Here…NOW: A public performance of the MIT Media Lab through acoustic-expressive electronics
part of Moving Music, an Artfinity event
About
Here…NOW by Ana Schon invited audiences to voyage through the Media Lab building, exploring the relationship between space and sound. A live ensemble of amplified instruments (drums, electric guitars, bass, vocals) was coupled with a specially designed tech system that adapted the performance to each different room, drawing audience attention to the special qualities of each place and the deep connection between everyone present.
Watch the full performance:
The Band:
Anna Gurl: electric bass, electronics control
Cordell Layton: electric guitar
Mati Moar: drums
Ana Schon: electric guitar, system design, vocals.
equipment provided by MITAV and Studcom.
The Crew:
Ciara Atkins: sound engineer
Lancelot Blanchard, Antonis Christou, Louie Hamel, Nina Masuelli, Perry Naseck: stagehands/assistant engineers
Jimmy Day: video documentation
Danny Goldfield: photography
The spaces:
The Lobby
The first space, with its tallest point four stories high, and a long and relatively narrow footprint. Its geometry, combined with its tiled floors and 2 glass elevators close to the center, make the lobby highly reverberant. This was also the check-in location and waiting area for the audience before the start of the show.
Room 341
a medium-sized classroom and conference room on the third floor, with ceilings about 10 feet tall, carpeted flooring, and acoustic treatment on 1 wall. This room was the least reverberant of the 3.
The Multi-Purpose Room
a roughly 60 ft x 60 ft flex space with double height ceilings, and one wall covered in full-height windows. Despite its size, this room is not highly reverberant, but early reflections appear later than in the other rooms.
