METAFIVE
Since 2008, Heimbecker has written nearly 2000 cards comprised of word plays, puns and neologisms pertaining to daily events and the changing paradigms of artistic life. METAFIVE (2015) following the concert performance RIPALIPER earlier this year for Spoken Screen, proposes to remix the most recent of these statements into a ongoing audio visual thought poem, activated by viewers as they pass by the Agence Topo window showcase.
METAFIVE is an installation where hundreds of hand-written cards are presented together asynchronously on five 15 inch LCD video screens. The letters of the invented phrases are transcribed into soundtracks by software that creates a matching musical score from the individual words and phases. Using sound samples from piano, cello and contrabass a richly haunting melody is produced. Mixed for the environment in situ, Heimbecker’s METAFIVE creates a continuous stream of free associations and new meanings from his words, images and sounds.
Agence TOPO has provided support to create this project by Steve Heimbecker with the collaboration of MaxMSP programmer Etienne Grenier.
Biography
Steve Heimbecker is an audiovisual artist and composer of multi- channel installation and immersive sound. His first 8-channel audio composition was presented in Calgary, AB. in 1992. He has created audio-visual installations and sound designs for up to 64 discrete channels of information and sound. Heimbecker’s work is included in such public collections as the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec and the Alberta Art Foundation. His work has won professional Arts Award Grants in Canada, Québec, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Internationally, he has won 2 Honorary Mentions from Prix Ars Electronica, Linz, AT: Interactive Art (2005) and Digital Musics (2009), and the Prix du Jury – Auro 3D 9.1 – Mixage FOu 2013, Paris, FR. In 2015, Heimbecker completed his epic audio-video / poetic-neologism installation NOTES at betaLAB – Sprorobole, QC. NOTES is a LCD screen installation designed for 56 channels of audio and over 1600 text-based images. In 2014/15, Heimbecker was awarded a Canada Council New Media Residency at the École des médias – Faculté de communication, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) to research and create new techniques for multi-channel sound immersion. The 2015 Hexagram UQAM concert series, SONIC JELLO: 64-channel immersion for the body, belly and brain, is a result of this residency. With an art career spanning nearly 3 decades Heimbecker’s installations, performances, and compositions have been presented across Canada, Europe, New York City, and Peru. He lives and works in Sherbrooke, or in situ during various artist residencies or commissions.
