UNCANNY VALLEY and UNSW’s Interactive Media Lab launch ‘Music of the Sails’ for Sydney Opera House’s 50th Anniversary
An ambitious digital artwork created for the Opera House’s 50th anniversary will reimagine the sounds of the world-famous building in a unique audio-visual soundscape running for 744 hours across the entire month of October.
Music of the Sails is a creative collaboration between the Opera House, the University of New South Wales’ Interactive Media Lab and music technologists Uncanny Valley. It is a captivating fusion of architecture and generative music techniques with cutting-edge uses of generative and artificial intelligence methods to reveal the Opera House as a living and dynamic work of art in action.
Music of the Sails is a real-time audio-visual piece made from data, artificial intelligence technology and field recordings, including the sounds of the Concert Hall’s grand organ, that augments the sonic secrets of the building in a way audiences haven’t heard before. Audiences will be able to access the work online via the Stream platform 24/7 across October and for three special nights from 6 – 8 October, Music of the Sails will also be available to experience in person, for free, in an intimate purpose-built venue seldom seen by the public located in the Western Foyer. Members from the project team involved in creating the work will be on hand to answer questions about the project and the future possibilities of digital performance art.
Says Stuart Buchanan, head of screen, Sydney Opera House: “It’s fitting that as we celebrate our 50th year, we dream about the future; and contemplate the ways in which emerging technologies are likely to upend everything we know about creativity and performance. There’s no better way to illustrate that than to flip the relationship between the House and the art. What if the House itself could stand in the spotlight on stage? What would it sound like? What would it sing to us? Thanks to a team of genius artists and creative producers, we’re about to find out..”
Says Dr Oliver Bown, UNSW (pictured above): “As a team, excited by the potential applications of generative music systems, we especially loved how Stuart Buchanan from the Opera House approached us with the brief: to reflect on the nature of performance, and specifically the idea of the building itself as the performer. In the kind of generative music we’re doing, the music is unfolding but nobody is performing it, and a longstanding idea has been this one of non-human organisms or systems or ecosystems as the performers, which we can render as music through technology. The result is something really rich and multifaceted.”
Says Justin Shave, head composer, sonic technologist and co-founder at Uncanny Valley: “As the musical director of ‘Music of the Sails’, I’ve embarked on a unique meta-composition journey, melding music theory, sound synthesis, and dynamic systems integration to help create this landmark endeavor. I feel the Opera House and I share a unique bond, having both made our debut in the same week in 1973. As such, it’s more than just a building to me; it’s a profound personal resonance, and bringing its sonic essence to life has been an unparalleled honor. Enjoy!”
Event details:
What: Music of the Sails
When: 1-31 October on Stream | 6:30 pm 6-8 October at the Sydney Opera House Tours Immersive Digital Experience room located in the Western Foyer.
Where: Sydney Opera House and online via Stream
Price: Free
(Justin Shave and Charlton Hill, co-founders, Uncanny Valley)