articles / Pop Culture

The London Symphony Brings New-Fangled Tech to the Concert Hall

Photo by The Partners/Tobias Gremmler

Remember this sequence from Walt Disney’s Fantasia? (I know, the narration wasn’t originally in Spanish – but that’s not the point!)

MPR’s Jay Gabler said that “Disney’s goal in the Bach animation was to illustrate the audience’s thoughts as they might flow during a performance of the piece: from abstracted images of bows and other orchestral motifs into flights of pure fantasy.” Well, now visual artist Tobias Gremmler has used motion capture technology to bring this sequence to life, with Sir Simon Rattle leading the London Symphony, and it is beautiful and eerie at the same time.

Dianne Nicolini has suggested that it may add a new dimension to a concert if it were projected on a screen above the orchestra – what do you think? Engaging or distracting?

Written by:
Rik Malone
Rik Malone
Published on 03.22.2017