Normally in a concert (of any kind: classical, contemporary, jazz, folk, rock etc.) I live a particular experience: I can not focus completely on the music that is being played. Usually, I pay more attention to external sources that are also affecting the concert, for example: sounds from the concert hall, noises and behavior of the public.
I have been interested in this event for a long time. When I heard 4’33" from John Cage, I realized that silence can be heard. John Cage influenced me a lot as an artist and all the techniques that I learnt during my three years in Germany have helped me to find myself as a multimedia composer.
This paper is written in order to explain the Multimediaabend – Hemmungslos, my Master examination concert and therefore my work as a multimedia composer. The main idea of the concert was very simple: to make a concert in which external noise sources were also part of the performance and, in some cases, as important as the music being played. The result is a concert with two different levels: the stage and the public, where the public is affecting the development on stage.
The techniques that I learned during my stay in Hamburg, especially the knowledge in Max/MSP/Jitter and sensors, were used to produce the interaction (action – reaction) between the public and the concert. On the next pages I will explain how I was able to reach this goal.
I want to thank my professors, Georg Hajdu, who always had an answer to my questions, and especially Peter Hamel, who trusted and guided me to find myself as a composer. And of course, thanks to my family who always supported me for every project of my life.