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CAT Media Department: Press Release
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“The Fragmented Orchestra” Launches at CAT
A national musical art installation modelled on the human mind entrances visitors at CAT |
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Date: 09/12/2008 |
 From 16:00, Friday 12 December 2008 to 17:00, Sunday 22 February 2009, The Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) will be participating in ‘The Fragmented Orchestra’, winners of the PRS Foundation for New Music Awards 2008.
CAT has been chosen as one of 24 UK sites where The Fragmented Orchestra will mirror the function of the human brain and the way it processes sound to produce an ever-changing new instrument and composition. The project will be launched on 12th December 2008 as part of Liverpool’s European Capital of Culture programme running until 22nd February 2009.
Here’s how it works: A sound box modelled on the neurons found in the human brain will be installed at each site and attached to a pre-existing resonant surface. At CAT it will be located on the visitor display circuit opposite the gift shop. Each of the neurons will be connected to each other via the internet to form a tiny cortex and will ‘fire’ signals back and forth when stimulated by sound. When this happens fragments of sound from each location will be streamed to the central venue at FACT in Liverpool (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) where each neuron unit is represented by its own loudspeaker.
The sounds of The Fragmented Orchestra will vary according to location; wind through a forest, heavy traffic, the rotating of wind turbines and chatter of birds will be combined with incidental and performed sounds from members of the public. The public, invited to play the instrument at the 24 sites, will be able to hear the effect their playing has on the overall composition of the piece at each site, at FACT in Liverpool and on the website. As members of the public use the instrument they will become both player and audience of a vast and evolving musical composition extended across the UK.
Some of the other sites chosen across the UK and Ireland include Everton Football Club, The Roundhouse, London, The National Portrait Gallery, Gloucester Cathedral and the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.
The Installation can be heard at the CAT visitor centre until 22nd February 2009. Throughout the winter we are open 7 days a week from 10am till dusk. We are closed over Xmas 23rd-28th December and from 5th-11th January.
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Copyright © 1995-2010 Centre for Alternative Technology Charity Limited, a company limited by guarantee
Charity no. 265239; Company no. 1090006, registered in Wales; registered office: Llwyngwern, Machynlleth, Powys, SY20 9AZ; VAT number: 377 8917 83
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