Messa di Voce ("putting the voice") is a new concert per-formance, in which the speech, shouts and songs produced by a pair of abstract vocalists are radically augmented in real-time by custom interactive visual-isation software.

The performance touches on themes of abstract communication, synaesthetic relationships, cartoon language, and writing and scoring systems, within the context of a sophisticated, playful, and virtuosic audiovisual narrative.

The controlling software, written by Golan Levin and Zach Lieberman, transforms every vocal nuance into correspond-ingly complex, subtly diff-erentiated and highly expressive graphics. These visuals not only depict the singers' voices, but also serve as controls for their acoustic playback.

While the voice-generated graphics become an instrument which the singers can perform, visceral manipulations of these graphics additionally modify the sounds of the singers' voices creating a reciprocal cycle of interaction that fully integrates the performers into an ambience consisting of sound, virtual 3-D objects and real-time processing.

Commissioned by Ars Electronica with the support of SAP, La Fondation Daniel Langlois pour l'art, la science et la technologie, Eyebeam Atelier, The Rockefeller MAP Fund.

Software Artists: Golan Levin, Zachary Lieberman
Composers / Performers: Jaap Blonk, Joan La Barbara

Performance photographs