MODELL 5 is a performance or installation in which the face of Japanese performer Akemi Takeya is subject to drastic time-based interventions that create in essence a cyborg-like hybrid, between human and machine. A roller coaster dramaturgy following the “life” of the four clones on screens.
MODELL 5, premiered in a first version in 1994 at the ICC London, has been described as one of the most beautiful experiments in bringing digital video to a theatrical setting. Using a technique derived from the principals of the sound design technique called “granular synthesis” but applied to the rather fat grains of single video frames (visual content and sound), Granular Synthesis manages to evoke from a few expressions on the face of the performer Akemi Takeya, a frenzied exploration of the alter ego within touching distance.
Project Credits:
- Collection of Wiyu Wahono
Biography:
Granular Synthesis was co-founded in 1991 in Vienna by Kurt Hentschlaeger and German artist Ulf Langheinrich. The name of the duo refers to the technique of granular synthesis, which Hentschlager and Langheinrich applied to both sound and image. Their multimedia installations and performances included Modell 5 (1994), Areal (1997), Noisegate (1998) and Pol (1998). They toured worldwide, and several compilations of their works were released on DVD. They won the International Biennial competition in Nagoya, Japan, in 1995, as well as stipends in Austria and the United States.
