Time Space Texture - TSTEX

Heisenberg is a synthesised, abstract and spatial audio-visual artwork intended for performance using a 16:9 aspect ratio display and a 5.1 speaker array. Heisenberg is the result of a disparate set of creative concerns drawn from various sonic, visual and literary art traditions. Cinematic historians will recognise its grounding in the abstract animation tradition of early 20th century Europe and 1960's America. A scholarly listener will recognise elements drawn from the electro-acoustic and computer music movements. Readers of Celtic folklore and the world's great mystical traditions will sense elements suggesting the journeys of initiation taken by heroes in mythology. Science fiction art aficionados will recognise the surrealist physical elements common to that tradition. Ultimately Heisenberg might be considered a digitally landscaped garden of unearthly delights.

Heisenberg extends and refines techniques developed during the production of Loucid and Schwarzchild but differs in the use of the Houdini 3D animation software to complete much of the audio composition. Heisenberg also made use of a unique 3D sound spatialisation system designed especially for the Houdini 3D software. This system employs VR type sound spatialisation techniques to render 3D audio specific to any given animation for performance using a Dolby Digital (5.1 channel) specification speaker array.

Heisenberg is named after the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle - a curiosity of quantum mechanics which flies in the face of classical physics. In a nutshell it states that it is impossible to know both the exact velocity and position of an electron at any point in time within certain margins of error. This is because the act of observation itself disturbs the system. "Would the tree have fallen over in the forest if we had not seen it?!" Philosophically, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle denies any possibility for the scientific realisation of a deterministic universe. Prediction can only rely on statistical probability.

A very low resolution, stereo downmixed, 73meg mpeg version of Heisenberg as it exists can be downloaded by right clicking the image at the top of this page. While the version of Heisenberg here is mostly complete, the final version will differ slightly in design. The final version of Heisenberg will be mastered to DVD along with Loucid, and Schwarzchild, and some other works and be made available for purchase on DVD during mid 2002. Information regarding availability will be posted here at such a time. For more information about the processes involved in creating Heisenberg refer to the paper Abstractly Related and Spatially Simultaneous Auditory-Visual Objects

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Heisenberg Still Frames

Click on the icons below to see some full resolution still frames from Heisenberg.