René Mogensen: Four seasons

"‘Four Seasons’ is an Interactive Performance Environment. The active elements of the environment are the performer, the viewers, the music, the lighting and the video. A series of feedback loops links the elements together so that the behavior, or input, of one element will affect the behavior, or output, of at least one of the other elements.

A performer moves in a square set within an open space. Above the square is a camera which captures from a bird’s-eye-view the performer and surrounding area. This is projected onto a screen which hangs parallel to the ceiling, but removed from the performance field. The audience must choose to watch the video or the performer. When they approach the performance field, their movement is sensed and a light turns on in response. This light not only illuminates the performer, but casts the shadow of the viewer inwards, into the performance field.

Inside the performance field, the performer is responding to stimulus from the ever changing environment. A number of sensors on the performer’s body translate her movement into input which affects processes and events in the musical composition. The performer is not playing an instrument. The music has an identity of its own, characterized by four seasons through which it travels, but the nature of this journey and the unique character of the final composition is directly linked to the behavior of the performer.

Feedback Loops: the music stimulates the performer, and the performer in turn affects the music; the audience stimulates the lighting, and both the lighting and the shadows of the viewers affect the performer, which in turn affects the music; events in the music affect the video processing, as does the movement of the audience; events in the video demand attention and affect the movement of the audience… Thus the environment in which the viewer and the performer find themselves is in a constant state of change. The performance of all the elements – viewers, performer, music, lighting, video – and of the environment as a whole, grows out of and is defined by their interaction with one another.

‘Four Seasons’ is intended as a gallery installation, set in an open space where audience movement and placement is not restricted – viewers can come and go as they please. The performance, 80 minutes in length, is preceded (and can be followed) by a prelude. The prelude is designed as an ongoing sound installation in which movement of viewers around the performance field directly activates both the lighting and the music, as well as affecting the video."



		René Mogensen: Four Seasons: Sound Brain One in collaboration with Pursue the Pulse Arts Collective

		April 23-25, 2004 at NADINE in Brussels, Belgium were the premiere public concerts of the new interactive performance environment Four Seasons, a collaboration with the Pursue the Pulse Arts Collective.. Development of the work was begun at STEIM in Amsterdam in 2003, and was further developed during a residency and presentation at the NADINE performance space in Brussels, Belgium, during April 2004. It will be presented next during November 23-26, 2004, in São Paulo, Brazil, in the FILE festival.


			"The most delightful thing about this piece [Four Seasons] is that it's a wonderful marriage of high and low technology. The sensors enable a play of shadow and light that, together with the theatrical and humorous relationship that develops between the music and the dancer, creates the kind of sensual atmosphere that goes with storytelling by the fire, or journeying through the kind of forest you find in fairytales." - www.Beige.be, April 2004

			"‘Four Seasons’ is an Interactive Performance Environment. The active elements of the environment are the performer, the viewers, the music, the lighting and the video. A series of feedback loops links the elements together so that the behavior, or input, of one element will affect the behavior, or output, of at least one of the other elements. A performer moves in a square set within an open space. Above the square is a camera which captures from a bird’s-eye-view the performer and surrounding area. This is projected onto a screen which hangs parallel to the ceiling, but removed from the performance field. The audience must choose to watch the video or the performer. When they approach the performance field, their movement is sensed and a light turns on in response. This light not only illuminates the performer, but casts the shadow of the viewer inwards, into the performance field. Inside the performance field, the performer is responding to stimulus from the ever changing environment. A number of sensors on the performer’s body translate her movement into input which affects processes and events in the musical composition. The performer is not playing an instrument. The music has an identity of its own, characterized by four seasons through which it travels, but the nature of this journey and the unique character of the final composition is directly linked to the behavior of the performer. Feedback Loops: the music stimulates the performer, and the performer in turn affects the music; the audience stimulates the lighting, and both the lighting and the shadows of the viewers affect the performer, which in turn affects the music; events in the music affect the video processing, as does the movement of the audience; events in the video demand attention and affect the movement of the audience… Thus the environment in which the viewer and the performer find themselves is in a constant state of change. The performance of all the elements – viewers, performer, music, lighting, video – and of the environment as a whole, grows out of and is defined by their interaction with one another. ‘Four Seasons’ is intended as a gallery installation, set in an open space where audience movement and placement is not restricted – viewers can come and go as they please. The performance, 80 minutes in length, is preceded (and can be followed) by a prelude. The prelude is designed as an ongoing sound installation in which movement of viewers around the performance field directly activates both the lighting and the music, as well as affecting the video." Pursue the Pulse Arts Collective, August 2003


			Interactive electroacoustic performance environment. Duration in performance with dance: 80 minutes Development support for this work was given by: STEIM and a developmental residency and presentation is planned at the NADINE space in Brussels, Belgium, April, 2004. More information about Pursue the Pulse Arts Collective.

René Mogensen:

Four Seasons: Sound Brain One

in collaboration with Pursue the Pulse Arts Collective