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"Art, empathy, melting creativity with technology. Welcome to Zeebit performance."
It's digital art of the type rarely seen at Cebit -- the annual German IT fair, where
corporate computing and business software take a leading role -- but on Friday afternoon
Zee, the Zaboura Eichstaedt Experience, took to the stage with an iPhone-powered performance.
The group, formed by Nadia Zaboura and Bjorn Eichstaedt at last year's Cebit, combines
digital music techniques with passages from classic books.
Bjorn Eichstaedt, ZEE "We had something like a background choir
... and they had an app from the App Store called Bloom, it's a program developed by
Brian Eno the musician, and I had an iPhone and was playing six different apps because
the performance was in six chapters and each had a different app. And then we also made
a meta-Web site that had six YouTube channels on it."
The YouTube channels were tracks submitted by musicians and used as samples in the performance,
while the iPhone players included someone co-opted into the event earlier the same day.
It's a presentation that audience members either get, or they don't. Those who listen
to the music alone might not appreciate it but audience members who consider the entire
performance, the music, words, and images, get the most from it.
Bjorn Eichstaedt, ZEE "The whole context of it is on the one hand
we use the new technological possibilities, and on the other hand we criticise it in a
way. So what the whole project is about is to tell people to be more critical and to
be more knowledgable about things and to use a lot of technology, because it's good, but
to use it with the mind."
In the last year, the group has played across Germany and are now looking further afield,
but for that they can't rely on information technology. Delays in communication systems
make real-time Internet collaboration too difficult to accomplish.
Nadia Zaboura, ZEE "We're looking across the ocean and abroad.
Asia is a very special thing we're looking to having performances over there because
there's really interesting stuff going on there with technic but also with the arts
and creative industry, so we're really looking forward to do some performances over there."
At Cebit 2010 in Hanover this is Martyn Williams, IDG News Service