Justin Wright
Drone Garden is a virtual reality music performance in which 25 simulated orchestral musicians are spread out evenly in a large room. This forms a sonic landscape that can be explored online by multiple people simultaneously. Providing the public a unique form of independence through immersive technology, the artist allows the audience to determine the temporal direction and the dynamic of the performance.
Throughout the creation process, Justin Wright will record himself at work, and will publish videos documenting his progress and the struggles he faces–whether technical, artistic, or personal–at the end of each week.
“In a traditional classical piece, all of the temporal direction and the dynamics are embedded in the piece itself. However, with this immersive performance, it’s the audience members who determine these parameters.” — Justin Wright
Introducing Drone Garden
Can an immersive virtual reality performance reverse the traditional roles of audience and performer?
Developed using 3D video game engines and audio spatialization plug-ins to simulate the real world acoustics of a concert hall, Drone Garden is a sonic landscape that can be explored online simultaneously by multiple people wandering freely in between musicians, without interacting.
In this time of isolation, we are missing this type of social interaction that resembles the collective experience of walking through an art gallery.
Here is an example of the initial framework of the virtual performance room.
Listen to a previously released music track
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