Past Experiments
The Innovation Studio is all about experimentation (a.k.a. testing out as many ideas as possible, as quickly as possible, in order to learn and iterate on those ideas)! Over the years, we've done lots of experiments . Here are just a few highlights:
Audience Interaction
A typical orchestral music performance asks audience members to sit quietly and listen to the music presentation. This can leave audience members feeling disengaged or confused without a context to ground the music in. We wanted to know what might happen if we added elements of narrative and audience choice to the experience.
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This performance was designed to tell an interactive story. ​The performance consisted of seven short pieces, each of which evoked different moods. Audience members were asked to select a card which indicated which potion the "dungeon master" would give the musicians. As they drank the potion, the color of the lights changed and the musicians played the piece that's mood corresponded with that color.
Movement
When you think of an orchestral performance, you might picture musicians in concert attire sitting on a stage. This static, formal set up can create a physical and metaphorical divide between the musicians and audiences. What might happen if the musicians were instead wearing costumes that helped tell a story and were able to move around?
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This performance was designed to feel like an outdoor concert. The musicians memorized 2 of the 3 little pieces, so that they would be able to walk around as they played and break physical the barrier between themselves and the audience.
Space
The traditional concert hall consists of a stage with rows of audience seating facing it. This configuration forces performances to be presented in a particular way - with audiences watching musicians. But what might the presentation become if we took the performance out of the concert hall and experimented with space and configuration?
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This performance took place at a local performance venue and bar called Milkboy Arthouse. It was a sort of sensory deprivation experience where musicians sat behind audience members -- in other words, the audience couldn’t see the musicians. The audience was also in total darkness except for some colorful geometric shapes that moved with the music being projected onto the wall in front of them.
Musicians as Designers
Typically, musicians don't have much of a say (if any) in the look and feel of an orchestral music performance. Or, they are constrained by whatever skills and access to materials they might have. In 2022, we explored fostering innovation mindsets and practices by creating spaces for folks to come together across disciplines to experiment and learn from and with each other and collaboratively design performances.
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Each chamber group spent time translating the visuals they created into storyboards that mapped lights, sounds, and projections to specific moments in their piece. This created a jumping off point for the designers to begin bringing the pieces to life. During a series of working sessions, the musicians and designers prototyped different combinations of lights, sounds, and projections alongside the music. By being in the space together, they were able to give feedback in real time, discuss additional ideas, and make changes in real time.
"Make it feel like a Destiny's Child concert"
If you talk to any of the NOI fellows, their enthusiasm and excitement for the music they play is clear. In 2019, one chamber group mentioned that they hoped the audience would be as excited about their piece as they were. They told the team that they wanted to have a chamber music performance that felt like a Destiny's Child concert.
This performance began with a walk-on video (like you might see at a big arena concert). Then the piece was accompanied by video projections behind the performers with a trap beat played over it.
