Output details

Hemispheric 5.1 Fixed Media Music

Hemispheric is a 5.1-format composition partially influenced by the use of super-wide angle photographic lenses, sometimes known as fisheye lenses. Continual recycling of sonic material in this piece gives rise to viewpoints that are similarly distorted and re-mapped, exploiting the expansive potential of the medium.

The piece comments on and furthers established acousmatic and electronica relationships to pulses and source material, suggested by Adkins (2007) and Herbert (2010). Hemispheric's approach to gathering source materials has integrated both an acousmatic predilection for generating novel sound and electronica’s tendency towards generating new meaning by appropriating existing sound material. The work was composed as a result of developing the conceptual tool Input, Sculpt, Output (Saario, 2004) during research funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Hemispheric was awarded an honorary mention at Prix Ars Electronica 2011 (Austria), where it was shown as part of the Digital Musics exhibition, with downmixed excerpts available online. The composition was also awarded Second Prize at Computer Space 2011 (Bulgaria). It has been performed in Austria, Bulgaria, Chile, the UK, and the USA. Hemispheric was published in the Cyberarts 2011 DVD and book, an annual indicator of digital creativity, in which the review panel were “impressed with the clarity and consistency of the organization with which Reeder guarantees context, on the one hand, and drives the development of the work forward, on the other”, noting “An aesthetic quality can also be detected in this composition that goes beyond context” (2011 :72).