“New images of the Middle East/ images of the New Middle East” is a commission by international artist and composer Guy Manoukian for a concert in Beiteddine, Lebanon. The concert took place on August 8th, 2009 at the palace with over 4000 attendees and an orchestra of over 85 musicians including the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra.
Beiteddine Festival is one of the oldest and finest festivals in the Middle East and is held in a 200-year-old palace in Beiteddine, built by emir Bashir Shihab in a little town 45 kilometers south-east of Beirut. Over the years the beiteddine festival has hosted international artists such as Liza Minelli, Elton John, Charles Aznavour and others.
The project is to create visuals, edited footage, and algorithmic animations to respond to the music of Guy Manoukian. His music represents fusion of eastern and western instruments, traditional and electronic, seeking to modernize sounds of the Middle East.
The project is done in collaboration with Daniel Hai, and Cem Adiyaman. Thanks Meiver De La Cruz.
A reinterpretation of a traditional chandelier in which the crystals and lights form the underlying rigid structure for transient, flowing arms. The disappearing and reappearing body of the chandelier is defined by a fabric contour which weaves through a channel of suspended hoops. The system is actuated by a single driving motor unwinding a spool of custom ribbon. The speed of the motor is calibrated to match the prescribed pattern of the ribbon and define the timing of the piece. The effect is an ethereal lighting fixture which continuously draws and erases itself, in essence, a 4D chandelier.
Ayah Bdeir and Jessica Banks
Chandelier in 4, 2008
Custom electronics, lights, crystals, ribbon, wire, perspex
A bird’s eye view of a little over 3 years of violence, strife, and very bright lights rocking Lebanon, remembered and replayed in 45 minutes of proportionally timed light display.
22 x 30 inches
Electronics on Canvas
produced June 2008
An interactive visualization for a live concert and fundraiser in Vienna on April 21. The visualization will track and display in real-time the the SMS donations of audience members. By: Jessica Banks, Ayah Bdeir, Friedrich Kirschner, Zach Lieberman, and Addie Wagenknecht, with the Ars Electonica Futurelab
kiNET is a deformable, animated surface that uses flexor patterns, microcontroller circuits and solenoids to create movement in otherwise rigid surfaces.
An interactive installation that attempts to turn the relationship we have with spam around. A microcontroller-based Webserver retrieves spam sent over the Internet in real- time, and remotely feeds a continuous shuffled stream of it to public displays. Spam is no longer meaningless, time-consuming junk, but rather a diagnosis of cultural values and an alternate representation of societies.
