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The fragmented orchestra

26 August 2009

Visual representation of the fragmented orchestra with people and sound systems

The fragmented orchestra
Image by Sound UK

What do neuroscience, Everton FC, haiku, the wind over Kielder Forest, Brighton Pier and the song of migrating birds have in common? The answer is that they are all part of The Fragmented Orchestra, an extraordinary piece of sound art that links twenty-four diverse places across the UK in a giant musical brain. The piece was conceived by  artist Jane Grant,  physicist and musician John Matthias and  composer Nick Ryan, and involved scores of people at the twenty-four sites.

Two Bristol neuroscientists, Professors Tom Troscianko and Iain Gilchrist, took part in the piece, talking to passers-by outside the Watershed on Bristol’s Harbourside, as part of a day of music, performance and talks in February 2009. They joined the poet Ralph Hoyte and the neuroarthistorian John Onians, as well as members of the public, in a day of spoken word and sound events.

Colour is often a strong cue to the existence of an interesting event.

Professor Tom Troscianko
Microphones picked up sound from all twenty-four sites and transmitted them over the internet to ‘fire’ other sites, mimicking the way that neurons communicate with each other and creating a vast musical instrument that mirrors the human brain’s neural network.

For Tom Troscianko, getting involved in the piece was an opportunity to explore how the brain works. To an audience of ‘random Bristolians’, he gave an outdoor talk about colour and how it provides us with information about the world around us. “Colour is often a strong cue to the existence of an interesting event,” Tom explains. “Our eyes dart around far more than we think, and colour gives us cues about where to look.” Tom never heard the mixed artwork that arose, and for him this was “a little like the story I was trying to tell: you have to select things to look at rather than go with the whole scene in all its infinite complexity.”

 

Please contact The Public Engagement Officer for further information.

Further information:

Information about The Fragmented Orchestra is available on its website. To find out more about neuroscience in Bristol, visit Bristol Neuroscience. Tom and Iain are both members of the Bristol Vision Institute, which conducts interdisciplinary research into vision.