The Computer Orchestra by Simon de Diesbach, Jonas Lacôte and Laura Perrenoud, musician-screen playing.

The-Computer-Orchestra

Using samples to “orchestrate” a melody has been attempted many different times in the past: from the YouTube remixes of voices/instruments to form a specific piece, to various games enabling the player to be an orchestra director, like the popular one playable in the Berlin Potsdammer Platz Sony Centre at the end of the nineties. But those attempts used to hide the machine, trying to be as close as possible to a perfect simulation of reality. In this project by Simon de Diesbach, Jonas Lacôte e Laura Perrenoud, the machines are placed on pedestals, in a neutral room and well lighted. In a word they are placed at the centre of the attention (even more than the conductor) and enhanced in their functioning through proper visualisation. The computer emerges as the preponderant protagonist, only interested in the execution of a perfect piece. This emblematic shift tell us a lot about our contemporary perception and how musicians can be substituted by what the authors call a “musician-screen”.

 

The Computer Orchestra by Simon de Diesbach, Jonas Lacôte and Laura Perrenoud