Tales From The Bridge
Composed and produced by Martyn Ware
and David Bickerstaff
Millennium Bridge, London 27th July - 10th September 2012
Composed by Martyn Ware in
collaboration with artistic director David
Bickerstaff, 'Tales from the Bridge' is a mesmerizing three-dimensional
soundscape covering the entire length of the Millennium Bridge. It features an
hour-long looping immersive ambient electronic musical composition merged with an
engaging spoken narrative written by the poet Mario Petrucci and voiced by Mia
Austen and Steven Alexander, and
the stunning Water Night by Eric Whitacre .
Inspired by
the fascinating history of the Thames and the stories life and times on both
banks of the river, Illustrious has created a contemplative auditory platform that
links the City of London in the north with the Southbank and vice versa. Award-winning
poet Mario Petrucci was invited by Bickerstaff and Ware to produce a collection of written passages assembled from
literary forms such as short poems, atmospheric descriptions, local anecdotes,
facts and figures. These beautifully conceived passages were collated into a
script, then woven into the three-dimensional soundfield by Martyn Ware.
In addition, at
the start of each hour, an astounding, invisible 3746-voice choir from 73
countries will perform Water Night by Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir composed by
Grammy-winning composer Eric Whitacre,
based on a short poem by Octavio Paz.
Also,
interaction designer Daniel Hirschmann
has created interactive technology which will enable a webcam mounted on the
City Of London School to examine footfall at various points on the bridge,
triggering sounds which will flow back and forth across the river. Visitors
will therefore be able to participate in this unique and constantly changing
composition.
Between July
and September, between 8am and 10pm every day, the final composition will
immerse the listener in an oasis of peace and contemplation, half-remembered
dreams and thoughts, of meditation and learning. The Millennium Bridge will
seem to be almost alive, speaking its own thoughts to over 4 million people
during the exhibition period.
The
installation has been commissioned by the GLA as part of their London-wide city
dressing programme during the Olympic period and created with endorsement of
The Noise Abatement Society.
Biographies
Born
in 1956 in Sheffield. Formed the Human League in 1978. Formed multimillion
selling act Heaven 17 in 1980, and is still touring around the world. As record
producer and artist has featured on recordings totalling over 50 million sales
worldwide during a 35-year career to date. Martyn founded Illustrious Co. Ltd.
with Vince Clarke in 2000 to exploit the creative and commercial possibilities
of their unique 3DAudioScape immersive sound technology in collaboration with
fine artists, the performing arts and public and private institutions around
the world. He is also an expert in the
‘convergent’ multimedia art world, and has founded sound-branding company
SonicID, and lectures extensively internationally. Martyn is a Visiting
Professor at Queen Mary College, University of London, a member of BAFTA, and a
Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts. He will receive an Honorary Doctorate
from QMUL in July 2012. Major works include Sound Oasis (Mexico City 2006) and
Soundlife London (Leicester Square 2010).
David Bickerstaff is an artist and
award-winning filmmaker who founded Atomictv in 1997 as an umbrella
organisation for developing digital art projects and collaborations. His digtal
and video works such as Channel 14, Muhammad Speaks, Forró, Braunschweig
Tourist, and Heavy Water: a film for Chernobyl have been shown both in Britain
and internationally. He was a member of the 2004 BAFTA judging panel for
Interactive Art and is currently the Creative Director at Newangle
Productions,
a commercial partnership that produces video installations and interactives for
museums and visitor attractions. He has won various awards for his projects
including an Insight Award for Excellence from the National Association of Film
and Digital Media Artists in the US.
Mario Petrucci is
a metaphysical poet of international standing, an ecologist and PhD physicist.
He is the only poet to have been resident at the Imperial War Museum and with
BBC Radio 3, and has received major literary prizes across the board (National
Poetry Competition (3rd); four times winner of the London Writers competition;
Bridport Prize (winner); New London Writers Award). His book-length poem on
Chernobyl, Heavy Water (Enitharmon 2004), captured the
prestigious Arvon Prize for poetry and forms the backbone of a powerful new
film (Seventh Art Productions). His other volumes include Flowers of
Sulphur (2007), i tulips (2010) and the waltz in
my blood (2011). He devises courses for the Poetry School, the Poetry
Society’s Poetryclass initiative and Arvon/Foyle Young Poets.
Mario is something of a frontiersman in creative writing projects in the public
domain, engaging successfully with the various Imperial War Museum sites and
delivering groundbreaking writing packs that tie into science (The Royal
Society/ Royal Literary Fund) and ecology (Poetry Society). Mario is married
and lives in north London.
Eric Whitacre is a
Grammy-award winning pioneer in composition who has a rare talent, combining
originality with popularity. The innovation that he has brought to the
music world through his ground-breaking Virtual Choir has brought exceptional
visual and audio beauty to the digital space, creating a unique connection
between singers around the world. He is one of the most performed
composers of our time, a distinguished conductor, broadcaster and public
speaker with a wide spectrum of media and corporate engagements across the
globe. A versatile composer, Eric has written for the London Symphony Chorus
and Orchestra, Chanticleer, Julian Lloyd Webber and the Philharmonia Orchestra,
Berlin Rundfunkchor and he co-wrote the Mermaid Theme for Pirates of the
Caribbean: On Stranger Tides with legendary film composer, Hans Zimmer.
Eric is Composer in Residence at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
University, UK.
Daniel Hirschmann is a South
Africa born artist who uses technology, relationships and spontaneity to enable
his artistic practice. His portfolio includes responsive sculpture, interactive
spaces and generative prints which have been exhibited in shows around the
world, most notably, the Whitney Museum of Contemporary
Art in NY, the Centre
Pompidou in Paris, the V&A in London, the Museum
of Contemporary Art in Nice,
and the Resolution
Gallery in Johannesburg. He
built on his Fine Arts studies with a Masters at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications
Program – where he
specialised in physical computing and interactive sculpture. He has lectured at
various highly respected institutions around the globe.
In 2010 he founded Hirsch & Mann Ltd – an art and design consultancy
based in East London which is focused on responsive objects and environments.
In 2011 he co-founded Technology Will Save Us a haberdashery for technology and
alternative education space helping people to become producers and not just
consumers of technology.
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