GPS-Trans 11
Pécs D(é)RIVE: GPS-Trans 11
A collaborative project between Marek Choloniewski & European Bridges Ensemble
premiere performance:
University of Pécs, Faculty of Visual Arts & Music, December 10, 2010
"In a dérive one or more persons during a certain period drop their relations, their work and leisure activities, and all their other usual motives for movement and action, and let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there. Chance is a less important factor in this activity than one might think: from a dérive point of view, cities have psychogeographical contours, with constant currents, fixed points and vortexes that strongly discourage entry into or exit from certain zones."
Guy Debord 1956
Pécs D(é)RIVE, the latest iteration of "GPS-Trans", combines the data-driven
audio-visual urban installation, originally conceived by Marek Choloniewski, with the integrated performance of audio-visual compositions by EBE within Georg Hajdu's Quintet.net software environment.
In July 2010, a car fitted with 4 video cameras, (facing forward, backward, left and right) and GPS tracking, made a number of "recording" journeys through and around the city of Pécs. Several of the locations passed through were then re-visited on foot, and recorded audio-visually in greater detail.
During the concert on December 10, a car re-traces the original journeys around Pécs, transmitting its GPS coordinates to the venue to control the video and audio material, projected onto 4 screens and through 4 speakers arranged in form of square geometric object, simulating the form of the car and the space through which it travels. In this way the car becomes a live performer/controller of its own recordings. It's GPS position and speed data determining the status of the audio-visual record of the original journey. (GPS-Trans - transmission in time and space, rather than live broadcasting).
As the car approaches each of the previously chosen locations, the journey is suspended and overlaid by detailed audio-visual compositions created by EBE’s composer/performers and visual artist, as responses to the ambience of place rather than to the transit through space. A place is explored and articulated and the journey resumes on to the next.
In the early stages of the project, initial exploration of the 'terrain' of Pécs revealed locations and spaces not on the "tourist trail"; the mines and mine buildings, the gas/water pipes, the tallest empty building as well as those more commonly experienced by visitors like the center or the TV Tower. Their qualities and ambience contributed a deeper experience of the city of Pécs.
Marek Choloniewski
concept, composition, coordination
Georg Hajdu
Conductor, Quintet programming
Marcin Wierzbicki
GPS programming
Kai Niggemann
Composition, Laptop Performer
Adam Siska
Composition, Laptop Performer
Johannes Kretz
Composition, Laptop Performer Quintetnet programming
Andrea Szigetvari
Composition, Laptop Performer
Ivana Ognjanovic
Composition, Laptop Performer
Stewart Collinson
Visual artist