You are currently viewing microscope session DVD 2.0 – new cooperations in sound and visuals

The Trans-Media-Akademie Hellerau in cooperation with DS-X.org is the organiser of a series of events entitled ‘microscope session’. With the Festspielhaus Hellerau as its venue the ‘microscope session’ experiments with forms of synaesthetic perception in audio-visual presentations. It serves the contemporary desire for synaesthetic perception. The result of four years work is now compiled in the storage device of a DVD. All those who participated in the events so far were invited to contribute a clip to the DVD. It is a dream dreamt for a long time – and not only by artists – to be able to see sounds as images and hear images as sounds. The ‘alchemists of the electronic arts’ or the ‘modellers of the audio-visionary’ are the creative and cultural forerunners who develop media in order to work with them artistically. Since the real experience of audio-visual concerts cannot be reproduced when using the medium of a DVD, a collection of most diverse approaches and aesthetics emerged from the connection of sound and visual material. Thus, the works at hand generally presuppose their reception via monitor and PA. In fact, they are audio-visual psychotechniques for the solitary or shared use in the couch environment of a common living room, in the chill out section or, when travelling, on the laptop. They are exclusive works by authors whose backgrounds range from professional art work and graphic design to spare time handicrafts. As such, the pieces represent the state of the art of a screen-oriented audio-visual culture. The interfaces of club and museum, party and work of art, aesthetics and economy, science and life are the contexts in which VJs act. The examples [OSZO 1]TM by Ritchie Riediger or the video processing HUMAsystem by HUMATIC (applied in PERSON’s Person In Mekanik Wunderland) show how today’s technical innovations may be placed both in the field of art and in the market of entertainment industry. The ‘electronic alchemist’ thus works in the zone in between artistic approach and commercial interest.