PERFORMANCE TO BLEND DIGITAL SOUND, IMAGERY AT ARTSGARDEN

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. A concert blending digital sound and imagery will fill the Circle Centre Mall Artsgarden on November 1 at 7 p.m. with an encore performance at 8 p.m.

Digital Image and Sound Collaborative Urban Showcase (DISCUS) is a free evening of collaborative electronic art, performed by 20 students and professors from Ball State University's College of Fine Arts Electronic Art and Music Engineering Technology (MET) programs.

The performance, sponsored by Ball State's Center for Media Design (CMD) and the Indianapolis Arts Council, comprises 13 compositions. The baker's dozen of digital sound and art collaborations will include the world premiere of Polis, by video artist John Fillwalk, CMD's artist-in-residence, and scored by Joseph Harchanko, MET professor.

"All of the footage for Polis was shot in Indianapolis and Chicago," Fillwalk said. "It's a response to the urban environment and will react to the setting in which it will be performed."

For Polis and the other works, three projection screens will display constantly evolving artwork designed to accompany musical compositions, which will be broadcast via multi-channel surround sound equipment.

"Bach routinely composed music specific to the community in which he was performing,"Harchanko said. "So performing a piece that was composed specifically for Indianapolis in such a popular and acoustically challenging setting excites me."

The performance in the busy downtown venue, located at the intersection of Washington and Illinois streets, will hopefully draw more people to the art form and encourage future collaborative efforts between musicians and artists, Fillwalk said.

For more information on this emerging art forms, log on to www.bsu.edu/web/DISCUS. The site features samples of artists' digital imagery and sound compositions and their contact information.

 

(Note to Editors: For more information, contact Fillwalk at (765) 285-2642 or jfillwalk@bsu.edu or Harchanko at (765) 285-2449 or harchanko@bsu.edu. For more stories, visit the Ball State University News Center at www.bsu.edu/news.)

 

Layne Cameron 10/21/03