Video Organ

The Video Organ is both a new instrument and performance paradigm, developed specifically to enable the live placing of video and sound within architectural spaces. A novelty lies in the modular approach to the design which concentrated on the mapping of the audio-visual content to the performance gestures of the various 'instrumentlets'. It was developed as a collaboration by Yolande Harris and Bert Bongers, testing every new development through residencies and performances. The performances dynamically place sound and image worlds, recorded and collected from the environment, to extend the architectural spaces into a more fluid and changeable entity. Spaces extended by the Video Organ performances have included: a church in Dublin, a casino in Alicante, a Media-House in Barcelona, a country house in Catalunya. In addition to solo performances the Video Organ has also played as part of the Meta-Orchestra, the Ensemble Nova Musica Barcelona, and the Kraakgeluid/Gaudeamus week in Amsterdam.

Inside-Out Nau Coclea Music Festival Catalunya, 2003
Paradise NIME conference MediaLabEurope Dublin, 2002
MediaEval Musica a Metronom Festival Barcelona 2002
MediaEval Alicante Casino Alicante 2002
Video-Organ @ Media House Metapolis/MITMediaLab Mercat de les Flors Barcelona 2002
BAT Musica a Metronom summer festival Barcelona 2001

Publication: The Video-Organ: a modular approach to instrument design, in conference proceedings of NIME (New Instruments for Musical Expression) Dublin 2002

Financial support and Residencies: STEIM Amsterdam, ZKM Kahlsruhe, Metronom Barcelona, Nau Coclea Catalunya.

Video Walker

Imagining a moving projected image uncoupled from its screen, we started to pick-up, then carry, and then walk with our video projector. Using it like a torch we walked through a Catalan forest, the length of a wild Spanish beach, a duet in a derelict Dutch gallery, an explorer in a disused Belgian coal-mine, searching for a resonance between the virtual image of light and the physical territory we revealed. To watch these performances gives a sensation of loosing balance, the space tips and tilts, disorientates as you try to find views between the layered physical location and the dislocation of images.
The Video-Walker instrument developed, including an interface made of sensors to call up and play with live images and sound (also carried). The whole thing is battery powered, so untethered and portable. The version Project Relay includes a second instrument based on a video camera relaying wirelessly to another location. The two instruments, the Projector and the Relayer, make feedback loops of real, projected and filmed spaces.

Project Relay and The Video Walks are a collaboration between Yolande Harris and Bert Bongers.

solos:
Between:Two Duet for Mobile Video Players former Bonnefanten Museum, Entre Deux, Maastricht, NL 2003
Video Walk 3 Beach Empurda Catalunya, Spain 2002
Video Walk 1 and 2 Forest Nau Coclea, Empurda Catalunya, Spain 2002
as part of:
Meta-Orchestra 5 Coal-Mine Waterschei, Genk, Belgium 2005
Meta-Orchestra 4 Stichting Intro | in Situ, Maastricht, NL 2004
Project Relay in Welcome to Fused Space Database, Stroom, Den Haag, NL 2005