The term granular synthesis comes from the world of audiosynthesis, where a series of very short audiosamples (grains) are sequenced to produce a granulated sound synthesis. Sounds and/or images can be broken down into tiny snippets and then recombined to make new sounds or images. These new sounds and/or images then seem to be continuums, however because of their fragmented character they are in actual fact discontinuums. GranularhSynthesis is the name Kurt Hentschläger and Ulf Langheinrich have been using since 1991 for their collaborative works and is descriptive of the primary technique they employ in their work together. The red thread running through GranularhSynthesis is the disintegration of the illusion of 'real life' found in video recordings of humans ('America's Funniest Home Videos', for instance). Hentschläger and Langheinrich specialise in transforming the gestures and noises of human bodies. They use mainly human heads isolated from their bodies by video techniques. The creatures created exhibit unmistakable human behaviour but at the same time confront the viewer with an unreal image. GranularhSynthesis turns people into machines and machines into people. The main difference between humans and machines is emotion: showing emotional states such as joy, grief, anger and love. Artificial intelligence is quite advanced, but machines do not yet show emotion. The granular life evoked by 'NoiseGate-M6' shows traces of emotion. 'Noise-Gate-M6' is not a stand-alone, but a logical step in development. On 29 and 30 May 1997 a work by GranularhSynthesis was shown at Vrieshuis Amerika under the auspices of Muziekcentrum De IJsbreker in Amsterdam. Only 122 visitors were witness to an awesome show in which the manipulated head of 'modell' Akemi Takeya played an overpowering role. In 'Modell 5' (subtitled Motion Control) the movement of the head was slowed down to the extreme, and by using subwoofers (loudspeakers that reproduce extremely low tones) each minuscule movement could literally be felt. It all begins in 1991 with 'Pyrania', a video installation based on a manipulated loop from the underwater movie *'Pyranha'* (1978). But in 1992-93 with 'Modell 3' and 'Modell 4' the first step is made on the way to the transformation of human and machine. Both video installations featured Michael Krammer's head and face. Between 1994-96 GranularhSynthesis worked on 'Modell 5' (subtitled Motion Control), 'Modell X' (subtitled Sweetheart) and 'WWGN' (We Want God Now). In 'WWGN' it is not a head which is featured but the torso of dancer Michael Ashcroft. While GranularhSynthesis is touring through Europe with 'NoiseGate-M6' the next production is already under way: 'Pole-M7'. 'NoiseGate-M6' is a stand-alone audiovisual installation with image and sound playing an equal role; an audiovisual space subject to continual change. Although image and sound are at first inextricably bound, both can be wholly changed independently. The space is dominated by six large screens with Kramer's disembodied head projected onto each of them. When the installation is activated each of Kramer's six heads starts to lead its own life and 'outside interference' is kept to an absolute minimum. The visitors leave the 'real world' and enter the virtual world by means of a sophisticated acoustic sluice. In 'Die Presse' of 20 January 1998 Johanna Hofletner wrote the following with reference to the premiere in Vienna: “With 'NoiseGate-M6' GranularhSynthesis draws a brutal portrait of the posthuman period, wholly in line with the approaching millennium. Here the visitor is carried to the borders of the acceptable and for 20 minutes is immersed in a whirlpool of emotions.” “Seldom has an installation on the eve of the millennium shown such an oppressive view of the alienation of man”, says Claudia Treibler in 'Münchner Merkur' (19 February 1998). Robin Rimbaud in 'The Wire' (August 1998), referring to the English premiere during Time Based Arts in Hull writes: “'NoiseGate-M6' is a must for anyone who is interested in digital media, biotechnology or sound manipulation.” 'NoiseGate-M6', with the disembodied head of Michael Krammer, goes further than 'Modell 5' in a number of ways. Not only does 'NoiseGate-M6' incorporate a diversity of emotions, the installation also reacts to the visitors: there is interaction between man/machine and machine/man. In the accompanying explanation Tom Sherman wrote on this form of interaction as follows: “Motion detectors turn partial control over to the audience, although this interactivity is not immediately rewarded with obvious responses by one or all of the virtual Krammers or the system as a whole. To carry the analogy of the zoo into the realm of audience and subject interaction, the audience always has an effect on the caged creatures, but knocking on the glass of an animal's enclosure rarely results in a creature's direct response.” And that makes 'NoiseGate-M6' so exceptional: the visitor imagines him/herself in a cyberzoo facing a virtual mirror and gradually becomes alienated from his/her own emotions. 'NoiseGate-M6' is a promise for the future: art with a capital A and emotion with a capital E.
– Evert de Cock
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Camera, Light: Wolfgang Lehner, Opnameconstructie 'Kopfbox': Leo Schatzl, Technician: Dirk Langheinrich, Garnet Willis, Hermann Gruber, Stefan Hainzer, Werner Frey,
Assistant producer: Cai Mosich, With: Michael Krammer, European co-production: MAK, Österreichisches Museum für angewandte Kunst,
Wenen; Bayerische Staatsschauspiel/Marstall Múnchen; La maison des Arts,
Créteil/Le Manège Scène National, Maubeuge; Hull Time Based Arts, Hull; Muziekcentrum De IJsbreker, Amsterdam; Kunstverein, Hannover & GranularhSynthesis, Wenen. in cooperation with World Wide Video Festival.
Kurt Hentschläger ° 1960, Linz (Oostenrijk)
Ulf Langheinrich ° 1960, Wolfen (Brd)
Live and work in Wenen (Oostenrijk)
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