Fundamental Forces is a collaborative audiovisual installation / performance project by Robert Henke (D) and Tarik Barri (NL/D). The title reflects the focus on movements, acceleration and the interaction between visual structures and sonic events, as well as the underlying mechanics in each of the domains. Complex visual shapes and sonic structures emerge as the result of repeated applications of simple mathematical operations, are transformed and thrown around in real time to form an abstract world of floating objects in deep space.
Fundamental Forces has no narrative, it simply exists and changes. The title references concepts of physics that aim to describe the basic foundations about how our universe is constructed. It aims to find a concept of eternal validity, a concept that helps to describe not only what happens now and here but also helps us to understand the world outside our experience.
The work reflects this search for knowledge in many ways. By using self written and constantly improved and extended software, we not only create what people hear and see but also build the foundations of what they could experience in the future. We do not build an installation, we build a machine that constitutes a class of potential installations. Each screening of Fundamental Forces is a snapshot of the current development. Technically it is either a pre-rendered high definition multiple or single screen projection with surround sound or a real time generative system with potentially infinite duration. The visual component is based on Tarik Barri’s ‘Versum’ computer animation engine, whilst the auditive part is created by Robert Henke, using real time synthesis modules created in MaxMSP, embedded in a Max4Live environment.
Fundamental Forces is scaleable. It has been created as a commissioned work in 2009 for the RML Cinechamber system which consists of ten 1080p projections and eight channels of sound (FF00 – FF01). A later version (FF02) has been adapted to work with six screens and a 5.2 soundsystem. FF04 is a small single projection version in stereo, derived from FF02. FF05 will be UHD projection with Wave Field Synthesis sound diffusion. It is going to be presented at IRCAM in Paris in late spring 2014.
The video present here is a scaled down version of FF02, presented 2012 at the soundframe festival in Vienna, Austria.