Manchester International Festival: Atmospheric Memory

MIF 2019

MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL: ATMOSPHERIC MEMORY

Mexican-Canadian artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer presents Atmospheric Memory, a technologically advanced immersive art environment, as part of this year’s MIF

Bringing together a broad range of artists from myriad disciplines, Manchester International Festival 2019 saw innovative artworks, films and music take centre stage at venues across the city. One of the festival’s most talked-about pieces came from Mexican Canadian artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. “Atmospheric Memory is a project five years in the making and possibly the most ambitious I have ever undertaken,” Lozano-Hemmer said of his creation. “It is the result of research on disparate fields from robotics to fluid dynamics.”

Staged in an extraordinary custom-built structure made with shipping containers next to the museum’s 1830 Warehouse, Atmospheric Memory explored the beautiful tumult of the air we breathe – and ultimately celebrated the transience of the sounds that fleetingly live within it.

Utilising technologies such as computerised surveillance, biometrics and automation, and working with a team that includes programmers, designers, scientists and architects, it was clear from the start that such an ambitious project would require specialist technical support. One of those charged with making sure the exhibit ran smoothly was Stage Technician, Tom French. It was no mean feat, but when TPi caught up with him at the festival, he was typically modest.

“The guys from Canada came over and installed the art, and we just installed the infrastructure around that,” he began. “Everything in the room is run over networks and is being monitored in real time from Canada, so we’re just babysitting really. We’re managing what they have built.”

Panasonic projectors and Datapath Fx4s were among the visual kit specified. Four custom-built media servers ran TouchDesigner and MadMapper software.

Atmospheric Memory proved to be a nice change of pace for French, who is more accustomed to working on theatrical productions. “I’m a big fan of modern art so it’s nice to get into a new world and experience something slightly different.” French went on to explain how his stage experience was a big help to the artist: “This is the first time that they have ever put some much stuff in one space,” he said. “That’s why they got a technical theatre team behind it – because it’s a show in its own right.” tube uk Sound Engineers Dan Steele and Adam Taylor devised and delivered the complex sound scheme which entailed some nifty and out-ofthe-box QLab programming.

Cloud Display comprised a substantial wall 6m x 2.5m tall with which guests engaged by talking to into the intercoms with their words appeared

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MIF 2019

Stage Technician, Tom French.

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on a wall constructed from hundreds of small square water vaporisers - which when operated emitted a cloud of vapour, effectively formed a digital display of the words.

Lozano-Hemmer and his team created the exhibits with their related computers which ran via completely bespoke sets of code. Steele and Taylor ensured that the sound elements from the machines were picked up from the intercoms and distributed to the right machine all around the space. tube uk installed an extensive Dante network with the eight computers plus another three sitting on it together with a console and the QLab system. The task of communicating between the sound desk, the QLab and the computers took several days to achieve and involved many kilometres of network cable being installed around the venue.

Each intercom pillar featured an internal speaker - in addition to the microphone used for the voice commands - so controlling feedback was a delicate issue that needed to be dealt with. Eight intercom pillars, one per artwork, were positioned around the room and eight pairs of loudspeakers speakers were located just above head height down the length of the room.

Steele chose to use a QLab as the most flexible and reliable system for integrating the necessary audio control and routing the bidirectional signals. This was programmed with an ambience soundscape and a series of curated sounds, samples, recordings and effects which were played out through the assorted artworks during the show cycle.

The key to mastering the control needed was programming the QLab stack to react to Open Sound Control (OSC) network protocol requests from the artwork computers. As the whole exhibition’s show cycle / soundscape ran itself, the sequence itself sent out these bidirectional OSC messages to QLab which issued a series of sounds that were sent on to the different artworks triggering reactions across the network.

The sounds made by the artworks – as activated by guests - went directly via tube uk’s Yamaha QL5 sound desk to the relevant computer running one of the artworks. The show was one of many for which tube uk coordinated audio throughout the MIF2019 festival period. TPi Photos: Mariana Yáñez & TPi www.mif.co.uk www.dbnaudile.co.uk www.tubeuk.com

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