oneirocriticon

oneirocriticon is a interactive score based on an early Byzantine dream interpretation book (book of Daniel).

The score itself has two modes – one in which the player scrolls through the actual book – word for word – and one in which words are randomly picked from the text and morphed with the next random word. The letters of the words are assigned to notes, based on frequency charts and the player can navigate and manipulate the speeds and sounds created by the score.

The work explores some territory of video-score explored in earlier works such as karaoke etudes and the way Laptops can be used as instrument, screens and notational tools at the same time. There are also some cryptographic elements in the way projected text is used to create semantic relationships to what we are hearing.

As well as the score having the function of communicating musical data to the musicians (and language data to the audience) – the program produces sound which adds to the musical soundscape and influences the musical decisions being made by the musicians.

The piece was developed on the Processing platform. The original version as written for MAZE and as been performed at the Angelica Festival in Bologna and the Amsterdam Orgelpark.