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WOW - Ragnar Kjartansson: The Visitors on 9-channel 8030 Genelec system

BillH

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I just wanted to share an incredible audio-video experience my family just experienced at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in Boston on Friday. We happened into the exhibit of Ragnar Kjartansson's, The Visitors. I was instantly impressed with the sound quality and looked above one of the 9 giant video screens to see a Genelec speaker. I thought my family would drag me away but none of us wanted to leave the exhibit.
The Visitors is a hour-long, 9 channel AV recording of Ragnar and his fellow musicians, each playing in their own space within a house, connected by headphones. Each video screen projects one of the performers accompanied by their audio track. As one moves throughout the exhibit the balance of the performers changes with your perspective. One interesting aspect of the room layout was that you couldn't see all the screens from a single vantage point - you had to move around.
RK-collage.jpg

Here is a nice write-up on the piece and a quote from the introduction. WP article
"It was hailed as a masterpiece the moment it appeared, back in 2012. Seven years later, the Guardian made it No. 1 on a list of the 25 best artworks of the 21st century."

I went looking for a recording of it. It appears there may have been a vinyl pressing - this is the top review from amazon:
Aden​

Reviewed in the United States on January 3, 2018
Verified Purchase​
You're probably purchasing this because you saw the installation. In which case, you already know. <3 <3 <3
If you haven't seen the installation, do yourself a favor and get yourself a plane ticket to wherever it is right now, and go see it.
I absolutely agree - if you haven't seen it - find a way to go see it.
I had no idea, but apparently I just experienced what some consider to be one of the most important works of modern art.
It was incredibly moving. I plan to take this Friday off to go back to the ICA for the day before it leaves Boston after August 15. Next stop in the Gund Gallery and Kenyon College in Ohio.
I highly recommend seeing this. BTW - the nine channel Genelec installation was awesome!
There is a brief write-up of the AV considerations here
 

escape2

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Interesting.

Video is up on YT, but sound quality is very poor.

 
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BillH

BillH

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Interesting.

Video is up on YT, but sound quality is very poor.

Yes, the YT version appears to be someone who walked around the exhibit with his camcorder. He writes that he’s happy with how the audio turned out. Not quite the same as the 9-channel HD version in person.

I was thinking a great interface to watch the work would sort of be a zoom-like interface where you had a panel view of all the screens and some mechanism to select your location within the room and have the 9 channels balanced to reflect the relative amplitudes of the audio tracks for your selected location
 
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