C Symphony (carbon, collagen, conductibility)

Multimedia interactive installation (wood & 3D printed structure, charcoal briquettes, stainless steel keys, audio & light responsive system)

The C Symphony installation emphasizes the importance of carbon under its many aspects – in the context of the Big Bang nucleosynthesis, in the formation of the universe (carbon being the fourth most abundant molecule in the Universe) and in the appearance of life on Earth where, together with oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen, it forms a basis of plant tissues – cellulose, but also animals – collagen, which creates a real infrastructure for the transmission of information from external stimuli to the perceptive system, the nervous system and the neural processing system. So that, mediated by the specific electrotonic conductivity of collagen, the viewer becomes part of a sound installation, tactilely articulating his own symphony (hence the allusion to the coincidence between the abbreviation C for carbon, but also the note DO) which can consist of short musical accents , but also collectively by blocking the sound channel with the help of charcoal briquettes. In turn, the sound activates the illumination of the central axis, designed in the form of a triple helix specific to the collagen structure. The installation thus becomes an instrument of perception at subtle dimensions – micro, but also macro – on a large, even cosmic scale. It is not by chance that carbon is used as a dating tool over long periods of time.

C SYMPHONY DIGITAL

The word symphony comes from a Greek word, symphonia, which means “agreement or concord of sound.” In Ancient Greece the word had multiple connotations, including the idea of consonance, or an agreement of sounds. In the 500s Archbishop Isidore of Seville used the word symphonia to refer to a two-headed drum. In the 1100-1300s a symphonie was the common name of an instrument we call the hurdy-gurdy, a string instrument which uses a crank to turn a wheel which rubs against the strings and sounds similar to a violin. In Medieval England, the term symphony could mean either a hurdy-gurdy or a dulcimer, which is a fretted string instrument whose strings are plucked to make a sound. In Germany symphonie referred to spinets and virginals, small versions of the harpsichord. Composers began utilizing the term symphony in the titles of their works in the late 1500s. Giovanni Gabrieli (1557-1612) completed Sacrai symphoniae (Sacred Symphony) in 1597 and Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672), a student of Gabrieli, wrote Symphoniae sacrae in 1629. These early symphonies were actually choral works, rather than instrumental, although some did feature instrumental accompaniment.

Throughout the Baroque period, composers often did not specify which instruments would play which part. This allowed more groups to play the works, since any combination of instrumentalists could get together to perform the piece. The bass line of the symphony or sinfonia was usually written for a basso continuo, a group of instruments which provided the chords and the underlying harmonic structure of the work. The basso continuo could be performed by simply a cello and a harpsichord or could feature a larger group of instrumentalists including lutes, bass viol, or serpents, an ancestor of the tuba.

In the 18th century the symphony became the most common and important genre of music. Symphonies were performed in concerts and as part of church services. Many aristocratic families, especially in and around Milan, Mannheim, and Vienna, employed their own orchestral musicians who could play newly composed symphonies. Franz Joseph Haydn became music director for the Morzin family in 1757. Haydn wrote his first few symphonies to be performed by the family’s orchestra.