Avatar Orchestra Metaverse

Vancouver Calling - AOM and Pauline Oliveros

2012-01-10T12:02:00.000-08:00

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

2011-03-21T20:44:00.000-07:00

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

2010-12-14T12:24:00.000-08:00

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.

Toronto

2010-11-13T15:51:00.000-08:00

AOM performing Heart of Tones by Pauline Oliveros Nov 6, 2010.
Photo by DeThomas Dibou.

Two Second Life photos from the Avatar Orchestra's mixed reality performance November 6, 2010 at New Adventures in Sound Art venue at Wychwood Barns in Toronto. Photos are by DeThomas Dibou, a German architect and virtual set designer. DeThomas is a long-time collaborator of AOM.

Thanks to the wonderful folk at NAISA for hosting Tina Pearson (Humming Pera) in person and AOM via Second Life: Nadene Thériault-Copeland, Darren Colpeland, Hector Centeno and intern Hannah Dean. AOM sound was dispersed on 12 channels in the performance space, with live manipulations by Darren. Combined with Hector's adept camera work, AOM looked and sounded better than ever. Thanks also to vocalists Anne Bourne and Christine Duncan, who performed beautiful vocals onsite with Viv Corringham's 2-John and Pauline Oliveros' Heart of Tones.

AOM performing In Whirled (Trance)formations by Norman Lowrey,
Nov. 6, 2010. Photo by Dethomas Dibou.

Most of the audience as well as NAISA personnel and the guest vocalists were very new to Second Life. Interest in this form of networked virtual performance is growing, with a few composers and musicians from Toronto already setting up Second Life accounts. Possibilities for new collaborations and expansions of our practice are exciting. Thanks, Toronto!

Avatar Orchestra at NAISA in Toronto, Canada

2010-10-07T13:36:00.000-07:00

Detail from 2-John particle emissions - design by Norman Lowrey. Photo Chris Wittkowsky.

Avatar Orchestra Metaverse, with guest artists Stelarc and Pyewacket Kazyanenko in Second Life and vocalists Christine Duncan and Anne Bourne on site, will perform two concerts in Toronto November 4 and 6. The Orchestra appears as a guest of New Adventures in Sound Art during its 2010 Sound Play Festival.

AOM performing Rotating Brains / Beating Heart with Stelarc, Sept 2010. Photo Yael Gilks

November 4 Program
OCAD University
1 PM Toronto (10 AM SLT)

Fragula by Bjorn Eriksson
Aleatricity by Andreas Mueller
Rotating Brains / Beating Heart
by Stelarc, Pauline Oliveros, Tina Pearson and AOM

Featuring live virtual performance by Stelarc and Pyewacket (Australia) and twelve AOM performers from California, British Columbia, Colorado, New York, New Jersey, Norway, Finland, Bavaria and Italy

November 6 Program
NAISA's Artscape Wychwood Barns studio
8 PM Toronto (5 PM SLT)
601 Christie Avenue, Toronto

2-John by Viv Corringham (World Premiere)
PwRHm2 by Tina Pearson
In Whirled (Trance)formations by Norman Lowrey
Heart of Tones by Pauline Oliveros

Featuring vocalists Christine Duncan, Anne Bourne, Viv Corringham and Tina Pearson. Live virtual performance by Pauline Oliveros, Norman Lowrey, and the members of Avatar Orchetra Metaverse.

Performance Video - Rotating Brains / Beating Heart at DRHA in London

2010-10-01T22:08:00.000-07:00

A successful performance September 5, 2010 with Stelarc, Pauline Oliveros and Franziska Schroeder at the Digital Resources for the Humanities and the Arts Conference, Sensual Technologies: Collaborative Practices of Interdisciplinarity (Brunel University, UK).

Click here for link to Video

Yael Gilks filmed the event, including live performers Martin Parker (electronics) and Franziska Schroeder (saxophone). AOM and Free Noyes (Pauline Oliveros) are on screen with Stelarc and Pyewacket Kazyanenko (controlling Stelarc automatons). The Second Life camera operator Steve Millar (Arahan Claveau), and Second Life audio techs Biagio Francia and Dennis Moser can be seen in the background.

Thanks to Steve Millar/Arahan Claveau for editing and uploading the video.

Rotating Brains / Beating Heart - Collaboration with Stelarc

2010-09-04T07:49:00.000-07:00

AOM rehearsing Rotating Brains / Beating Heart.

Photo by Yael Gilks / Fau Ferdinand

ROTATING BRAINS / BEATING HEART

Premiere at the opening night of the

Digital Resources for the Humanities and the Arts 2010 Conference:

Sensual Technologies:
Collaborative Practices of Interdisciplinarity

5th of September 2010 @ 8.30pm UK

A networked collaboration between performance artist Stelarc, the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse and composer Pauline Oliveros in Second Life, with composer/sound artist Martin Parker and saxophonist Franziska Schroeder live at Brunel.

The ROTATING BRAINS / BEATING HEART performance takes place simultaneously at RMIT Creative Media in Second Life and in the Real Life space at Brunel University, London. Second Life visual and audio environment will be streamed to a large projection screen and multichannel sound system at Brunel, and also to the Internet. Second Life performers will be located in Sweden, Finland, Germany, Australia, Canada and the United States.

Stelarc will appear in Second Life where he will interact with the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse and Pauline Oliveros (as avatar Free Noyes) while Martin Parker (live-electronics) and Franziska Schroeder (saxophone) will be performing in the Real Life space at Brunel. Franziska will interact with the musical materials that are emitted from the Avatar Orchestra in Second Life, focusing on the production of air and vocal sounds modulated by her instrument and the live-electronics as performed by Martin Parker.

The Second Life graphic environment consists of an installation of giant body organs - a ring of rotating semi-transparent brains and a beating heart, floating in the virtual space. The transparency of the organs allows avatars to travel ‘inside’ them, triggering the emission of sounds and particles of light. Stelarc’ s avatar, accompanied by automaton Stelarc clones, will perform a choreography of prompted and scripted avatar movements within the ‘organ installation’, mimicking limb movements of Real Life Stelarc muscle stimulations. Stelarc's clones and visual text scripts will be performed by Second Life artist Pyewacket Kazyanenko.

Pauline Oliveros, as her avatar Free Noyes in Second Life, will sound a set of nine drones, built into a virtual mixer. The drones contain sounds of Stelarc's brain waves and muscle stimulation, Franziska's sax playing, a drone from her virtual reality composition Heart of Tones, and sounds of the voices of Viv Corringham (Zonzo Spyker) and Tina Pearson (Humming Pera).

The Avatar Orchestra will perform with a set of two audio visual instruments. One contains increasing frequency heartbeats, sounds of circulation and mechanical sounds, and the emission of textured particles released simultaneously as the sound samples. The other instrument consists of sine tones built on harmonic series frequencies from AC currents. While playing their audio visual instruments, AOM will be using a set of ten looped avatar movement sequences as they come together and fall apart in gracefully entwined avatar shapes. The avatars are encased in amoeba-like forms that glow and emit particles that light up the surrounding space and target the giant organs when sound is emitted.

A project such as this one, which resides the elusive nature of virtual interactivity, attracts the support and partnership of many. Alongside the creative partnership with Stelarc, Franziska, Martin and Pauline, intrinsic creative and technical input was and is contributed by

Pyewacket Kazyanenko, an independent artist working within the realms of Second Life, building and performing with Stelarc since 2008. Pyewacket will be performing the Stelarc automatons and visual text scripts. Pyewacked also created with Stelarc the Rotating Brains / Beating Heart installation, and has consulted about the project with AOM and the creative team since its inception.

Yael Bachar (Fau Ferdinand in SL), who has been a dedicated visual and technical consultant to the team. Fau chose the SL Environment setting for the performance, coloured the giant brain particle textures, assisted with scripting, and consulted on camera operations.

Dennis Moser (Maxwell Biddle in SL), functioning as the Second Life microphone transmitting to the performance venue, has been dedicated to the documentation process of Second Life performance. His assistance with technical and coordination aspects of the project has been invaluable.

Steve Millar (Arahan Claveau) is the camera operator filming the Second Life performance for projection at Brunel. Steve's eye and experience have given shape to the smooth visual representation of the complex performances within the Heart and Brains installation.

Biagio Franca (Blaise de la France Voom), AOM member, is acting as the bringer of Real Life sound (that of Franziska and Martin) to the Second Life performers.

a special thank you to Lilith, whose in-womb heartbeats form the core of one of the AOM audio visual instruments.

The Avatar Orchestra Metaverse creative team for Rotating Brains / Beating Heart:

Andreas Mueller (Bingo Onomatopoeia in SL),

---Design and construction of the two AOM performer virtual audio-visual instruments

---Sound samples and Virtual Sound Design (Mechanical sounds, Heartbeat sounds), Particle textures

---Particle textures for both instruments

Norman Lowrey (North Zipper in SL),

---Design and construction of the virtual 9-channel mixer and animations used by Pauline Oliveros (Free Noyes in SL)

---Sound and particle design for the 5 Giant Brain installation,

---Design and construction of virtual 5-channel Giant Brain mixer

---Brain wave, Circulation and other sound samples

Tim Risher (Flivelwitz Alsop in SL)

---design and construction of avatar animation set used by AOM in performance

---Circulation sound samples

Tina Pearson (Humming Pera in SL)

---Conception of AOM performer audio-visual instruments

---Sound samples (sine tones)

---Composition structures - AOM

Avatar Orchestra PERFORMERS

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)

Goodwind Seiling aka Sachiko Hayashi, Stockholm, Sweden

Gumnosophistai Nurmi, aka Leif Inge (Oslo, Norway)

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

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

North Zipper, aka Norman Lowrey (New Jersey, USA)

Paco Mariani, aka Chris Wittkowsky (Regensburg, Germany)

Saara Edring, aka Seidi Palonen, Helsinki, Finland

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

The concept and structure for ROTATING BRAINS / BEATING HEART was collectively created by Stelarc, Pyewacket Kazyanenko, Franziska Schroeder, Pauline Oliveros, Tina Pearson and members of the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse.

AOM HUD (Heads-Up-Display) controls, seen on screens of performers. L-R: portion of WOMB sine tone HUD; Thump HUD (3 columns); 9-channel drone mixer used by Free Noyes; 5-Brain Mixer used by North Zipper.

Rehearsal with Stelarc

2010-09-04T01:49:00.000-07:00

Avatar Orchestra makes magic!

2010-03-28T08:57:00.000-07:00

Here below is a review of the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse performance March 27, 2010 at Sea Turtle Island in Second Life. It was written by Michael Peters on his Time Stands Still blog
(Photos by Jeff Duke)

The concert was organized by AOM member Flivelwitz (Tim Risher) and was performed by

Flivelwitz Alsop (Tim Risher, North Carolina)
Bingo Onomatopoeia (Andreas Mueller, Bavaria)
Humming Pera (Tina Pearson, British Columbia)
Maxxo Klaar (Max D Well, Bavaria)
Zonzo Spyker (Vivian Corringham, Minnesota)
North Zipper (Norman Lowrey, New Jersey)
Gumnosophistai Nurmi (Leif Inge, Oslo)
BlaiseDeLaFrance Voom (Biagio Francia, Agropoli)
Paco Mariani (Chris Wittkowsky, Bavaria)
Lizsolo Mathilde (Liz Solo, Newfoundland)

The four compositions performed were Bjorn Eriksson's Fragula, Tina Pearson's PwRHm, Tim Risher's Ritual and Andreas Muller's Aleatricity.

Time Stands Still: My Avatar is Not Blue
by Michael Peters

"I went to an amazing concert yesterday - while sitting at home. Or shall we say, as my 'real' body was sitting at home? I was watching the performance while sitting in some kind of amphitheatre, surrounded by two or three dozen of very strange other people. Maybe I was the strangest of all because I didn't even look like a human - for some reason, the avatar that I had chosen looks like a fox.

Since my first login to Second Life a couple of years ago, I had not spent much time there - I always thought it was a nice thing in theory, but disappointingly clunky in reality. I had originally come here with ideas of cyberspace (as William Gibson coined it) or the metaverse (as Neal Stephenson called his version), some other kind of immersive reality full of wonder (as if our regular reality wasn't full of wonder).

Second Life was obviously inspired by these ideas, and even though we still can't directly plug in using some kind of firewire plug in our heads, and instead have to type on keyboards and look on screens, and even though the graphics are far less perfect than I had expected, it has evolved (since its launch in 2003) into an amazing huge parallel universe full of people that interact in many ways (I read that about 60,000 people are logged in at any given moment) , and more places than one can ever visit.

Usually while my fox avatar had explored SL, he was more or less alone - I seem to be drawn more towards the lonely island than towards a busy bar full of strangers. It was nice yesterday though to be in the audience with at least one person that I knew (Jeff Duke, a fellow loop musician from Florida, who also took two photos during the performance - see below).

The Avatar Orchestra Metaverse is a collective of musicians from all over the world, one of them being Pauline Oliveros, to my surprise, a key figure of avantgarde music, livelooping, and deep listening. The orchestra has weekly rehearsals and performs in Second Life, but sometimes also in "First Life". For their Second Life performances, special technology has been developed such as virtual instruments and interactive animations.

The concert yesterday lasted for about one hour. The orchestra consisted of about a dozen musicians this time (with funny Second Life names such as Flivelwitz Alsop, Bingo Onomatopoeia, Humming Pera, Gumnosophistai Nurmi, BlaiseDeLaFrance Voom), playing four compositions by four composers who also did the conducting. The performances were a mixture of very different kinds of electronic sounds, movements, and animations, and I found that I was quickly drawn into their special virtual reality kind of magic and the astonishing dynamics of the pieces.

Something interesting, but hard to describe, happens when one suddenly forgets about the virtuality of this, and gets drawn into this world, which is, after all, populated by avatars of real people. Amazing how quickly the brain gets adjusted to something that is so different to our usual reality. It felt similar to sitting in a really fascinating movie and forgetting about sitting in a movie theatre.

Getting out of this, and back into ordinary reality: the brain switches back, but it takes some minutes. Until then, I wonder about the amazingly high resolution of the trees on the hill and how smoothly I can move across the terrace."

Thanks, Michael!

Orchestra to Perform in Electrosmog Festival March 20

2010-03-16T16:33:00.000-07:00

Tireless AOM member Gumnosophistai Nurmi (aka Leif Inge) has arranged with his friend Ze Moo for the Orchestra to perform a live concert March 20, 2010 in the Electrosmog International Festival for Sustainable Immobility in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

The ElectroSmog festival is a critique of the worldwide explosion of mobility, and an exploration of the new forms of connectedness with others offered to us by network and communication technologies.

What a perfect fit for the globally connected virtual bio mass that the orchestra has become.

PROGRAM

PwRHm Beats
by Humming Pera (aka Tina Pearson, BC, Canada)
In Whirled (Trance) Formations
by North Zipper (aka Norman Lowrey, New Jersey, USA)
Aleatricity
by Bingo Onomatopoeia (aka Andreas Mueller, Bavaria, Germany)

PERFORMERS

Flivelwitz Alsop (Tim Risher, North Carolina)
Carolyn Wijaya (Carolyn Oakley, Colorado)
Bingo Onomatopoeia (Andreas Mueller, Bavaria)
Humming Pera (Tina Pearson, British Columbia)
Maxxo Klaar (Max D Well, Bavaria)
Zonzo Spyker (Vivian Corringham, Minnesota)
North Zipper (Norman Lowrey, New Jersey)
Gumnosophistai Nurmi (Leif Inge, Oslo)
BlaiseDeLaFrance Voom (Biagio Francia, Agropoli)
Paco Mariani (Chris Wittkowsky, Bavaria)
Free Noyse (Pauline Oliveros, New York)
Lizsolo Mathilde (Liz Solo, Newfoundland)

Avatar Orchestra to Collaborate with Stelarc

2010-03-06T14:06:00.000-08:00

AOM has been invited to collaborate on a performance work with the Australian performance artist Stelarc for a presentation at the Digital Resources for the Humanities and Arts) Conference to be held in London from September 5 - 8, 2010. The invitation comes via Franziska Schroeder, the Program Chair for this year's DRHA conference, and professor at the School for Music and Sonic Arts at Queen's University in Belfast.

The Orchestra will create an interactive audiovisual landscape which they will perform in Second Life and streamed to the Conference performance site, while Stelarc and Franziska will appear both as avatars in Second Life and as live, computer controlled bodies at the Conference site. Pauline Oliveros will also be appearing in Second Life with AOM. Stay tuned for more news about this exciting project.

gg hootenany January 26, 2010

2010-01-25T20:11:00.000-08:00

Avatar Orchestra Metaverse will make a special appearance at ghandi's release party and global gaming singalong Tuesday, January 26 at 12 noon SLT.

Event information is here
The url for Second Life location is here

About Gandhi in Second Life...

"In the Spring of 2008, Joseph DeLappe/MGandhi Chakrabarti reenacted Gandhi’s famous 1930 Salt March using a treadmill converted for use in cyberspace to walk 240 miles guiding his Gandhi avatar throughout the online community of Second Life. For the past 9 months, DeLappe has continued the reenactment by imprisoning MGandhi in a virtual recreation of Mahatma Gandhi’s 1930, post-Salt March jail cell where he was held by the British from May 5, 1930 to January 26, 1931. MGandhi has sat in his virtual cell at Yeravda Prison, 24 hours a day on Odyssey Contemporary Art and Performance island in Second Life, greeting visitors and engaging in daily “readings” from the infamous Bush era “torture memos”. These performative readings, entitled “Twitter Torture” have been fed, live, from the local text chat in Second Life to DeLappe’s Twitter and Facebook updates."

The Orchestra will create a musical accompaniment, using its inworld instruments, to "Give Peace a Chance" by Yoko Ono and John Lennon, and invites the audience to sing along with virtual sound. Following the singalong, the Orchestra will dedicate to Ghandi and Peace a meditative improvisation using virtual instruments from its compositions Fadheit, Fragula, Birth, PwRHm, In Whirled(Trance)Formations, Ritual, Rue Blanche and Aleatricity.

Busy Little Orchestra - Update December 2009

2009-12-14T17:38:00.000-08:00

AOM core, December 2009. Photo by Max D. Well
Left to Right: Flivelwitz Alsop, aka Tim Risher; Carolhyn Wijaya, aka Carolyn Oakley; Bingo Onomatopoeia, aka Andreas Müller; Humming Pera, aka Tina M. Pearson; Maxxo Klaar, aka Max D. Well; Zonzo Spyker, aka Viv Corringham; North Zipper, aka Norman Lowrey; Gumnosophistai Nurmi, aka Leif Inge; BlaiseDeLaFrance Voom, aka Biagio Francia; Paco Mariani, aka Chris Wittkowsky. Missing from photo: Free Noyes, aka Pauline Oliveros; Lizsolo Mathilde, aka Liz Solo

It has been a busy Autumn for AOM. We have been working on a Machinima of Pauline Oliveros' Heart of Tones with Evo Szuyuan (aka Brigit Lichtenegger), performing regularly, and evolving our range of instruments, compositions and telematic practices. Here is a list of recent performances. It seems unlikely there are many other orchestras that play in such a wildly diverse selection of events and situations.

On December 12, 2009, the Avatar Orchestra performed at Media Playground, De Hoeksteen Live!, Salto 1 TV, Amsterdam - our first live television concert, also streamed to the internet. Gumnosophistai Nurmi (aka Leif Inge), conducted a truly superior version of Bjorn Eriksson's AOM signature work, Fragula. Following a break for interviews, AOM entranced each other and the viewing audience with In Whirled (Trance)Formations, the composition by North Zipper (aka Norman Lowrey) and its growing set of masks and sounds. A video of the orchestra playing with the virtual singing masks can be found here

On December 5, 2009, AOM gave an extended performance of In Whirled (Trance)Formations at ISIM—International Society for Improvised Music Fourth Annual Conference, Media Theater, University of California, Santa Cruz. This was the second ISIM performance by AOM, and was attended in person by composer Norman Lowrey and composer - vocalist Vivian Corringham, otherwise known as AOM member Zonzo Spyker in Second Life.
http://isim.edsarath.com/

Hallowe'en 2009 brought a full length AOM performance at the beautiful Second Life art build "Orfeo's Oratorio" by Second Life artist Alizarin Goldflake. The Orchestra performed Fragula by Miulew Takahe (aka Bjorn Eriksson), Ritual by Flivelwitz Alsop (aka Tim Risher), PwRHm by Humming Pera (aka Tina Pearson), and Wee No Kresh by Bingo Onomatopoeia (aka Andreas Mueller). Alazarin's blog and photos of this event can be found here
http://alizaringoldflake.blogspot.com/

AOM performed In Whirled (Trance)Formations October 11, 2009 in a mixed reality duo with North Zipper (aka Norman Lowrey), who created the real life and virtual sounding masks that form the heart of this piece. The occasion was Marathon of Dreamers, Ione's 14th Annual Dream Festival, at Deep Listening Space, Kingston, New York.
http://www.deeplistening.org/site/dreamfestival

On September 26, 2009 AOM participated in the 3rd Annual Earthdance, Mystical Mastery in Second Life. The concert was a fundraiser for the Earthdance initiative and part of a larger series of performances by other Second Life Artists. AOM featured Fragula by Miulew Takahe (aka Bjorn Eriksson), Ritual by Flivelwitz Alsop (aka Tim Risher), PwRHm by Humming Pera (aka Tina Pearson), and Wee No Kresh by Bingo Onomatopoeia (aka Andreas Mueller).
http://www.earthdance.org/

On September 11, 2009, AOM suitably performed Aleatricity and Wee No Kresh by Bingo Onomatopoeia (aka Andreas Mueller) at the Gogbot Festival, Enschede, Amsterdam http://2009.gogbot.nl/

Orchestral Investigation #9 (Fragula) to be screened at Atopic Festival

2009-10-02T08:27:00.000-07:00

Orchestral Investigation #9, the wonderful video made by Evo Szuyuan (aka Brigit Lichtenegger) with a performance of AOM's Fragula, will be screened at the Atopic festival in France in the "Creative" section. Atopic Festival is the first French machinima festival and will take place at "La Cite des sciences" in Paris from 27 October till 4 november. The audience will select 3 video's that will be screened later at La Geode, a huge hemispherical IMAX.

Fragula has become one of AOM's signature pieces and continues to be a delight to play and to witness. It was composed by Milieu Takahe (aka Bjorn Eriksson) in 2007, with instruments, visuals and animations designed by Bingo Onomatopoeia (aka Andreas Mueller). The video was conceived and directed by Gumnosophistai Nurmi (Leif Inge) and Evo Szuyuan (Brigit Lichtenegger)

Click here to watch the Orchestral Investigation #9 video.

AOM performs at ISEA2009 Kritical Works Exhibition

2009-08-08T07:45:00.000-07:00

The orchestra had the pleasure of working with Angrybeth Robinson (aka UK artist Annabeth Robinson) for the presentation of her interactive Second Life installation I Am Note, We are Music. The piece is constructed as a circular arena, where avatars can enter to trigger gentle piano tones, the pitch of which is determined by the avatar height. The prominence each tone is determined by the distance of the avatar from a central column in the arena.

On Friday, August 7, 2009, AOM took part in Angrybeth's presentation at the International Symposium on Electronic Art at the University of Ulster in Belfast.

AOM performed within I Am Note, first simply illuminating its ways, then adding AOM instruments and sound samples for an extended AOMprovisation with I Am Note's piano tones. The I Am Note Aomprovisation was followed by a performance of Bingo Onomatopoeia's Aleatricity.

Angrybeth's blogs about I Am Note, the Symposium and the performance are here and here

To watch a Quicktime video of the I Am Note AOMprovisation and Aleatricity performance, click here

AOM performers for this event were
Bingo Onomatopoeia (Andreas Mueller), Regensburg, Germany
BlaiseDeLaFrance Voom (Biagio Francia), Agropoli, Italy
Carolhyn Wijaya (Carolyn Oakley), Boulder, Colorado, USA
Gumnosophistai Nurmi (Leif Inge), Oslo, Norway
Humming Pera (Tina Pearson), Victoria, BC, Canada
Paco Mariani (Chris Wittkowsky), Regensburg, Germany

AOM performs at SARC, Belfast May 15 2009

2009-05-13T12:37:00.000-07:00

Avatar Orchestra Metaverse
SARC, Belfast May 15, 2009

As part of the Pauline Oliveros (Free Noyse) residency at Sonic Arts Research Centre at Queen's University in Belfast, Ireland, AOM will perform 3 of its repertoire pieces:

In Whirled (Trance)formations by North Zipper (Norman Lowrey), USA
PwRHm by Humming Pera (Tina Pearson), Canada
Fragula by Miulew Takahe (Bjorn Eriksson), Sweden

Friday, May 15
12:20 PM SLT / 3:20 PM EDT / 8:20 PM UK / 2120 CET

AOM on location at U21 Global in Second Life
Send an Instant Message to an AOM member to attend.

World's Biggest Smile Charity Performance

2009-04-24T08:42:00.000-07:00

Avatar Orchestra Metaverse performs a benefit concert

World's Greatest Smile Peace Project
Saturday April 25th, 2009 4 PM SLT
(0100 CET April 26th)

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Vanaheim/176/31/2234

The World's Greatest Smile aims to enhance peaceful international communication and friendship. It is supported by 19 Nobel Laureates, including the Dalai Lama, politicians and many celebrities.
http://www.worlds-greatest-smile.com

The concert is made in cooperation with project leaders for the World's Greatest Smile Peace Project and avatar makers; Yeti Bing and Yoa Ogee.

The Avatar Orchestra Metaverse will play live “Fragula” by Börn Eriksson aka Miulew Takahe and “Aleacitry” by Andreas Mueller aka Bingo Onomatopoeia

The concert is #11 in a series of Orchestral Investigations by Avatar Orchestra Metaverse.

AOM performs October 3, 2008

2008-09-21T09:26:00.000-07:00

Avatar Orchestra Performs
Friday October 3, '08
Second Life U21 Global
Real Life Drew University, Madison, New Jersey
Noon SLT / 3 PM EDT / 2100 CET

http://slurl.com/secondlife/U21Global%20Campus/143/220/103

Pataphone Aomprovisation
In memory of Michel Waisvisz
(featuring Michel Waisvisz' SL instrument)
Aleacitry
by Bingo Onomatopoeia (Andreas Mueller)
Waste From Real Life
by BlaiseDeLaFrance Voom (Biagio Francia)
In Whirled (Trance) Formations
by North Zipper (Norman Lowrey)

Pataphone Aomprovisation
In memory of Michel Waisvisz
Members of AOM perform on Michel Waisvisz' instrument, the Pataphone, designed and build by Michel and his avatar Pata Mayo at Steim. The audience will also have a chance to try this instrument.

Aleacitry
by Bingo Onomatopoeia (Andreas Mueller)
"This piece attempts to leave the known harmonic scheme completely, trying to use mostly sounds that have no real pitch. As sources, there are my circuit-bent instruments and my archive of field-recordings. My intention is to have the orchestra perform an expressionist soundpainting - the first idea was to do "The four seasons", with the name of the seasons as the only conductor's advices (plus maybe some more references to settings/weather, like "Play a little pond in the woods, early & misty morning in spring".) Aleatoric/citric/electric are blended to form the title ... it fits into Second Life, also into the idea that random sounds are used to describe a certain mood."

Waste From Real Life
by BlaiseDeLaFrance Voom (Biagio Francia)
The instruments built for this composition use a blend of sounds including synthesizer patches, drum and piano samples. The piece can be performed with live percussion and other instruments, and includes samples of sounds gathered by the performers from their 'real' lives. The October 3rd version features a virtual cello.

In Whirled (Trance) Formations
by North Zipper (Norman Lowrey)
featuring Singing Masks live at Drew University and virtually in Second Life at a campfire on the campus at U21 Global. "In Whirled Trance(Formations) is an improvisatory piece created for the Avatar Orchestra Metatverse by North Zipper. It invites participants to transform themselves through sounding and moving, with members of AOM primarily employing North's virtual versions of his Singing Masks as "vehicles of transformation." The result is intended to be a spontaneously playful shaping of sound, light, and motion."

AOM @ at Crosswire/NIMK Amsterdam opening 2nd july

2008-06-28T06:51:00.000-07:00

Optofonica presents: From 03-07-2008 until 26-07-2008Aernoudt Jacobs (BE), Sagi Groner (IL/NL), Kaffe Matthews (UK), Telcosystems (NL) and TeZ + Janis Ponisch (IT/DE).The Amsterdam festival 5 days off kicks off with the opening of the exhibition “Optofonica presents: Crosswire – in search of the synesthetic effect” on Wednesday 2 July 08 at 18.30 hrs.During opening : 7:30 pm performance Avatar Metaverse Orchestra 8:30 pm Aernoudt Jacobs

more info at:

http://www.montevideo.nl/en/agenda/detail_agenda.php?id=264&archief

and

http://www.montevideo.nl/en/agenda/detail_agenda.php?id=268&archief

Video document of AOM performance (by Liz Solo)

2008-06-24T14:07:00.001-07:00

Avatar Orchestra Metaverse performance June 20, 2008 at U21 Global in Second Life
Filmed by Liz Solo while she was performing.

Excerpts from:

Rue Blanche by Bjorn Eriksson / Miliew Takahe
instruments by Andreas Mueller / Bingo Onomatopoeia

Wee No Kresh by Andreas Mueller / Bingo Onomatopoeia
instruments and animations by composer

PwRHm by Tina Pearson / Humming Pera
instruments by Andreas Mueller / Bingo Onomatopoeia
receivers and particle design by Sachiko Hayashi / Goodwind Seiling

Fragula by Bjorn Eriksson / Miliew Takahe

instruments and animations by Andreas Mueller / Bingo Onomatopoeia

Heart of Tones by Pauline Oliveros / Free Noyes

instruments, colours and animations by Andreas Mueller / Bingo Onomatopoeia

Avatar Orchestra Metaverse Performs June 20, http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif2008

2008-06-09T09:37:00.000-07:00

Avatar Orchestra Metaverse
Concert in Second Life

Friday, June 20, 2008, 8 AM SLT / 11 AM EDT / 1700 CET

Location: Second Life at U21Global
http://slurl.com/secondlife/U21Global%20Campus/5/207/21

AOM's June 20 Second Life concert will include the second AOM performance of the beautiful work Heart of Tones (virtual reality version) by iconic American composer Pauline Oliveros (aka Free Noyes), the award-winning composition Rue Blanche by Swedish sound artist Bjorn Eriksson (aka Miulew Takahe), the dance-able Wee No Kresh by AOM instrument builder and German sound designer Andreas Mueller (aka Bingo Onomatopoeia), and PwrHm, a work by Canadian composer Tina Pearson (aka Humming Pera) with visuals by media artist Sachiko Hayachi (aka Goodwind Seiling) that was premiered by AOM at a mixed reality concert in New York city.

Avatar Orchestra Metaverse Performers, June 20, 2008

Bingo Onomatopoeia (Andreas Mueller), Regensburg, Germany
BlaiseDeLaFrance Voom (Biagio Francia), Agropoli, Italy
Fernsing Llewelyn (Cathy Lewis), Victoria, BC, Canada
Gumnosophistai Nurmi (Leif Inge), Oslo, Norway
Humming Pera (Tina Pearson), Victoria, BC, Canada
Ida Aabye (Nathalie Fougeras), Paris / Brussel
Lizsolo Mathilde (Liz Solo), St. John's, Nfld, Canada
Miulew Takahe (Bjorn Eriksson), Solleftea, Sweden
North Zipper (Norman Lowrey), Madison, NJ, USA
Paco Mariani (Chris Wittkowsky), Regensburg, Germany
Trombonejen Wigglesworth (Jen Baker), San Francisco, USA
Zonzo Spyker (Viv Corringham), Minneapolis, USA, London, UK

June 20 Concert Composers:
Pauline Oliveros (aka Free Noyes)
http://www.paulineoliveros.us/
Bjorn Eriksson (aka Miulew Takahe)
http://ruccas.org/wiki.pl/Miulew
Andreas Mueller (aka Bingo Onomatopoeia)
http://www.myspace.com/transponderfish
Tina Pearson (aka Humming Pera)
http://hummingpera.blogspot.com/

Avatar Orchestra: Live May 10, 2008: Mixed Reality and Audio Stream

2008-04-24T15:49:00.000-07:00

AOM announces a special concert of two world premiere compositions. The performance features Jeremy Owen Turner's XAANADRuuL, dedicated to the memory of Karlheinz Stockhausen, who died last year and Pauline Oliveros' Heart of Tones, dedicated to the memory of trombonist Toyoji Tomita, who passed away April 17, 2008. The performance takes place on Saturday, May 10, 2008 at 2 PM Pacific/SLT on Second Life (stay tuned for SL audience url) and at the 4th annual Open Space Voice++ Festival in Victoria, BC, Canada. The concert will also be streamed for listening at

Shoutcast server 1
http://d-oo-b.cc:8034
Listening url server 1
http://d-oo-b.cc:8034/listen.pls

Shoutcast server 2
http://d-oo-b.cc:8036
Listening url server 2
http://d-oo-b.cc:8036/listen.pls

Shoutcast server 3 (reserve)
http://d-oo-b.cc:8038
Listening url server 3
http://d-oo-b.cc:8038/listen.pls

Saturday May 10 2 PM PDT; 5 PM EDT (NYC, Toronto); 9 PM GMT; 10 PM UK; 11 PM CEDT

Web Streaming: Loop Luo (Loopland), Regensburg, Germany
Web Stream Host: Eifachfilm Vacirca Films, Basil, Switzerland

PROGRAM

(Times are approximate. Due to the nature of the technology of the virtual reality platform, there may be slight delays experienced in the audio stream)

2:00
XAANADRuuL
Stockhausen's Pleasuredome 4 Sirius Business (2007/2008)
by Wirxli Flimflam (Jeremy Owen Turner)

--short break for set change--
--(there may be a pause in the audio stream)--

2:30
The Heart of Tones (mixed reality version)
by Free Noyes (Pauline Oliveros)

PROGRAM NOTES

XAANADRuuL
Stockhausen's Pleasuredome 4 Sirius Business (2007/2008)
by Wirxli Flimflam (Jeremy Owen Turner)

dedicated to the memory of Karlheinz Stockhausen

XANADRuuL is a Second Life composition in 3 sections created for the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse. One can see this composition as an official elegy/tribute to the Modernist music pioneer, Karlheinz Stockhausen. XAANADRuuL was created from samples that were solely derived from the composer's (Wirxli's) own digitally manipulated voice. This composition was inspired by Stockhausen's claim of being an alien from Sirius and so the 3 sections of this composition correspond to Sirius A, B and C stars. In addition, there are also many references to Xanadu (including the movie with Olivia Newton John). The Opening Ceremonies take place on Sirius A where angels sing along with the selected voice samples from heavenly heights on the ceiling of a pentagonal geodesic dome and also on Sirius B where meandering avatars vainly attempt to communicate with these alien angelic muses using only pre-recorded samples. Sirius C is a "meta-composition" and is performed by the public throughout Second Life.

PERFORMERS

Virtual Instruments (Second Life):
Avatar Orchestra Metaverse
Bingo Onomatopoeia (Andreas Mueller), Regensburg, Germany
BlaiseDeLaFrance Voom (Biagio Francia), Agropoli, Italy
Goodwind Seiling (Sachiko Hayashi), Stockholm, Sweden
Gumnosophistai Nurmi (Leif Inge), Oslo, Norway
Ida Abe (Nathalie Fougeras), Brussels
Miulew Takahe (Bjorn Eriksson), Solleftea, Sweden
Paco Mariani (Chris Wittkowsky), Regensburg, Germany

Vocalists via Second Life:
Aurel Miles (Stephani Farrington), Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Liz Solo (Liz Solo) St.John’s, Newfoundland, Canada
Zonzo Spyker (Viv Corringham), Minneapolis, USA, London, UK

Vocalists on site at Open Space Victoria:
Bowlerhat Tranchcoat (Christopher Reiche), Victoria, BC, Canada
Fernsing Llewelyn (Cathy Lewis), Victoria, BC, Canada
Humming Pera (Tina Pearson), Victoria, BC, Canada

_____

The Heart of Tones (mixed reality version)
by Free Noyes (Pauline Oliveros)

dedicated to the memory of Toyoji Tomita

This piece was originally composed for trombone and two oscillators, and commissioned by Abbie Conant and her Wired Goddess Project during her residency at Mills College in the Fall of 1999. This is an ensemble version of the piece adapted for the mixed realities of Second Life and Real Life, combining virtual instruments with live trombones and voices. The Heart of Tones: A tone, in this instance D4, is minutely explored in the smallest possible increments on, above and below the prescribed pitch, through the smallest timbre variations and spatial locations by performers on virtual and RL instruments. The pitch variations are never more than a half step away from the given pitch. The resultant beats, timbral shifts and audio illusions create rhythms, transformations and textures of depth. The focus is on listening to the beat frequencies and the overtones that result. The musicians decide independently and intuitively on the variations.

PERFORMERS

Virtual Instruments (Second Life):
Avatar Orchestra Metaverse
Bingo Onomatopoeia (Andreas Mueller), Regensburg, Germany
BlaiseDeLaFrance Voom (Biagio Francia), Agropoli, Italy
Fernsing Llewelyn (Cathy Lewis), Victoria, BC, Canada
Free Noyse (Pauline Oliveros), Kingston, New York, USA
Goodwind Seiling (Sachiko Hayashi), Stockholm, Sweden
Gumnosophistai Nurmi (Leif Inge), Oslo, Norway
Humming Pera (Tina Pearson), Victoria, BC, Canada
Liz Solo (Liz Solo) St.John’s, Newfoundland
Miulew Takahe (Bjorn Eriksson), Solleftea, Sweden
Paco Mariani (Chris Wittkowsky), Regensburg, Germany
Zonzo Spyker (Viv Corringham), Minneapolis, USA, London, UK

Vocalist via Second Life:
Zonzo Spyker (Viv Corringham), Minneapolis, USA, London, UK

Vocalists on site at Open Space Victoria:
Fernsing Llewelyn (Cathy Lewis), Victoria, BC, Canada
Humming Pera (Tina Pearson), Victoria, BC, Canada

Trombonists via Second Life:
Sum Noyes (Monique Buzzarté), New York
Trombonejen Wigglesworth (Jen Baker), Oakland, California, USA
Weave Noyes (Sarah Weaver), New York

Seattle Toyoji Band via Second Life:
StuArtnoise Sass (Thomasa Eckert, voice; Janice Giteck, cello; Roger Nelson, keyboard/voice; Paul Taub, flute; Renko Ishida Dempster, koto; Stuart Dempster, trombone), Seattle, Washington, USA

Statement from Pauline Oliveros:
“In my career of half a century I have used new technologies as they come about. I was excited by the new sounds I could make with electronics in the 50s and 60s. I was excited by performing with electronics in the 70s and 80s and by using computers for more powerful controls in the 90s and 2000s. My excitement with Second Life (SL) is the entry into the computer or virtual world where many things are possible that are not possible in Real Life (RL). In the virtual world many people come together from any part of the connected world (the planet) to collaborate on mutual interests. In this case music. The Heart of Tones is a RL piece that I have revised for SL/RL performance. The premiere will involve RL musicians performing for both RL and SL audiences. I am excited because there is a transition going on between the reality we know and the virtual reality to come. The Heart of Tones is an early venture in bridging both worlds.”

About Avatar Orchestra Metaverse
Virtual instruments and performance practice:

AOM compositions are created solely on the virtual reality platform that is Second Life. Some performances occur only on the Second Life platform, while many others are screened into Real Life concert and multi media presentations in centers in Europe and North America. In the case of Real Life performances, one or more onsite AOM members coordinates the internet linking and technical set up at the Real Life venue, and the virtual performance is projected live with amplified sound. The common way of presenting live music in Second Life is to stream sound. That is, somebody sits in a studio with mic or line connected to a computer running Second Life, and the sound is streamed to the Second Life listeners (avatars) who are at the same Second Life location. There might be a few avatars holding props looking like a musical instrument guitar, and the avatars might be animated to look like they are playing the
‘instruments’. The effect of this is very much like listening to live radio, even if it is a radio with a sophisticated user interface. The sound generated has no three-dimensional impact on the Second Life listener. This is very much a way the orchestra opposes.

There are two other options: to upload samples or to input live directly into Second Life with a mic input. AOM primarily uses the option of uploading sound samples into Second Life, and then synthesizes instruments using those Samples for each composition. This instrument, accessed through a Heads Up Display on the computer screen of each avatar, looks similar to what video games use for individual player control. Each individual performer is thus able to trigger sounds independently from each other.

Visually, AOM uses ‘receivers’, which are animations built into the HUD controls that indicate that the avatar is making sound. The animations are usually in the form of objects attached to the avatar’s body (back, head or torso) that change colour and shape, and that sometimes animate the avatar to fly, hover, or dance.

BIOS AND CREDITS

PAULINE OLIVEROS (Kingston, New York): Oliveros’ life as a composer, performer and humanitarian is about opening her own and others' sensibilities it the many facets of sound. Since the 1960's she has influenced American Music profoundly through her work with improvisation, meditation, electronic music, myth and ritual. Many credit her with being the founder of present day meditative music. All of Oliveros' work emphasizes musicianship, attention strategies, and improvisational skills. Oliveros has been celebrated worldwide. During the 1960's John Rockwell named her work Bye Bye Butterfly as one of the most significant of that decade. In the 70's she represented the U.S. at the World's Fair in Osaka, Japan; during the 80's she was honored with a retrospective at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C.: the 1990's began with a letter of distinction from the American Music Center presented at Lincoln Center in New York: In 2000 the 50th anniversary of her work was celebrated with the commissioning and performance of her Lunar Opera:Deep Listening For_tunes. Oliveros work is available on numerous recordings produced by companies internationally. Sounding the Margins (as it was) - a forty year retrospective will be released soon in a six CD boxed set from the Deep Listening Institute www.deeplistening.org, which she founded with her creative partner IONE.

JEREMY OWEN TURNER (Vancouver) Jeremy Owen Turner (b. 1974, Victoria, B.C., Canada) is an inter-disciplinary artist, published writer, virtual performer and music (audio) composer currently based in Vancouver but exhibits, curates, performs and collaborates globally. As Wirxli Flimflam, he co-founded Second Front and also composes for the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse. His degree is in Art-History from the University of Victoria where he has also studied music composition with John Celona, Christopher Butterfield and John Cole. Turner is also a co-producer for the pioneering avatar performance group called The Gates - www.techworlds.org/thegates.htm and the internet punk band, The Hotmails – www.thehotmails.com He has been published in many sound-related publications including Musicworks, Front Magazine and C-Theory.

Avatar Orchestra Instrument (HUD) and Receiver Builder:
Bingo Onomatopoeia (Andreas Mueller), Regensburg, Germany
ANDREAS MUELLER was declared to be insane by his mother when she caught him in the kitchen recording a chamber concerto for washing machine, breadcutter, tape-loop and metronome at the tender age of 12. He managed to convince her successfully that he was not and only tried out what he had read in a book about modern music he had picked up from the public library. Since then he has worked in many areas of visual and acoustic art/noise, both digital and analogue. He currently works with the media-art group Pomodoro Bolzano (Regensburg, Germany) and in several collaborations within Second Life. http://www.pbspace.de/ , http://www.myspace.com/transponderfish

Avatar Orchestra Set Design and Construction (XAANADRuuL):
Dethomas Dibou (Detlev Thomas), Regensburg, Germany
DETLEV THOMAS is an artist and architect uses virtual reality technology to design eco and energy efficient houses, as well as furniture, and interior and urban spaces. Since 1993, his projects have been realized in Spain, Germany and Austria. Since 2006, as his Second Life avatar Dethomas Dibou, Detlev has designed virtual art spaces and sets for artists in Germany, Italy and Canada as well as for projects of the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse.

Performance Platforms on Second Life courtesy of
Humlab, Umeå University, Sweden: James Barrett and Patrik Svensson

AOM performs at Open Space / Audio Space in Victoria - Canada on saturday 15th of september 2007

2007-09-14T06:29:00.000-07:00

Open Space Arts Society

35th Anniversary and Annual General Meeting Saturday

September 15 2004, 2pm Open Space 510 Fort Street, Victoria, BCJoin us at the Annual General Meeting on Saturday September 15, 2007 at 2pm. At this special AGM (we also celebrate Open Space's 35th birthday) we review the financial statements, report on the past years programming and operations, and discuss special initiatives.

Schedule:
2:00 pm: AGM
3:00 pm: Break
3:15 pm Second Life virtual landscape, intro by avatar Tran Spire (Doug Jarvis)
3:20 pm Avatar Orchestra Metaverse performance and talk on Second Life. The Avatar Orchestra Metaverse (AOM) will be performing Miulew’s Audiospace work Rue Blanche (liten to all AudioSpace submissions here) as well as two additional pieces from the AOM repertoire as part of the re-launch of Audiospace. This live SL performance will be projected onto a screen at OS for audience viewing. This will include an introduction to the AOM and its virtual instruments by Miuliew Takahe and the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse
3:45 pm Audiospace showcase featuring Chantal Dumas' work, conference via Skype with Audiospace artists and via Second Life with Miulew, Wirxli and other Avatar Orchestra Metaverse members) and technology permits4:15 pm Open Space web launch with Jim Olson (TBC) and Ross Macaulay
4:30 pm Archive exhibit tour with Colleen Sanders, Blair Taylor and Ross Macaulay
4:45 pm Birthday celebrations: introductions to former directors (Konrad), tenant Hideko (if available), cake, snacks. Pulp mortgage to celebrate our debt holiday.

ORCHESTRAL INVESTIGATIONS OF SECOND LIFE by Avatar Orchestra Metaverse at Urban Interface | Oslo

2007-09-14T06:14:00.000-07:00

AOM will be performing on saturday the 15th september on Urban Interface Oslo sometime between 14:45 and 16:00 CET.

To play live within Second Life means to play in a spatial sound environment. As a listener to inworld performance you will hear the music according to where you place yourself with respect to the performers, the performer close to you you hear better than you do the perfomer further away. This audience experience is essential to the performances of Avatar Orchestra Metaverse.At the Open Forum, Avatar Orchestra Metaverse will play live “Fragula” by Miulew Takahe. The instruments are by Bingo Onomatopoeia. The project will be presented by Leif Inge.

urban interface is both exhibition and artistic/curatorial research project exploring the interspaces between public and private urban space. In 2007 urban interface takes place in two European cities, Berlin and Oslo.The project deals with the changing notion of private and public space that occurs partly due to the everyday use of new technology.

In Oslo, urban interface includes a two-day international conference entitled ‘The Porous City: Art claiming the urban void’.urban interface is a project by Susanne Jaschko.

The Long Nights of Avatar Orchestra Metaverse - performances during august -07.

2007-09-14T05:32:00.000-07:00

Long time no bloggings . . . . well it is lot's of things to catch up now which just makes me exhausted to "post-blog" about so I will here only mention those gigs and performances we did the latest weeks and also I warmly recommend Wirxli Flimflams great bloggings on AOM whereabouts in Chicago, Regensburg and Berlin.

So briefly here what we did on these long nights in late august. On friday the 24th of august we did the SLCC conference preformance. Here we ran the AOM classics.

Then day after we played forst at art.xxXtenxion happenings in Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany. Here we first played in the virtual Leerer Beutel for later transporting us and audiences to virtual Haidplatz where we once again did the master piece by Wirxli Flimflam, the Slippery Slope, now with even more slippery slopes by one of AOM's main architects Dethomas Dibou. Later same evening we did play twice at the kontrastorchester happenings at Kulturforum in Berlin, Germany. In

All of these three performance was mixed reality performance in the sense that AOM was presented to a RL audience with video projectors on the wall in parallell with us also having a virtual audience listening to us at the different SL rooms. . The Regensburg and Berlin sets also included real life navigators steering their avatars visible for real life audience coming to both Leerer Beutel in Regensburg and at Kulturforum in Berlin. At the Regensburger sets there were 4 navigators steering their avatars. The avatars steered was Paco Mariani, Maxxo Klaar, Jori Tokyo and Miulew Takahe. At the Berlin sets there where Bingo Onomatopoeia, Gumnosophistai Nurmi and AOMs founder Maximillian Makamura being navigated by their supreme beings. Here will soon be posted some photos from these events. 1.2.3.4.

New videos and blog posts from PgUp are up!

2007-07-04T03:47:00.000-07:00

PgUp days turned out to be two wonderful days of really great stayaround with old and new friends and occasionaly visitors. So many wonderful things happened during the mixed reality events that spinster Voom so succesfully curated in London at the Notice Gallery and at virtual Haidplatz at Odyssey island at Second Life. Both inWorld audiences and londoners seemed to have a really good time.

So . . here is some of the videos you must take a look at...

On the the thursday PgUp day of 28th june Evo Szuyuan was shooting around all the virtual Haidplatz and captured all of the AOM pieces starting with the now shorter version of Rue Blanche, then the wonderful public premiere of FADHEIT, the improvised Vickys Remix and finally the ever so wondrous Wee.No.Kresh (look at those marvellous dances going on and the lovely change of perspectives)

On the saturday the documentation team at first had some problems until DannyDarko Raymaker showed up with his camera. With the addition of some documetary MR sounds from Miulew Takahe this at last made it possible for Wirxli Flimflam to put together a video with sounds from the first piece we did on saturday 30th june PgUp day - the now so much talked about premiere of SLippery SLope. This piece is a very special one as it is both a very location specific yet also very open and organic piece written by Wirxli for AOM and a handpicked trio of swedish musicians playing as classicists (junivers Stockholm from SL Art Ensemble, Way Sands and Jannne Janus. More videos and sounds from PgUp will be blogged, youtubed, podcasted in a foreseeable future. Among them the other new piece we did this day, the Fragula v.0.1.

Okay, two day happenings like this brings very much info and media material to collect and until all is up i want to send big kudos to all of the Pages Exhibition/PgUp people for curating, blogging and fixing so fine, the Pomodoro Bolzano media art group for building the virtual Haidplatz (JORI Tokyo) and the SLippery SLopes (Dethomas Dibou), Maximillian Nakamura for starting such a marvellous orchestra, Bingo Onomatopoeia for building fantastic instruments and last but not the least the Odyssey people with Sugar Seville as curating muse having us all here.

Read the blogposts of spinster Voom and Wirxli Flimflam on the PgUp days. I am sure all things aren't yet said so i don't link to any specific blogpost, just scroll down and choose what to read. It is so much up so you can easily spend some hour(s) on reading all stuff. So next - time - don't just read about it in the blogs - be there instead!

Yours, Miulew Takahe

PgUp performances on 28th and 30th june!

2007-06-26T04:33:00.000-07:00

Two performances coming up on 28th june and at 30th june. This will happen at the PgUp days that are organized by Annie Spinster (spinster Voom in SL). These are fundraising events for the coming exhibitions of Pages in fall. Except AOM there will be performances by Fau Ferdinand, Wirxli Flimflam & Fwwixli Swindlehurst and an installation by Douglas Story. All this will be happening at Notice Gallery in London at at Virtual Haidplatz (the pomodori build of J0RI Tokyo) on Odyssey island. Some new music and also we do some old classics, among these the FADHEIT by Maximillian Nakamura on thursday and also the premiere of two new pieces on saturday. SLippery SLope by Wirxli Flimflam (with really slippery slopes built by DeThomas Dibou) and a new short piece Fragula by Miulew Takahe (and no, the title are not referring to the mysterious Count Fragula even though it might appear so).

AOM videos

2007-06-17T04:09:00.001-07:00

Here is a link to some of the AOM videos.

Dorkbot/SL talks on AOM on the 17th june

2007-06-17T03:54:00.000-07:00

Miulew Takahe and Bingo Onomatopoeia will be talking on AOM on the third Dorkbot/SL meeting in Odyssey on sunday 17th june. If you read this to late, we will try to include the chat transcript later. The meetings start at 1 pm SLT will be sound artist Adam Ramona.

AOM Group @ Odyssey Ning

2007-06-02T01:20:00.000-07:00

Just a short note that there is now also a group forum over at Sugar Sevilles newly started Odyssey Ning Community site. Here you will have the possibility to chime in on discussions, make suggestions, drop questions aswell as getting the very, very latest news about AOM. Join! (if you haven't heard about Ning, you can describe it a bit like Facebook, but a more creative and open concept.)

AOM photo sessions

2007-05-20T06:41:00.000-07:00

Just realizing that there is a flood of pictures of AOM so for those of you that want more pictures take a look at these sets:
Sugar Sevilles AOM set (incl. 12th may 2007 premieres)
Loops set of PB @ SL
JORI Tokyos set
Bingo Onomatopoeias AOM set

more to be added soon...

AOM @ xxXtenxion 12th may video

2007-05-20T06:23:00.001-07:00

Avatar Orchestra Metaverse

Short video shoot of the happenings of 12th may 2007 at virtual Haidplatz. This is from the premiere performance of Rue Blanche. Camera: Sugar Seville.

Also do check out the newly web domain/Ning community for art happenings at Odyssey - www.odysseykunst.com

AOM performs @ Spirit Fens Art Festival

2007-05-19T03:41:00.000-07:00

On the 19th of may AOM performs at Spirit Fens Art Festival at 4pm (SLT). The competition and performance takes place at Enniv Zarvs SintixErr gallery. For more of Enniv's works take a look at Krystal Epic.

AOM logo and more happenings on the 19th may

2007-05-17T17:11:00.000-07:00

On saturday the 19th at 4pm (SLT) there will be another performance with AOM. Now this is taking place at Enniv Zarvs galleries and there is sculpture and visaul arts contests going on. Actually we're going to play during the jury talks. Anyway Enniv addressed the question if AOM has a logo - and the answer was of course no, as this thought not yet had entered our minds. So Enniv was working fast and came up with a the logo as seen here.

If you need some logos being made you can always talk with Enniv on these things. SLurl to his office:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sognefjord/98/203/83

EZ Logo & Design!

We specialize in Custom Logo and Design. We can provide you with all your graphical needs to brand and make your Second Life Business a success. We can even provide you a business advertising package through our SL & RL affiliates. Come check out our work in our office inside the SLReport Building in Sognefjord.

Enniv Zarf,
CEO - EZ Logo & Design

Soundroom @ xxXtenxion 12th may

2007-05-17T15:07:00.000-07:00

So the SL/RL happening with AOM at virtual Haidplatz of the 12th of may 2007 went very well - even though there were a major gridquake in the middle of our performance just after we had started Wee.No.Kresh. The playing was done in collaboration with Ljudrum project (=Soundroom) in Eskilstuna/Sweden - Mälardalens Högskola and the artist group of Regensburg/Germany called Pomodoro Bolzano. There were two premiere pieces played, the first being Rue Blanche by Miulew Takahe and the other one named Wee.No.Kresh by Bingo Onomatopoeia who also makes many of AOM's inWorld instruments like for instance the Onomatophone and Aviophone. The main theme for all happening was "found sounds" inspired by Rinus van Alebeek that was invited to make a soundroom in RL in Eskilstuna. He is running the great Das Kleines Field Recording Festival in Berlin (Check it out!). Some sounds of Rinus was also heard before pieces and in between the two premieres. Also sounds from Regensburgs real installment of containers at Haidplatz square for the ongoing Mobility art project among lots of other sounds where played during the performance. Summing it up afterwards - there is not so much more to say than - we really rocked the sim!
Check out other blogposts from Maximillian Nakamura (AOM founder) and Wixli Flimflam's reporting from the event... and don't miss the audio from this and other AOM happenings and rehearsals. There is also later coming up a video of this. The total sounds of the RL event will soon be uploaded at this latter podcast service. On the RL happening Björn Eriksson and the Mälardalen staff was coordinating the audio streams from 4 second life clients, one in every corner. These were fed into a 8 channel surround system in the big computer hall of Eskilstuna University. Video beamers on two of the opposite walls also amuzed the small but enthuastic audience. The sounds were really great and swirled around in true surround. In the recording of the RL happening you might get a slight feel of how it sounded with all real world commentarys, laughter and more.

from left to right: Rinus, Jennie, Camilla and Björn

AOM blog started

2007-04-25T08:06:00.000-07:00

photo by Wirxli Flimflam
This is the new blog for The Avatar Orchestra Metaverse (AOM) of Second Life. Here you will find different information on up and coming performances and information about what is going on, like new pieces, performances, instruments and much more. If you are a member of this special orchestra just mail me at miulew at gmail dot com to receive blogger status so you can blog yourself about what is going on from your horizon.

AOM is an international orchestra with members from Switzerland, Italia, Germany, Sweden, USA, Canada and has only existed since beginning of year 2007. AOM was started on the initiative of Maximillian Nakamura. Now in late april 2007 AOM has so far performed twice with the first piece played in middle march called Vicky's Mosquitos #13 and some weeks later the piece FADHEIT by Maximillian.

If you are interested in playing with us in the virtual worlds of Second Life, dont hesitate to contact some of us inWorld. (IM or notecard or use mail address above).

/Miulew Takahe