Future Perfect

Future Perfect is a large scale media opera, commissioned by Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music (IRCAM), Pompidou Centre, Paris and Zentrum für Kunst und Medien (ZKM), Karlsruhe, Germany.

The performance work features a 360 degree spatial audio (ambisonic) score, a VR film and an innovative system to allow layers of the performance to occur across the audience's smartphones.

Please see supporting media below: a documentary about the innovative technologies and compositional framework produced by ZKM, and a 2D video playback of the work including the spatial audio content.

Listed as the "Hottest thing to do on a cold weekend" in the state press in Karlsruhe, Germany, Future Perfect was a highlight of the »inSonic 2018: Algorithmic Spaces« festival at ZKM.

As a guest artist at IRCAM (Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music) in Paris and at ZKM in 2018, Paine developed an immersive 3D video performance for High Order Ambisonics and Virtual Reality, with layers of the musical score performed in real time across the audience's smartphones.

This short documentary was produced by the ZKM | Videostudio and outlines the conceptual framework for the work and the technological developments. The smartphone performance technology was developed with members of the Sound, Movement and Interaction team and Acoustic and Cognitive Spaces team at IRCAM, Paris. Paine performs the smartphone layers live on the audience's smartphones (spatialization, granulation and synchronous sample playback) — these layers add texture and spatial qualities to the experience of the live performance and transform the audience into part of the ecosystem of the work.

Future Perfect — 2D Stereo Render

The video below is a 2D rendering of the Future Perfect VR film and a stereo mix-down of a 6th order ambisonic score (for 49 loudspeakers in a dome). This render does not include the smartphone audio layers performed live across the audience's smartphones — there are things you would hear over the 49 loudspeaker dome that are squeezed into a single sound field here, but it gives a good idea of the score. Some areas of this film are silent for what may feel too long, due to the missing smartphone layers — in performance, these are the smartphone/audience solo sections.

The 3D film was produced using 360° VR footage shot in Paris and animations of photographs of plants found in urban parks in Paris and Karlsruhe. The opening VR footage was shot near the Pont Marie, Paris in February 2018 while in residence at Cité des Arts International.

ZKM Kubus

The image below is of the ZKM Kubus as the audience arrived for a preview performance.