Project Perm

Customer Epidemic Paris

Format
Interactive installation with 360°-projection and dynamically generated surround sound

Task
Project leader audio
Architecture and implementation of the real-time audio rendering software
Specification audio recording, playback, and wireless distribution systems
System integration

Status
Realized in 2004

Display
Cinémas du futur, Lille 2004
DEAF Dutch Electronic Arts Festival 2004

Info
epidemic.cicv.fr

Concept
"Perm” is the German word for the geological period of the permian, a time which ended with the greatest ever extinction of life on Earth, apparently a consequence of gigantic amounts of lava flooding the planet’s surface, eventually returning it to an almost primal state. The period Perm is now represented as a layer in soil, with little left for today’s curious archaeologist to contemplate.

This piece, also entitled PERM, is the first abstract “iFilm” created for the iCINEMA system designed by Jeffrey Shaw and has a running time of approximately six minutes. The basic aesthetic strategy in the image design is the exclusive use of a small number of treatments and processing techniques, some of which make use of randomly found low-resolution material. This material is used as samples or templates.

In PERM, sound is synthesized and structured independently of the image and is only sometimes or in certain aspects in strict synchronisation with the image. This partial synchronicity may and should enhance the perception of distance between the virtual sonic environment in the visitor’s head (via head-phones) and the distant visual environment projected from the beamer’s spotlight. Here sound functions as an almost independent feature, but which nevertheless relates to the image and greatly influences the overall experience.

Credits
Ulf Langheinrich (Composition)
Richard Castelli (Production)
Dolfi Matthias (Graphics software)