New Music Award 2008 winner
The Fragmented Orchestra, an unprecedented and visionary new work, ran from 12 December 2008 - 22 February 2009 at FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) as part of Liverpool’s European Capital of Culture programme.
A huge, geographically distributed musical structure across 24 sites throughout the UK, The Fragmented Orchestra mirrored the function of the human brain and the way it processes sound to produce a compelling and ever-changing new instrument and composition.
"We’re really excited to hear the results of this huge collaborative effort and the sound of the UK becoming a musical work” John Matthias, Jane Grant and Nick Ryan
The 24 sites that made up The Fragmented Orchestra were selected for their inherent sonic rhythms to create a unique score that was performed to thousands of listeners throughout the UK. From a cattle market in Aberdeen to Brighton Seafront, London’s Roundhouse to Everton Football Club, Gloucester Cathedral to the former home of the Brontes on the Yorkshire Moors, a remarkable and diverse range of locations were connected via the internet to form a networked cortex, which adapted, evolved and triggered site-specific sounds via FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) as part of Liverpool’s European Capital of Culture programme from 12 December 2008 to 22 February 2009. Anyone could ‘play’ The Fragmented Orchestra and the public were encouraged to visit their local sites and help turn the UK into one weird and wonderful new instrument.
Here’s how it works: A sound box modeled on the neurons found in the human brain was installed at each site and attached to a pre-existing resonant surface. Each of the neurons was connected to each other via the internet to form a tiny cortex and ‘fired’ signals back and forth when stimulated by sound. When this happened, fragments of sound from each location were streamed to the central venue at FACT where each neuron unit was represented by its own loudspeaker. Across all of the sites, the public were able to ‘play’ each neuron unit by creating local sound and hear the effect this had on the overall composition. Visitors to FACT heard the collective sound of all of the sites around the UK, their interaction with each other and the unique music created by the cortex at work. The collective music heard in the Gallery at FACT was also transmitted back to listeners at each of the remote locations through the use of Feonic™ technology, which turns any resonant surface into a high quality loudspeaker. The Fragmented Orchestra website also enabled people to tune into each of the sites, as well as what could be heard at the central Gallery in FACT, 24 hours a day.
The Fragmented Orchestra was presented as part of FACT’s Ding>>Dong exhibition which focused on emerging and pioneering music and performance including new works by Peter Saville and Andy McCluskey. On Friday 12 December, PRSF, FACT and the Wellcome Trust presented a panel discussion involving experts in music, science and neuropsychology, (David Toop, sound artist and writer, Dr Daniel Glaser, Head of Special Projects, The Wellcome Trust, Robert Worby, presenter/composer and Jane Grant (The Fragmented Orchestra) giving their perspectives on this groundbreaking new work.
The Fragmented Orchestra was created by Jane Grant, John Matthias and Nick Ryan. Jane Grant is a visual artist working with film, sound, video and installation. She has exhibited widely in the UK and internationally and is Principal Investigator at the University of Plymouth on an AHRC funded project, Threshold, which merges the human voice and breath with neuronal firing patterns, currently exhibited at ArtSway. John Matthias is a musician and physicist. He has collaborated with many artists including Radiohead, Matthew Herbert and Coldcut and has recently released his second solo album Stories from the Watercooler on the Counter (Ninja Tune) Label. He is lecturer in Sonic Arts at the University of Plymouth. Nick Ryan is a composer, producer and sound designer. He won a BAFTA for his ground breaking interactive radio drama The Dark House, broadcast on BBC Radio 4, and has composed extensively for film and television. John and Nick recently released Cortical Songs on the nonclassical label to critical acclaim.
Press coverage of The Fragmented Orchestra:
The Guardian - 19 December 2008
The Times - 13 December 2008
Muso - 29 April 2008
Music Week - 22 April 2008
NME - 22 April 2008