Ian Baxter
------------
Sound Artist

Installations - Playing the Weather System

This installation was part of the Birmingham Network Music Festival 2013. The network music festival hosts hi-tech musical performances, installations and workshops that present new musical forms and ideas where networking is central to the aesthetics, creation or performance practice of the work.

An iteration of my previous score and installation 'playing the weather' Playing the Weather System uses a Pure Data patch to read and interpret the BBC weather feed Chicago, Frankfurt-am-Main, Johannesburg, Leipzig, Lyon and Milan) to determine musical parameters such as pitch, scale, filtering and reverb.

The result is a gradually changing soundscape which satisfies my interest in designing musical systems that rely on a process not fully under my control as a composer. As the weather changes, so does the musical output. I become both the creator and the audience for the piece.

The multichannel installation was diffused over 8 speakers as part of the Network Music Festival's installation showcase.