Post-Electric - VISUAL

VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art &
The George Bernard Shaw Theatre

Post-Electric

BeatVox

03 Jun - 01 Jul 2015 |

BeatVox was created by Yuri Suzuki.

Renowned for his projects questioning the materiality of sound, Royal College of Art alumni Yuri Suzuki has his own way of looking at augmented reality. He has created an installation which enables anyone to control a set of drums with their own voice, harnessing the principles of augmented reality to interpret them in the realm of sound.

Users express a sound into a microphone. A few meters ahead, the sound impulsions trigger a beat on an actual drum kit, with robotic drumsticks attached to each drum. The installation starts with a physical action turning into an augmentation – which is also physical. Tested in public at the DMY Berlin Festival, this is primarily a source of reflection on the very nature of Augmented Reality, usually restricted to the field of vision.

Beatvox was commissioned by EPFL+ECAL Lab Switzerland, for the ground-breaking ‘Give Me More’ exhibition, exploring the link between the physical and digital worlds via augmented reality-based immersive installations. The exhibition was awarded the DMY International Design Festival Berlin Prize 2010, and previous incarnations have travelled to London, Milan, Paris, San Francisco and New York.