IN AND OUT, OVER AND UNDER

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VENUE: The Grainger Museum, Melbourne University as part of Nite Art

23/07/2014 

ARTIST: Roger Alsop

 

This interactive media work explores the artistic intentions behind Grainger’s Free Music machines through computer generated algorithms and audience engagement. Driven by sound artist Roger Alsop in conjunction with students from Melbourne University and the Grainger Museum, this site specific installation will be realised within the museum courtyard where the audience can literally ‘play’ the space by interacting with motion and audio triggered technologies that respond to their gestures in real time. With In and Out, Over and Under, Alsop expands on Grainger's ideas of inclusivity by producing an immersive audio-visual work, generated by the audience of Nite Art.

 

A pioneer of his time, Grainger considered his greatest contribution to music to be his investigations into what he termed Free Music (1938-59), a form that strived to evade and eradicate conventional structures such as tonality, pitch and rhythm. As a precursor to electronic music, Grainger’s anarchic aspirations resulted in the invention of a variety of unusual instruments  - such as the ‘Kangaroo Pouch Machine’ or alternately, traditional instruments reconfigured and played in unconventional ways. At the core of this impulse was a desire to push the boundaries through risk and experimentation. Using innovative digital technologies, Alsop will explore Grainger’s position that ‘the right direction is to view the music of all peoples and periods without prejudice’ by producing a participatory, immersive audio-visual installation.

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