Wortstaub Partikelwelt (1999)

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Computer-aided biofeedback installation;

Museum der Wahrnehmung MUWA, Graz, A
 
A Biofeedback Text Engine

A multi-functional finger sensor transmits the pulse frequency and skin resistance of a person to a computer-aided biofeedback instrument - called "Medat". These physical data are converted into a MIDI-data stream which is used to control a sound installation. The ability to concentrate and relax influences the state of the human body, and thus changes permanently the stream of sound data. In other words: Every user of the biofeedback-installation can control the condition of the soundscape she/he is surrounded by. The space reflects her/his inner state, the environment becomes a virtual mirror of a person's tension - and the human being an interface between space and computer.

The sound material of WORTSTAUB PARTIKELWELT only consists of spoken word. The recorded voices of two narrators are treated in realtime-processes by the means of granular synthesis - thus splintering the texts into particles of variable length and reassembling them to new textures. Patterns grow out of the tiniest sound events (pauses, breathing), condense to phonemes and weave a permanently shifting fabric of syllables, words and sentences.

The visitor's bio data control the structural parameters of the granular synthesis program (granuLab by Rasmus Ekman) as well as the sound distribution in octagonal space. The degrees of human concentration and relaxation modulate the amount of machine generated degree of splintering. Language in permanent state of emergence circles the visitor through an arrangement of 8 loudspeakers, triggering new bio data and as their feedback result new speech processes.

The human being as the centre of a speech generator.

Generating language as physical process.