Electroacoustic Works

Future Perfect - Commissioned by IRCAM and ZKM, Premiered December 7, 2018 at ZKM in the InSonic Festival.

Future Perfect is composed for high Order Ambisonic playback (7th order), the ActiveLisetner frameworks for music spatialization and performance on audience smartphones, and a VR Film. Below is a short documentary about Future Perfect, produced by ZKM



The following film is a rendering of the film and audio in stereo, but lacks the smartphone layers. Gordon Hawkins voice comes in around 23:30 minutes

Future Perfect Stereo from Garth Paine on Vimeo.

Program Notes

Future Perfect is a 46 minute musical journey. It consists of an immersive 360° ambisonic score composed from field recordings made in urban parks and cities in Paris and Karlsruhe and in the deserts of Arizona. The second half of the work features the baritone voice of Gordon Hawkins, performing the James Joyce poem, All Day I Hear the Noise of Waters. The 46 minute score is augmented by interactive sound performed on the audience’s smart phones and a full length film.

Future Perfect explores notions of the construction of nature and how the urban park exists as a kind of interstitial space, neither city nor nature but simultaneously both. A construction of the city where we appreciate the qualities of nature.

The cellphone layers of the work is accessed directly thought the phones web browser, nothing need be downloaded, making access easy for all. The use of the audiences smartphone binds the audience into the ecosystem of the performance - sound is performed directly on their phones and moved through the audience, into the loudspeakers and back. The film is made using 360VR footage and animations made from photographs of flowers and plant life in city parks.

The Work was commissioned by IRCAM, Paris and ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany and premiered at the Pompidou Centre, Paris and ZKM Media Museum in December 2018. The performances received critical acclaim including being listed as the hottest thing to do on a cold weekend in Germany. Performances have taken place across Europe and the USA through 2018-19.
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