How music will save soul of technology. Virtual Reality as Musical Instrument (1997) was an experimental audiovisual concert performance that took place in the television studio at the Wrocław branch of the TVP. It was the first in Poland presentation of on—stage use of virtual reality solutions to create musical composition. Lanier used gestural interfaces to generate and control sounds. Classical and traditional Asian acoustic intruments were used by the artist to influence instruments he created in the virtual worlds. According to Jaron Lanier art always takes over in its constant interplay with technology, even if the advancement of technological means of creation seems to have no limits. More ↓↑
„The purpose of most technology, aside from the lovely exceptions like musical instruments, used to be to protect people from nature. Now we’ve gotten so powerful that our own behaviour threatens us more than nature does. Our fears, jealousies and paranoias have been amplified by weapons of mass destruction and hyperconsumption to the point that we might destroy ourselves completely. Yet, we don’t give up the quest for more technology, because we’ve fallen in love with it. It has become our talisman. The future of technology, and the survival of our race, depends on shifting the foundation myths of technology away from the seeking of power, and towards the ultimate adventure of bridging the interpersonal gap. Music must not be seduced by technology, but must seduce technology. If there was doubt about the mission of rt in the 20th century, there can be no such doubt in the 21st. The purpose of art is to distract us away from mass suicide.”
Jaron Lanier, catalog of the 6th Media Art Biennale WRO 97
Place and date of documentation: 6th Media Art Biennale WRO 97, TVP studio, Wrocław, May 1997
