Second Life.

Saturday, March 26, 2011 at 12:30 PM SLT (Pacific Time) the Avatar Orchestra will perform a concert at the new Odyssey Art and Performance Simulator in Second Life specially for an in world audience. 

AOM's concerts of the past year have focused on First Life venues. This one is for our Second Life friends. Please join us.

Click here for the SLurl to the concert location Teleport. You should arrive next to a billboard displaying  the image above. (If you arrive at ground level, fly up 300 feet.)

The program will include

Heart of Tones by Pauline Oliveros (Free Noyes)

Aleatricity by Andreas Mueller (Bingo Onomatopoeia)

2 John by Viv Corringham (Zonzo Spyker)

Fragula by Bjorn Eriksson (Miuleiw Takahe)

In Whirled (Trance)formations by Norman Lowrey (North Zipper)

PwRHm2 by Tina Pearson (Humming Pera)

Machinima in the Making

The Avatar Orchestra and its extended family has been busy rehearsing and preparing for a machinima of Rotating Brains / Beating Heart, the mixed reality work originally made as a collaboration between  Stelarc, Pauline Oliveros, Franziska Schroeder, Tina Pearson and members of the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse for a premiere at Brunel University in the UK.

Pyewacket, Free, North, Stelarc, Gumno and others on location.

Photo by Yael Gilks (Fau Ferdinand)

This is the most complex project of the Orchestra to date and involves the coming together of global multi-disciplinary team living in six timezones and three continents.

Artist, videographer and Soup Radio host Steve Millar (Arahan Claveau) is filming and editing the machinima from London, England. Steve / Arahan also operated the Second Life camera for the UK mixed reality premiere of Rotating Brains / Beating Heart.

Second Life curator and artist Ze Moo has also been assisting with the project from Amsterdam, Netherlands, as has Yael Gilks (Fau Ferdinand) from London. Yael is an artist and co-curator of the Second Life Odyssey Contemporary Art and Performance Simulator.

Videographer Arahan Claveau (aka Steve Millar)
on location at RMIT

The machinima will present a virtual reality version of Rotating Brains / Beating Heart that focuses on the performance of avatars and automatons within Stelarc's giant brain and heart installation located at the RMIT simulator in Second Life.

The automatons, operated by Stelarc (Stelarc Luic) and his associate Daniel Mounsey (Pyewacket Kazyanenko), both operating from Melbourne, Australia, were created by Pyewacket to perform a series of animations and make the sounds of a robotic arm. Text particles, also created by Pyewacket, float through the installation and the performance, while the rotating brains and beating heart contain performing and tech avatars (hidden) respectively.

The collaboration has inspired the development of innovative audio-visual instrument design and developed the practice and skill of Avatar Orchestra performers, who each manage simultaneous sound, visual and movement controls in tight formation throughout the piece.

AOM avatars and USA - based Pauline Oliveros (Free Noyes) perform with a collection of new instruments made by AOM members Andreas Mueller (Bingo Onomatopoeia) in Regensburg Germany, Norman Lowrey (North Zipper) in Madison New Jersey and Tim Risher (Flivelwitz Alsop) in Durham North Carolina.

Stelarc (Stelarc Luic) with robotic arm on location

at RMIT in Second Life. Photo Sachiko Hayashi

One of the exciting developments for this work is a "mixer" interface, designed by Norman Lowrey at the request of Pauline Oliveros for her performance in the piece. The 9-channel Drone Mixer contains nine looped drone sounds:

-- The drone (D4) from Pauline's virtual reality piece Heart of Tones, also made for AOM;

-- The amplified alpha brain waves of Pauline and composer Alvin Lucier vibrating percussion instruments from a performance of Lucier's 1965 piece "Music for Solo Performer" (incidentally, this was the first known work in history to to use brain waves to make sound);

-- Brain wave sounds recorded by Stelarc during one of his robotic arm performances;

-- Saxophone multiphonics played by Franziska Schroeder;

-- Inhaled and exhaled vocal sounds from Viv Corringham and Tina Pearson.
The 9-channel mixer, as seen in the photo, has a volume slider that allows for increasing amplitude settings for each individual drone. The mixer appears as a HUD interface on the computer screen of its operator. The sound is emitted by invisible "receivers" located in each of the five brains in the installation - 9 drone receivers per brain.

HUD instruments used by AOM and Pauline Oliveros (Free Noyes)

L-R Womb HUD; Thump HUD; 9-channel Drone Mixer;

AOM animation HUD; Five Brain mixer.

The 9-channel Drone Mixer is but one of the many audio-visual and animation instruments designed specifically for this collaboration. Others include a Five Brain mixer (also made by Norman), used to control the rotation speed, transparency-opacity levels and sound volume of the five giant brains in the installation.

Another is the Thump instrument, built by Andreas Mueller from a concept by Tina Pearson and containing samples of his daughter's in-womb heart beat in increasing frequencies and rhythmic patterns. This instrument also contains the processed sounds of Tim Risher's circulation system, and intricately crafted samples from Andreas' vast field recorded collection of mechanical scrapings, whirrings and clicks.

Completing the instrument set is the Womb instrument, with sine tone samples by Tina Pearson (Humming Pera) tuned to the harmonic series of 50hz and 60 Hz (up to the 25th and 29th harmonic respectively) and constructed into a HUD by Andreas Mueller. Each instrument's controls appear on the screen of its operators, and include variables for particle emission and volume.

"Rotating Brains / Beating Heart is one of the most important and exciting mixed reality performances that I've ever witnessed."

- Steve Millar (aka Arahan Claveau)

AOM animations for the piece were made by Tim Risher to keep the avatars off the "floor" of the installation, and able to float in subtle vertical movements; or to traverse in larger distances through the virtual space while the avatars are emitting sounds and particles. And finally, Pauline Oliveros' avatar Free Noyes floats in horizontal geometric patterns in and out of the central giant heart above the other performers - achieved with an animation instrument designed by Norman Lowrey.

Giant brains with sounds and particles emitting. Particles from
images of amoebas. Designed by Norman Lowrey.

The performance of Rotating Brains / Beating Heart is not possible without the careful participation of time keepers. Following a 30-minute score by Tina Pearson (see below) while operating animations, sounds and visuals within a constantly transforming environment is not an easy thing. The performers owe a debt of thanks to Dennis Moser, the original time keeper for the premiere performance of the piece, and Leif Inge (Gumnosophistai Nurmi) in Oslo Norway and Brenda Hutchinson (Groucho Parx) in San Francisco for holding the time during the making of the machinima.

Rotating Brains / Beating Heart

score by Tina Pearson (Humming Pera)

Lovely Avatar Orchestra performers participating in this project include

Bingo Onomatopoeia, aka Andreas Müller (Regensburg, Germany)
BlaiseDeLaFrance Voom, aka Biagio Francia (Agropoli, Italy)
Carolhyn Wijaya, aka Carolyn Oakley (Boulder, Colorado, USA)
Flivelwitz Alsop, aka Tim Risher, (Durham, North Carolina, USA)
Free Noyes, aka Pauline Oliveros (Kingston, NY, USA)
Gargamel Frequency, aka Peter Wong (San Francisco/Oakland, CA, USA)
Groucho Parx, aka Brenda Hutchinson (San Francisco/Brooklyn, USA)
Gumnosophistai Nurmi, aka Leif Inge (Oslo, Norway)
Humming Pera, aka Tina M. Pearson (Victoria, BC, Canada)
North Zipper, aka Norman Lowrey (New Jersey, USA)
Paco Mariani, aka Chris Wittkowsky (Regensburg, Germany)
Pow Zero, aka Ryan Ross Smith (Berkeley, CA, USA)
Saara Edring, aka Seidi Palonen (Helsinki, Finland)
Zonzo Spyker, aka Viv Corringham (Minneapolis, MN, USA / London, UK)

Stay tuned for updates about the Rotating Brains / Beating Heart machinima, and about the soon to be released AOM Heart of Tones machinima made by videographer Brigit Lichtenegger (Evo Szuyuan) of Creative Machinery in Rotterdam.