Beyond Vision

Visual Concert featuring the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester (Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra)

beyond vision in Stuttgart

18 musicians, 7 huge screens. beyond vision is the fusion of music and film – not just music with visual support and not just film with film music. Together both media tell an abstract story like it would not be possible for each medium alone.

The stage features two string quartets and two two string quintets of the renowned Stuttgarter Kammerorchester (Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra) grouped around the seven large monitors. Through these screens the audience sees sections of a huger, imaginary complete view.

The visual language of objects, symbols and metaphors is ambivalent and mysterious – a surreal dream world as visible description of invisible action. It leaves room for personal associations, because it is the audience who creates the actual image. It has to see differently as hitherto.

The music supports the interpretation of the seen. As 18-voiced solistic composition it clarifies the varying moods. The musicians transport ideas and experiences which are not visually presentable. They fill the voids between the screens and make the invisible audible.

beyond vision was created in cooperation with Erik Schneider, Widemusic and the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester. We worked for about two years on this project – largely due to the elaborate video contents. Almost seven hours of high-resolution video content including countless visual effects had to be produced for beyond vision. The abstract motives required “classic” special effects like exploding objects as well as extreme slow motion imagery and intense post-processing to create new compositions from the recorded images. Recording activities that span over 7 screens with only one camera was another interesting challenge.

The premiere was on December 3rd 2008 in Stuttgart, followed by a tour with concerts in Wolfsburg (phaeno), Frankfurt (Museum für Kommunikation) and Karlsruhe (ZKMZentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie).

More Information about beyond vision

» Photos of the concerts (German)

» beyond vision project website (German)

Press Commentary

“The post-production transforms the images from the bunker into a completely time- and place-less dreamscape in which the audience is assailed by floods of water, mysterios biomorph entities floating in the night-black void and more. The altogether seven monitors, conducted by a central computer, show not one single movie. Like the musicians the monitors play their own program, but concerted to create the impression that one is perceiving one monumental overall panorama.”
– Stuttgarter Zeitung, August 15th 2008, Page 9 (translation by me)

“Yesterday evening in the phaeno, impossile became possible, invisible became audible, sounds and images created visions in the heads of the audience – in a musically wonderfully wonderous way. “beyond vision” was magical.”
– Wolfsburger Nachrichten, December 9th 2008, Page 27 (translation by me)