"EMOTION
ORGAN"
Initial project description (2000)
A Motherboard Product Proposal
This project description was written in 2000, but has not been realised. As I have mentioned previously in the "Met Geert Mul" file in the timeline (to the right!) I am considering bringing this skeleton out of the cupboard once again as an instrument for testing syneasthetic models/structures on.
Inspired by a fictive contraption in the Philip K Dick novel, "We
Can Build You", we plan to build the Emotion Organ - a highly strung
instrument, both in physical, emotional and digital terms.
Physically, the Emotion Organ will be an object, an instrument for live perfomance
- a media synthesiser where the player can compose with audio, visual, and
tactile elements. RealAudio and/or quicktime livestreams will provide the
major source of audio material.
Other materials include:
- projected imagery
- lights
- scents
- hot and cold air streams
- smoke machine
- electronic/electric and mechanical/acoustic sound sources
When played, the organ will release a synergy of sensory information which,
having passed through custom-made, digital "emotion filters", evoke
"classical" states of emotion.
The physical appearance of the organ will be an eclectic mix of ancient and
modern gadgetry - simultaneously nostalgic and futuristic; a keyboard and
a menagery of sliders, knobs, buttons, switches and tubes, etc, including
a built-in computer connected to the internet, and a projector. An old wooden
Ostlind and Almquist pump organ form the early 1900s will be taken apart and
rebuilt adapting its original knobs, keys, levers and bellows to control the
"new" elements.
In this physical form decsribed above, the Emotion Organ will be a spectacle
as an art object, and the main instrument in a live performance in which we
expect certain glitches to occur. We consider these inevitable glitches to
be part of the Organ's own emotional networked state. With live streaming
media as the primary source of audio input, the live performance also encompasses
the possibility to include remotely located artists transmitting sound/imagery
especially for this purpose.
We plan to use midi technology, with the software Keystroke* as a main component,
to realise the technical aspects of the Emotion Organ. Keystroke is a multi-user
cross media synthesiser - a distributed application that allows multiple players
to generate, synthesize and process images, sounds and text within a shared
realtime environment. The premise of the Keystroke project is to contribute
to the emerging genre of telecommunications art. It is a vehicle for sending
and receiving commands - a simultaneous realtime interchange with live and
formatted media.
Target audience: 0 - 130 years
*old name, now called Keyworx
Here is the intended extreme make over victim - a pump organ from 1890 owned by Per, currently standing in our studio.
