Notation in VR
Interactive voice controlled system for musical expression in VR.
Commissioned by Tomomi Adachi.
Berlin, 2019-2021.
The project is supported by Berliner Arbeitsstipendien für Neue Musik und Klangkunst 2019.
Movement / Voice / Agency
"Notation in VR" is an interactive virtual environment developed and programmed
by Hylynyiv for the experimental voice performer Tomomi Adachi. The environment
is envisioned as a 3dimensional score with a novel interactive concept, which
Hylynyiv designed and implemented specifically for this purpose, allowing the
movement to be controlled entirely by the voice. Guided by the ambition to
harness the intrinsic and unique possibilities of VR, it appeared only logical
to translate parameters of voice into parameters of movement. “Moved by the
voice” becomes a trope when performers physically navigate the notation through
their interpretation, manifesting their vocal energy as a force in the virtual
space - a poetic configuration that offers a manifold of possible readings.
Symbolic 3D
The environment is populated by a multitude of different objects: letters,
handwritten signs, and phonemes, which have emanated from Tomomi’s imagination.
They are 3dimensional themselves, and can hence be approached and interpreted
“from different angles”, in a non-linear way, really pushing the boundaries of
the conventional understanding of performer and score.
Interactivity / Script / Anima
Another distinctive feature sets the system apart from the conventional approch to
music interpretation by harnessing the genuine possibilities of technology:
the score does not remain in a static state but interacts with the performer,
mimicking his utterances in what begins to appear as dialogue, interpreting
him in return, as if an imaginary hybrid counterfeit, half symbol, half
creature, had emerged from the imagination of the performer,
materializing as living and breathing entity in this alternate reality.