Interactive Computer Voice composition
Significa Sombras is a linear,
composed version of the (algorithmic)
interactive media artwork
"Levántate."
by video artist Mariela Cádiz
Music Composition & Interactivity: Kent Clelland
Vocal Performance: Berenice Hernandez
Text: Pablo Neruda
Duration: 14:46
Composed in 2001-2002, Significa Sombras leverages not only custom proprietary software written by Kent Clelland, but also
— °Argeiphontes Lyre, by Akira Rabelais
— °Soundhack, by Tom Erbe
— °NI Spektral Delay, by Kent Clelland (Native Instruments)
Special thanks to Berenice Hernández for her Vocal Performance.
Levántate was produced with the assistance of Generaciones 2001, Obra Social Caja Madrid
Levántate (Rise) is an intimate installation that invites the visitor to a metaphysical meditation. As the visitor enters the dark room, he is encountered with a ghostly view of a human body being projected horizontally from the ceiling. A white sculpture in the shape of a sarcophagus operates as a screen where the winkling image of a reclining body in a continuos process of digital rotting is reflected. The iconography of the visualized woman body refers to those technological methods of diagnosis used to allow a scientific vision of the human body or to the images obtained from thermodynamic energy fields. The audio component of the installation is an algorithmic musical composition under constant transformation consisting of voices digitally decomposed. A microphone placed in the room records the whispers and sounds generated by the visitors contemplating the installation. These verbal resonances are recycled through an interactive system of accoustic feedback, being in this way incorporated both into the musical composition of the installation and into the projected image. All technologies seem to hold inside a secret desire for inmortality. Clonation, genetical engineering and life assisted medical technologies are good examples of how the precise limits between life and death are being blurred. With Levántate, Mariela Cádiz and Kent Clelland have created a suggestive reflection on the vanishing of these limits. While watching the installation, the public surround the sarcophagus like participants in a ritual. The name of the installation, Levántate, obviously refers to the biblical episode of Lazar’s ressurrection, only that this time it is a technological miracle.
Awards & Exhibitions
- 2001 Generaciones 2001, Obra Social Caja Madrid
- 2002 Arco 2002, Obra Social Caja Madrid, Spain
- 2002 VIDA 5.0 : 2nd Prize EX AEQUO AND PUBLIC´S CHOICE AWARD,
- 2005 Banquete 05, Centro Cultural Conde Duque, Madrid, Spain
- 2005 Banquete 05, Gran Canaria Espacio Digital, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
- 2012 VIDA 1999-2012, Art & Artificial Life, Fundación Telefónica, Madrid, Spain
Signifca Sombras by Pablo Neruda