concept:

Under the heading of »GEF – Global European Fields«, people will be confronted with worldwide spread culturally specific sounds, languages, and images. This confrontation takes place in the form of a bodily stimulation or lateral exploration of world culture in interactive virtual environments. Here, globally existing tonal systems, different language and image cultures (Asian, Arabian, Indian, European, American, Australian etc.) are going to appear in immediate correspondence with the way of human movement in public places and streets. GEF are limited highly sensitive artistic- cybernetic Environments. They are able to connect individual and social (inter)action with globally existing sensual cultures of perception.

With the way they move in the respective virtual GEF environment, thousands of people embody the acoustic and visual world in their local, communal, regional, national, continental, or global dimension. They experience, play, dance, and rouse the virtual environments as vivid process.

In public places and streets, people playfully explore the tonal sounds systems of the world. Oriental, Asian, African, European, American, Indian etc instrumental »tunes« point to the temper of the peoples, to a labyrinthian cosm of the world’s inner sentiment.

An interdisciplinarily developed re-composition of tonal systems is virtually »transplanted« into the chosen real spaces. By means of computer-based camera motion tracking systems, the invisible virtual sound cultures are transformed into real sound processes by real bodily movements and encounters.

The manner in which individuals or groups move in the respective space in real-time defines the manner in which the virtual sound culture in the data-space develop into a sound process in real space.

Also planned are further accessible virtual sound environments, consisting of typical quotations in different languages. Those are designed to transform each other and to intermingle, etc., triggered by certain bodily actions in the space. The same is planned with short wave radio stations being integrated in the virtual space. The manner in which visitors are present in the space creates different densities and differently present global radio collages.

Here, the following artistic as well as technical interrelations are to be worked with:

• self-awareness as dynamicy and structure of bodily triggered and individually identifyable sound processes


• social awareness as sensually perceptible interrelation of sound processes


• world awareness as comprehensible realisation of virtual global sound cultures within local interactions


• recapitulation of the experienced processes

© Klaus Nicolai, 2002