21 Jun Orchitecture
An Exploded Symphony and a Site-Specific Sound Installation By Artist Thor McIntyre-Burnie produced here in collaboration with the New London Orchestra. – Set over 5 floors of the largest surviving tidal Mill in the world. – 4 shows only on the 23/24th June 2012.
I’m delighted to announce the Orchitecture project is finally happening again. -This time on a far bigger scale, with 35 players exploded around 5 floors of an C18th Mill in East London 23rd & 24th June Only!!!
MORE IMAGES AND VIDEO EDIT COMING SOON!!
I hugely recommend making it to experience this project. Its one project I hold close to my heart and I have been chipping away at for years now. Orchitecture genuinely creates an astounding altered state experience, like no other.
It is a unique chance to walk within an orchestra and a symphony as it unfolds around you. -this isn’t a video simulation , nor some art-noise use of an orchestra, it is a live, very real and yet completely altered state scenario.
Its about taking something we know, the Orchestra, Architecture and in this instance Beethoven’s 3rd Symphony Eroica, and offering an exploded and alternate way of engaging with it -from within and through physical, social and sonic exploration.
– The last incarnation of Orchitecture’ was with just 9 players dispersed through the Pallant House Gallery – that blew people away – we now have 35 players and I know from the rehearsal last week its really cooking!.
Most of the time I create installations using speakers to transform architecture and public spaces or creating swarm like flocks of speakers – Orchitecture is with a bunch of real people with real instruments, an orchestral flock. -Believe me organising & funding this doesn’t happen so often.
Press Release info below: -Do book, because theres a strictly limited capacity to the building, due to HS. Ideally it would be open access, but HS logistics = ticketing (its a nominal price just to make sure tickets reflect realistic numbers)
To Book Tickets : http://orchitecture.eventbrite.com/?ebtv=C
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PRESS RELEASE Orchitecture Press ReleaseT
– FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ORCHITECTURE – Exploding the orchestra. House Mill 23rd 24th June 2012
London, UK Premier — Experience music as never before in this groundbreaking explosion of the orchestral concept. Orchitecture offers both an architectural sound installation and a unique orchestral concert, a site-specific installation from Artist Thor McIntyre-Burnie, produced here in collaboration with the New London Orchestra.
Orchitecture explodes the Orchestra through-out architectural space, creating a symphony to walk within. Audiences are invited to ‘explore’ a performance of Beethoven from within and amongst the orchestra, as they navigate freely through the intriguing surrounds of a Grade I listed 18th century heritage mill on Three Mills Island – in the southern peak of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
The symphony will be transformed into an act of orchestral and architectural discovery, mediated through a series of intimate encounters with musicians and their instruments, dispersed amongst 5 floors of creaking timbers and victorian machinery.
“We can draw an exploded diagram of how an engine works, but how can we do this with an orchestra and a symphony in action? – By exploding the orchestra in space & time, Orchitecture invites audiences to court the Uncertainty Principleand examine where music exists.” -Thor McB
Orchitecture, the first ever musical performance at The House Mill, is a site-specific sound installation offering just four performances on Saturday 23rd June (3pm and 5pm) and on Sunday 24th June (3:30pm and 5pm). This rendition of Thors concept Orchitecture is being commissioned via the New London Orchestra in collaboration with the Newham Youth Orchestra. Dispersed throughout the mill, the orchestra, conducted live by Ronald Corp OBE, will perform Beethoven Symphony No. 3 ‘Eroica’ connected only by AV links.
Leading up to the performances, musicians from the New London Orchestra will rehearse alongside and coach musicians of the Newham Youth Orchestra both in full orchestra rehearsals and sectional rehearsals. The project aims to achieve more than just great performances, but to create a lasting value for all involved. The students will not only learn the notes of the piece, but in the spirit of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, that an orchestra is a team and what it means to play in and be a part of that team.
The New London Orchestra has been awarded a Transformers grant, funded by The National Lottery, through the Olympic Lottery Distributor, and managed by East London Business Alliance to undertake this project with Thor McIntyre. The Transformers grant programme is directing over £1.5 million of funding to communities in five of the Olympic Host Boroughs over two years. The grants are awarded to projects that really make a difference in people’s lives, particularly by those communities most affected by their proximity to the Olympic venues. The New London Orchestra was one of thirty three organisations out of 170 applicants to receive this grant.
Other supporters of this project include the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Lord and Lady Lurgan Trust.
If you would like more information about Orchitecture please contact:
Thor (at) aswarm (dot) com
Editor’s Notes:
The New London Orchestra (NLO)
The New London Orchestra is the first-ever orchestra-in-residence at Stratford Circus, an appointment that builds on the orchestra’s history of performing and outreach in Newham. The Orchestra’s flagship outreach programme for 2011-2013, Literacy through Music, is currently taking place in primary schools in Newham, and is aimed at fostering the use of music as a teaching tool to enhance literacy, teaching and learning. The New London Orchestra has made over twenty recordings, notably on the Hyperion label.
The New London Orchestra’s Young Performers Concert Series, which provides recital opportunities for young www.honeytraveler.com/buy-topamax/ soloists has just completed its 7th year at the Foundling Museum. The New London Orchestra will celebrate its 25th birthday in 2013 under its founding Artistic Director, Ronald Corp OBE. www.nlo.co.uk
Thor McIntyre-Burnie
Thor McIntyre-Burnie is an Artist & Sound Designer renowned for his site-specific work, using sound to subtly alter our experience of architecture, public space and performance. Orchitecture is a concept he devised in 2005 and developed in collaboration with architect Ayssar Arida and the NLO. Inspired by his experience of creating multi-channel recorded sound installations for architectural spaces, fascination with swarm-like entities and witnessing the profound effect on people of having real orchestral musicians up close & personal, whilst running workshops with the NLO, Thor realised how great it would be to extend these ideas to work with real live musicians. He imagined exploding the orchestral flock in architectural space, creating a scenario, without the Newtonian distance of the stage, where people could walk right in amongst this emergent phenomenon of music, like Quantum physicists deep amongst matter, discovering a symphony governed in this scenario by a kind of Uncertainty Principle.
The physical source and context of sound is key to Thor’s work and exploring notions of swarm or flock like entities has been a long term pre-occupation of his work, including collaborations with Chris Watson & Starling murmerations (Ghost Roost recently featured on Radio4); compiling the live television audio streams of Murdoch’s Sky TV into a swarm of speakers to walk within (Swarm); and recently creating a flock of voices orating the revolution of Tahrir Square, as reported via Twitter, through 40 bare-speakers suspended in the street (Boiling Point v1).
This rendition of Orchitecture, marks the 3rd and by far largest and most ambitious incarnation of the concept, in a long term collaboration with the NLO. www.aswarm.com
The House Mill
The House Mill is a Grade I listed 18th century tidal mill standing on a medieval man-made island in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The House Mill is the largest building of its kind in the world and one of London’s few remaining links to the industrial revolution.
The House Mill lies in the Three Mills Conservation Area and occupies a site that has been harnessing the power of the tide to serve the needs of London from before the Norman Invasion, producing flour for bread in the Middle Ages, gunpowder in the year of the Spanish Armada, and alcohol during London’s infamous Gin Craze.
The House Mill is currently in the planning stages of a restoration project with the Heritage Lottery Fund to bring the House Mill to full working order for the first time since it was damaged in The Blitz. The project will see green technology installed at the House Mill so that it can again use the power of the tide to serve London through hydropower generation, in addition to functioning as a vibrant historical, cultural and educational attraction. The House Mill is owned and managed by The River Lea Tidal Mill Trust, a registered charity run by volunteers. www.housemill.org.uk
Newham Youth Orchestra
The Newham Youth Orchestra relaunched in February 2001 and has gone from strength to strength. In its first year, the orchestra won an award of £1000 towards the Sainsbury’s Youth Orchestra series of concerts which were promoted the following season. The orchestra has performed at the Barbican and at numerous other venues, as well as being part of two CD recordings and many other performances locally.
The orchestra members have taken part regularly in projects run by the Royal Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestra over the past few years. 020 7540 6923
East London Business Alliance (ELBA)
ELBA is a social regeneration charity that facilitates corporate investment from City and Canary Wharf companies into community programmes across east London. ELBA manages the Legacy 2020 programme, including a £1.5 million Transformers Community Small Grants Scheme, funded by the National Lottery through the Olympic Lottery Distributor. The Legacy 2020 programme seeks to secure a positive legacy from the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games for east London communities through projects covering skills, sports and culture.
ELBA has over 120 corporate members and hundreds of contacts on the ground in Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Newham, Greenwich and Waltham Forest. A registered charity, ELBA has over 20 years of experience in facilitating successful partnerships between business and the community. Its work includes running flagship, award-winning employee volunteering schemes that meet real community needs ranging from mentoring and board membership to traditional team challenges as well as delivering successful employment programmes in partnership with its corporate members. In the last year ELBA helped place over 700 people into work through its employment team, supported over 12,000 business volunteers, and worked with over 500 local organisations in London. 020 7068 6960
Olympic Lottery Distributor (OLD)
The Olympic Lottery Distributor is investing National Lottery money to fund the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. It will be providing up to £1.8 billion for the infrastructure of the Olympic Park and Olympic facilities across the UK. It is also providing £16.6 million to support the Cultural Olympiad and 3.42 million to fund the network of Big Screens across the UK.
In addition, the Olympic Lottery Distributor is funding three community projects managed by the East
London Business Alliance: In the Parks is a three year project aimed at increasing long term participation in sport; Represent London is a three year employability and volunteering programme for young people; and Transformers is a small grants programme supporting innovative projects which celebrate the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in five of the Olympic Host Boroughs. www.olympiclotterydistributor.org.uk