I’m just back from a concert at the ZKM Kubus. The first perfomer was Dieter Torkewitz who played a concert for piano, tape recorder and lights:
ZKM 20091024 - Dieter Torkewitz
The second (and fourth) performance was played on a reacTable by Günter Geiger (on the right hand side. The table in the center is a projection of an overhead camera):
ZKM 20091024 - Günter Geiger
The third piece was called »Blautopf« (which is a lake in southern germany) and performed by Heiko Plank. He played a special, self-developed instrument with a solid wooden body and several strings. He used his very own name for the instrument – »Plank«:
ZKM 20091024 - Heiko Plank
After the concert, the audience was invited to play the reacTable – at reduceed volume though ;-) . The media museum hosted at the ZKM bought such an instrument and plans to put it at the exhibition – in operational state, of course, so visitors can use it to make noise.
It consists of a table which gets read by and used as a display of a computer inside it (a Mac Mini BTW). At the borders of the table, there are various geometrical objects like cubes, rectangels with rounded corners and stars. Those objects can be put on the table, where they are immediately recognized by the computer and put into the audio flow. The computer then puts touch-screen-controls around them which can easily be used to influence the behaviour of the object.
The object types include sound generators like classical analogue synth modules or sample players, modifiers like filters and triggers to create rhythmical sequences. Turning an object also influences its behaviour, depending on its type. It also is possible to change the sound of a module by drawing the desired waveform with the fingers directly on the table. Wicked stuff. Here’s a closeup pic of the instrument:
ZKM 20091024 - reacTable
A very interesting instrument indeed. I didn’t play it myself as it was crowded by several rows of interested people. I will try it out as soon it is installed at the media museum.
