ESO and Weather Ensemble
The ESO stems initially from the observation that simple electromechanical actuators and solenoids can create complex machines. It is based on musical compositions created from unique, custom-made and non-traditional instruments. The form of the ESO is influenced by the Stele Forest at the Xi’an Beilin Museum. The systemic arrangement of ancient stone horse hitching posts, the assortment of sculptural characters on each post as well the musical synesthesia of being in that environment.
Accompanying the ESO is the ambient ‘Weather Ensemble’. The ‘Weather Ensemble’ is comprised of aggregate weather data pulled from the globally dispersed Weather Tunnel sensor nodes used to compose generative music and sonic landscapes in real-time. A specific set of rules is established to determine the composition and arrangement of sample-based ambient music. Sound is generated using granular synthesis in the style of musique concréte.
The Weather Ensemble serves as the ambient environmental context while the ESO performs melodies and rhythms dictated by the very same real-time data creating different melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic musical phrases that are layered and repeated as part of an aleatoric musical composition.
Artists: Benjamin Bacon and Joe Saavedra
Exhibitions:
Translife (Weather Tunnel), National Art Museum of China, Beijing China, June 2010
Beijing Design Week, 751, Beijing China, September 2010
