Music enters a new frontier at Te Papa

Some exciting compositional innovation has been required to match the technological wizardry of Te Papa’s new $6 million ‘Our Space’ project. Thanks to a team of seven composers and sound designers, when visitors ‘ooh’, ‘aah’, play and doodle on the 18m interactive multimedia Wall, the centrepiece of the Our Space adventure, they will be accompanied by a ‘user-generated’ composed Soundscape, every bit as interactive and unique as their own experience.    

Composers Dugal McKinnon, David Downes and John Psathas use 'wands' to manipulate their images on The Wall at Te Papa : and generate a unique aural accompaniment at the same time.

John Psathas coordinated a team of seven composers/sound designers who have created 13 musical compositions between them: John Psathas (x3); David Downes (x2); Dugal McKinnon (x2); Tim Prebble (x2); Sean Donnelly (SJD) (x1); James Duncan (x1) and Steve Garden (x2). John comments: “We wanted to ensure that the music which accompanies The Wall would respond to the number of visitors using it and to the level of their activity – the ebb, flow and intensity of what they were doing - while ensuring that the aural result had musical integrity. We wanted something much more than the usual ambient drone.”

“The compositional template David and I invented involves a multi-layered Musical Composition which can loop infinitely,” John explains. “There are 13 simultaneous levels or States in the composition. It is easiest to think of all these States going on at the same time, but only one of these is audible. A Trigger Track defines points in the work where it can musically shift to another State, up or down in intensity. The newly audible State might be a modulation in harmonic centre, a rhythmic change, a dynamic or density change – whatever the composer has defined. Which State of the composition is audible at any given time will depend on the number of wands being used and the way in which they are being used.”

If you consider the possible permutations of 13 States over 60 or more Trigger Points for 13 musical compositions, the music actually being heard on any given occasion is likely to represent a unique user-generated musical experience for each visitor.

“These 13 compositions represent a huge variety of styles and approaches,” David said. “Some are electroacoustic or synthesised, many involving sampled live performance on acoustic instruments, others involving a more natural ambient soundscape. One of mine, for example features all sorts of bell sounds in which the States reflect differences in texture.”

Dugal McKinnon adds: “My own are more focused around suspended harmonic patterns within cyclic interlocking rhythms. I think the key to what we were trying to achieve is in the old Brian Eno maxim: the music has to be as interesting as it is ignorable.”

“The underlying idea was that the music should be embedded in the experience,” John agreed. “It should have a subliminal impact and the visitors may not even realise that the music is changing up and down with their use of the wand."

In addition to the compositions for The Wall, David and John are jointly responsible for the eclectic sound track that accompanies people in The High Ride as they lurch, glide, bump, soar and plunge through some iconic Kiwi activities and scenarios, and John is responsible for The Deep soundtrack, an virtual underwater ride.

John was particularly complimentary about the vision and talent of David Crossan from the Gibson Group, the organisation contracted to design the multimedia experience of Our Space. "Early in the process, David insisted on involving professional composers in the definition, development and creation of the aural elements that would be required - and then he also developed the new software required to actually play the compositions. This is something quite new - to my knowledge there is nothing else like it in the world.”