ISM Hexadome

Institute for Sound & Music (ISM)

Nomination

The ISM Hexadome is a platform for installation and live performance, featuring a 52-channel immersive sound system, assembled on a 15.5-meter wide, 7.9-meter high hexagonal structure, holding 6 projection screens. This system enabled artistic collaborations between both sound and visual artists to create immersive audio-visual installations and also perform live. Live performances held approximately 200 people while installations were presented on rotation over the course of the day, where the public could come and go as they please. The ISM Hexadome had the honor of being hosted at the Gropius Bau in Berlin. Over four weekends, the selection of live performances and installations were presented by nine audio-visual artist collaborations from Peru, the Netherlands, Belgium, Armenia, England, Australia, Germany, Canada, and the USA. These works represented a diverse range of concepts and disciplines, from 3D universes, artificial neural networks, ancient iconography, matrixes of oscillators, collages of voices and hymns, electron microscopes, and at one point, a cast of live actors leading crowd participation–to name just a few.

Credits

Institute for Sound & Music (ISM), Pfadfinderei, ZKM, IRCAM, System 180. Gropius Bau and the Berliner Festspiele, and Norient – Network for Local and Global Sounds and Media Culture.

ISM Admin Team and further volunteers include: Nick Meehan, Marie Kristin-Meier, Brendan Power, Ben Fawkes, Martyn Roberts, Mea Liedel, Joanna Petkiewicz, Clemens Miegel, Sarah Miller

Sound engineers: Holger Stenschke, Benjamin Miller, Ecki Güther, Mirna Stanić
With special thanks to Ludger Brümmer, Götz Dipper and the rest of the ZKM team

Video engineers and Project design: Tobias Götz, Jan Honza Taffelt
With thanks to Frederick Roeser, Marco Ciceri, Anne Sebald and the rest of the Pfadfinderei team

Norient–helping with curation of 2 collaborations: Theresa Bayer, Thomas Burkhalter, Hannes Liechti, Sandra Passaro

System 180: Christoph Blanc, Alexander Prickel

Artists that created work for the ISM Hexadome include: Tarik Barri with Thom Yorke, Holly Herndon and Mathew Dryhurst, Ben Frost with MFO, Peter van Hoesen and Heleen Blanken, Frank Bretschneider and Pierce Warnecke, CAO and Michael Tan, Lara Sarkissian and Jemma Woolmore, René Löwe with Pfadfinderei, Brian Eno with Peter Chilvers

With special thanks to Thomas Oberender, Artistic Director of the Berliner Festspiele, Stephanie Rosenthal, Director of Gropius Bau. And a special thanks to all the board members of the Institute for Sound & Music.

The Institute for Sound and Music e.V. (ISM) is a Berlin-based non-profit organization dedicated to the culture of Sound, Immersive Art, and Electronic Music. Presently, the ISM is raising support and awareness for its ultimate goal to establish a new and permanent home for a cutting-edge museum experience in Berlin, through a series of three global touring exhibitions. The core team is a community of dedicated individuals, living in Berlin, working in the field of sound, art and technology, who share this common goal for creating a permanent space.