SATSYMPH by Marc Yeats, Ralph Hoyte & Phill Phelps

[spentmoney]

this stuffs outta space. good to see bristol is ahead of the game

[NazzarenaArman]

We should all feel compelled in giving SATSYMPH the possibility to take us all a step further in experiencing, understanding and thinking about art, technology and life. Over the next few months and years most of us will all acquire android adapted mobile devices at affordable prices and we shall use them for the most disparate of applications. How fun to get to grips with these new resources via the musical explorations of an urban landscape.

[ungeworden]

SATSYMPH means 'a poem', or a piece of music' does not exist as such, but only in an interaction with the CONTEXT of the hearer. If that ain't revolutionary then what is??? See discussion-thread on SATSYMPH Facebook site

[ungeworden]

Query from someone about why we are making SATSYMPH available as an Apple App: the point is that SATSYMPH uses 'context-aware media' and that, all things considered, the best way to deliver such content to the broadest spectrum of people is probably thru' an Apple App. But SATSYMPH exists entirely independently of 'the platform provider' so in future could be delivered (with a bit of adaption) on any platform with advanced GPS capability - and these device are becoming more and more frequent.

[mediachap]

Hi, just wondered if the app is available. I can't seem to find it on the appstore.

[marcyeats]

@mediachap Hi there. SATSYMPH won't appear on the app store unless we win the PRSF New Music Award competition and received the prize money to create the work. The promotional video is to explain the project and get people to vote for SATSYMPH. If we win, SATSYMPH would become available on the app store from Autumn 2011. The competition voting closes on the 5th September and the winner will be announced on the 16th September 2010. So, please vote for us on-line or by texting '5' to 70099, now!

[marcyeats]

@mediachap Alternatively, to get to the voting page for SATSYMPH click on the text under the video above that says

"Is this the most pioneering music in the UK? Should this idea win £50,000? Ha..."

Follow the links to the voting page from there - sorry it's so convoluted!

[ungeworden]

“I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work, I want to achieve it through not dying.” (Woody Allen)

[ungeworden]

500 characters NOT enough for me to expound in suitable poetic style on what SATSYMPH is and why it's so groundbreaking so I've started discussion threads on the SATSYMPH Facebook page (go to FB and type 'SATSYMPH') so I can get all poetic! Seriously, I want to create poetry for the 21st century, not the 19th, and SATSYMPH is my vehicle. Please comment.

[marcyeats]

You can now cast your vote for SATSYMPH by texting '5' to 70099

[jhufel]

if it's what i think it is then it is AMAZING! from my understanding this is like...."i can create the soundtrack of my life" kinda thing or simply choosing a song that fits my mood at that moment, e.g. walking home from the gym today, feeling great about my workout and i listened to heavy's "how you like me now", just made me wanna walk on a runway with my head bobbing to the beat of the song. it will even be more amazing with this app since its interactive and spontaneous. good job!

[marcyeats]

@jhufel The potential to make a whole range of context aware scapes exisits and they can be populated with all sorts of music and words. Because you, the user negotiates the space in your own way you can discover music that's hidden in it, you can mix music tracks and depending upon where you are in the scape, learn how to initiate what you want to hear and then experiment with it! in fact, the user builds the scape and helps author the structure of what you hear.

[jhufel]

hey marc, as i previously asked on your wall in facebook, i wanna know if sharing is also possible through satsymph. where do i vote again? hope u guys win!!

[marcyeats]

@jhufel Lets see if i can answer these questions. Thanks for asking!

This experience is individual, or shared with a few friends. SATSYMPH proposes to make the individual communal. Your iPhone will, if you want it to, track your unique route through SATSYMPH. You can then upload samples of ‘my own symphony’ to the SATSYMPH website for others to hear and comment on. You can join user groups and user forums to discuss and partake of the technology.

As for voting > >

[marcyeats]

@jhufel >> (voting) you need to follow the link below the video which says PRSF in blue, then follow the next prsf link (also in blue) - that will take you to the voting page, scroll down to where it says 'click here to vote' and you will find the page!!!

It would be so much easier if there were a direct 'vote for this' link on the video itself, but you have to chase through a number of links to get to the voting page. Many thanks and sorry for the inconvenience.

[jhufel]

@marcyeats thanks! it's good to know that genius minds like yours are using technology to take people's experience with art and music to the next level. it's just amazing!! love it..love it..love it...can't wait to see it work!

[marcyeats]

@jhufel Thank you!! We really believe what we are doing is quite new!

[eaobjets]

As you say "What an adventure . . to walk around, to walk inside the art . . . !

But what actually happens when one does not move or walk around ? Will the music stop playing after a certain time or will it repeat in sequences, ... ?

[marcyeats]

@eaobjets The answer in part depends on where your position is when you stop moving. In the simplest instance, the music will be looped, however, it is also possible to programme the software to initiate different tracks of music one after the other if no motion is detected. Similarly, if you stop in an area where there are overlaps of different music regions they will combine to play out a complex relationship which could again be looped >>

[marcyeats]

@eaobjets @eaobjets >> (with the loops of each region being of different durations) creating a changing combinatoriality as the varying lengths of musical cycles will never repeat or synchronise in the same way - combinations will always be different so the music will continually evolve. For such instances of non movement we will programme areas of musical calm (looped) as well as renewing relationships of sound. And these areas may be interchangeable in themselves! SATSYMPH is never static!

[ungeworden]

@marcyeats SATSYMPH can be made immeasurably complex, given enough development time. For starters, we have words and music. That's complicated enough - how do they interact? Then - and I'm no mathematician - In how many ways can maybe 5 layers each individually evolving and changing interact? We're talking N dimensions here! This can be a soundworld which offers something new every time it's accessed. We could design it so it's a living, continually self-mutating soundworld in its own right!

[0406214201]

I am imagining the ability to walk through a whole precinct with my eyes closed and just allow myself to be absorbed into the sounds and virtual sights! 

[marcyeats]

@0406214201 Yes, SATSYMPH will create a virtual world over the real world - it will transport the user to a fantasy full of new sounds and meanings to explore - all this set into landscape and more. SATSYMPH will transform the most mundane of urban settings into a rich, magical world of word and music to discover. What an adventure . . to walk around, to walk inside the art . . . !

[Ghalebi1]

SATSYMPH, woooooooooo!!!!!!

[marcyeats]

@Ghalebi1 Yep, I share your excitement! woooooooooo!!

[eaobjets]

>>> Although, in Boris Blacher’s “Abstrakte Oper Nr. 1”, the text was more or less replaced by phonemes without specific meaning and which could only be understood through the stage action. Still the opera was played in a chorological order.

But the essence of SATSYMPH is that there is no chronological order in which the music is actually played. So how the poetry will be convoyed by the music without losing its semantic dimension ?

[ungeworden]

@eaobjets SATSYMPH demands a new kind of writing which is part narrative, part non-narrative and part anti-narrative. Or all three. Or none of those. This is because we can’t control how people access the ‘virtual auditorium’, how long they stay in it, and their path thru’ it. In trials, people create their own individual narrative where there may be none. The music does not ‘convey’ the poetry, nor the poetry the music. They interplay by their PHYSICAL placing in the landscape. Exciting!

[ungeworden]

@eaobjets (continued) this is a long discussion and will have to take in what 'music' is and what 'poetry' is. So SATSYMPH is a really daring project in which we aim to investigate this in the context of locative or context-aware media. Preliminary investigations show that this could be very exciting indeed: to the normal compositional palette we have added the physical placing of content IN THE LANDSCAPE. It's an unexplored dimension!

[marcyeats]

@eaobjets In addition to ungeworden's comments - I like to think of SATSYMPH as a huge jigsaw puzzle where words and music have been located in the landscape like the pieces of a puzzle. As you explore SATSYMPH you discover different pieces of the puzzle, the more you discover the more pieces you have to play with and put together, to make connections, to create your own narrative, or not. The more exploration, the more words and music will be encountered, the fuller the experience will be >

[marcyeats]

@eaobjets Words and music in SATSYMPH operate within a similar logic and dynamic which can be interpreted in a number of ways - sometimes this will produce liner or non-linear narrative, sometimes perhaps no narrative at all. Like life, we grapple to make sense of the things around us and are sometimes successful. Ambiguity, uncertainty, discovery, revelation, experience are all part of SATSYMPH, that is it's dynamic. It is a huge departure from opera and the linear delivery of information.

[marcyeats]

@eaobjets And finally, having said that, I'd like to say this!

The first SATSYMPH opus is the specially created ‘ON A THEME OF HERMES’. The user will hear a contemporary music/poetry fusion with content inspired by the Greek god Hermes, Messenger of the gods, guide to the Underworld, patron of boundaries (and those who, as in this project, “travel across them”…), of thieves, liars, of literature and poets. >>

[marcyeats]

@eaobjets >> ‘On a theme of Hermes’ is a pre-recorded acoustic, digitally processed contemporary music/word fusion that consciously operates outside the logic of any of the customary gamut of compositional techniques.

The content is themed - the words are themed - the music reflects the nature of the themes but as already discussed, the 'audience' or user experiences these themes - the 'content' - in their own way, in their personal journey - they create their own experience. Neat!

[eaobjets]

Since SATSYMPH is not only about music but also about poetry, I so wonder how exactly this works together?

If I take for example opera, usually the text is in someway the fixed element on which the music is composed and when played, text and music take place in a specific chronological order. >>>

[ungeworden]

A friend who didn't want to sign up for YouTube but still wanted to comment said we don't make it clear enough that SATSYMPH will be able to be downloaded and experienced ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. Verily, 'tis true - whether you live in Oz, or in Ulan Bator, or in Tooting Bec, or Vancouver Island, just download the SATSYMPH package onto your iPhone as a hosted 'app', go to where you want to experience it, press 'go' ... it rolls out the 'virtual auditorium' for you to wander around in. Magic!

[eaobjets]

I would say, as in cubism, it’s a whole new way to sense space, movement, and time in a changing experience. So in my opinion, it really is ground-breaking.

I also think it could and probably will influence other art forms like ballet for instance.

[marcyeats]

@eaobjets Thank you! I believe you are absolutely correct. Using this kind of technology and new creative methods has implications for very different art-forms - the potential and possibilities are endless. And yes, ballet. The way work is created and experienced in SATSYMPH could turn the way ballet is constructed on its head. We could now have choreography and dancers who direct and even generate the music they move to. Choreography and movement could become sophisticated composition in sound!

[eaobjets]

This is absolutely fascinating, a revolutionary way to approach contemporary music.

It’s a quite radical break with the traditional way of listening to music. In the recent years new technologies (like portable media player) already have allowed to bring out contemporary music from the concert halls. But this project goes so much further.

[amrein]

yes it should win :-) because the brass sound is so nice ,people will get used to lovely brass sound , well of course that is just one aspect of a lot more , that this project is worth to go in future

[marcyeats]

@amrein Hello! The music and poetry that is written for SATSYMPH will be recorded by members of the Bristol Ensemble. Using 10 different instruments; each one will have 20 minutes music composed for them of differing energy and mood in 4 or 5 sections, each lasting various lengths. These 10 musical lines will then be further combined, multi-tracked and in some cases digitally altered to create the music regions that will populate SATSYMPH. These audio recordings will be of the highest quality.

[marcyeats]

@amrein And more . . .

1. Firstly, contemporary poetry & contemporary music are composed for a very dense, multi-responsive and heavily authored environment. We, the composers, cannot determine HOW this environment is going to be negotiated by the user. This means that the music & words MUST be compelling ‘in any direction’ (= ‘as heard in any way at all’).

[marcyeats]

@amrein >> 2. We record the music & words (highly professional musicians from the Bristol Ensemble play all the parts live & professional voice artists will be used)

3. In a very work-intensive process, the recordings are digitally processed, stacked, layered, modulated, stretched, morphed – you name it, we do it (and get very little sleep the while…)

[marcyeats]

@amrein >> 4. A whole series of ‘modules’ result from this process – modules of music, of words, of words-as-music, of music-as-words, of wordusic, of muwords (we’ll make up this new language as we go along)

5. The aforesaid ‘modules’ are used to populate ‘a virtual auditorium’. This means we use software which allows us to place a virtual layer over a real landscape. This is another form of composition – composing with landscape. SATSYMPH composes with music, words and landscape.

[lindasgoluppi]

I'm blown away with this. It's the beginning of a whole new art-form. Congratulations on findings such a brilliant and creative way to use new technology for the arts.

[marcyeats]

@lindasgoluppi Thank you! Yes, you're right. We believe this is the first time that contemporary music, poetry, landscape and technology have been brought together in this complex, organic and interactive way to make a dramatic piece of art where people experiencing the work determine 'what' they experience by their physical position in a given location. That's quite new - some commentators think it's revolutionary. We're certainly very excited!

[lindasgoluppi]

I'm blown away with this. It's the beginning of a whole new art-form. Congratulations on findings such a brilliant and creative way to use new technology for the arts.

[PRSFMusic]

hello. thanks for the heads up on this. i've added a line into the voting form to explain how tel nos. should be entered. hope this helps.

[ungeworden]

My brother-in-law emailed me to say "The voting web page is broken! I tried to vote for you but it keeps asking me to "Please enter your primary contact number" I have but it still will not accept the submission. Is it just me or have you had any other complaints?"

[ungeworden]

@ungeworden funny order YouTube puts comments in??? Just thought I should post the above to see if others have the same problem. I voted (for myself, sorry guys...) and found that if you take the normal gaps out of the 'primary tel no' it accepts it.. Jamaican proverb: one time fool him no fool; two time fool him damn fool

[marcyeats]

@ungeworden Yes, many people have remarked on this issue.

When entering any telephone number from anywhere in the world, all spaces and where necessary, all dashes need to be removed so that only numbers are entered. This should then work!

[DrJonathanDay]

Can people easily access iphones? Not that inclusive really?

[marcyeats]

@DrJonathanDay Hi there. I agree that it's not as inclusive as it could be because of the need for an iphone - this phone is one of the most widely used in the UK so does open up the opportunity for engagement with very large numbers of people. But more importantly, we had to start somewhere and the iphone is a widely used GPS enabled device. Our future ambition will be to make SATSYMPH available on a number of other platforms so as to increase participation and inclusion.

[marcyeats]

@DrJonathanDay And . . when you look at how un-inclusive the idea of performing music is when it is located in one place (too far, too expensive, wrong time, etc.,) comparatively, access to SATSYMPH through an iphone opens up more engagement opportunities even if everyone doesn't have an iphone. And when you consider SATSYMPH'S potential to roll out nationally and internationally, access and engagement issues thought not perfect, can reach tens of thousands world wide. And that's for starters!

[ungeworden]

@DrJonathanDay A friend commented on this the other day, too. As Marc says, we want to roll SATSYMPH out as widely as possible, that's why we need the most-used phone platform ie the iPhone. It's also important to realise that when we have realised SATSYMPH it's just THERE: it can be put on any present or future mobile platform with GPS capability (of which Apple products are just one). We're producing a model for content delivery for the future, not just for a particular device!

[ungeworden]

@ungeworden slightly qualify that - "it can be put on any present or future mobile platform with GPS capability": disclaimer: ADD: 'with some development work! and depending on the device and its config!!!'

[Dv8Devine69]

brilliant

[lilGingerPrincess]

Regardless of what music or the design of the soundscape... This is a very awesome and progressive idea...  This could be used in a host of other venues and businesses.

[marcyeats]

@lilGingerPrincess Yes, you are correct, there are all sorts of applications for this kind of context aware media, and it's developing all the time - exploding, in fact - it is the next generation of experience, I think - but even more than that, these technologies offer such huge potential for artists to create work that exploits all these new possibilities, so much so that artists have to rethink and redefine how art is made and communicated - that's pioneering and revolutionary!

[MyOwnDestiny1]

Brilliant!!! The future is in your hands and in your minds.  Thanks for sharing. :)

[marcyeats]

@MyOwnDestiny1 Thank you for commenting - we are very excited about the work - it really does change the way we will think about composing and experiencing music and poetry fusions - we can't wait to build, create and compose all the elements!

[itsMido2]

great idea

[birgitteaga]

Fantastic idea, democratising the experience of the symphony!

[dkmoopy]

i could not get the rest of my comment to post,for some reason... i know inherently this would be a beginning. here was the rest of my post:

continued from below....

i see the implications of the broader application. if this could be devised in multiple countries with various devices,it is indeed a pioneering move towards integrating space,time,music,experience. bravo! will share with my friends:-)

[marcyeats]

@dkmoopy Thank you - you've got the idea! And from a compositional point of view it means creating music with no beginning, middle or end, the structure depends on how it is experienced individually - that's different, and the way people experiencing SATSYMPH and engage with the music and poetry, that's different too - it has so much potential to change the way we thing about creating and listening to music and words - I find that fascinating. Thank you for your support and comments!

[PRSFMusic]

@dkmoopy thanks for sharing with your friends...the more people that get involved with viewing and voting for their favourite idea from the 5 videos the better!

[ungeworden]

@dkmoopy yup - 'it is indeed a pioneering move towards integrating space,time,music,experience AND POETRY'. I have long considered 'poetry' to be locational in essence (yes, the location can be metaphysical, imagined, psychophysical), and more akin to music than literature. So one of my main aims with SATSYMPH is to create a 21st century 'Gesamtkunstwerk' ('complete work of art') which explores contemporary music & contemporary poetry fusions using a totally new LOCATION-RESPONSIVE interface

[dkmoopy]

i absolutely love this idea- it has restrictions and constraints, though. you need an iphone and to live near these locations. if you could expand the type of device needed and the locations, that would be wonderful. in addition, if the people who have participated could post their unique musical and environmental experiences to a broader audience,that would enable those who are unable to "be" there, to at least listen. continued....

[marcyeats]

@dkmoopy Hi there - The iphone is the device that we will launch SATSYMPH on but it will be adapted to suit many other gps enabled devices at a later date, this would just be the beginning!

[marcyeats]

@dkmoopy

Enough? More: this experience is individual, or shared with a few friends. SATSYMPH proposes to make the individual communal. Your iPhone will, if you want it to, track your unique route through SATSYMPH. You can then upload samples of ‘my own symphony’ to the SATSYMPH website for others to hear and comment on. SATSYMPH) will have been logged through time-stamped GPS co-ordinates recorded and uploaded to our SATSYMPH website earlier.

[marcyeats]

@dkmoopy

11. That’s about it. No, it isn’t. SATSYMPH is not just a one-off. Neither is it just confined to the UK. SATSYMPH will be available world-wide, and exists as long as the files are there to be downloaded and there is a GPS signal. This may be the first SATSYMPH, but it won’t be the last. SATSYMPH is not just a performance, it is a vehicle for a totally new way of creating and experiencing music and poetry. - sorry answers are in reverse order!. Best wishes Marc of SATSYMPH

[nicholasdanieloboe]

MOST interesting.

[venerdi1982]

I was here, good luck my friend!

[amrein]

hopefully this excellent idea will take people away from tv and send them in parks

good luck marc 

[Fleurbrighton]

Amazing stuff...I love imagination and the use of the senses well done Marc....