September 2013

Pangeia Instrumentos Exhibit
Incredible new exhibit features 3D printed instruments and high technology.
Article By Steven R. Rochlin

  Looking for something cool o do from September 11th to 15th? How about a fun trip to São Luís, Brazil? If so then the upcoming Pangeia Instrumentos exhibit should be your first stop to musical discovery and bliss. Developing a whole new lexicon of acoustic and performing possibilities, the Instrumentos has been performed and exhibited worldwide in cultural centers and international arts venues such as the Institute for Contemporary Arts in London, the SESC São Paulo in Brazil, Ormeau Baths Gallery in Belfast, the Portuguese Cultural Center in Maputo, Mozambique and RASA in The Netherlands to name a few. Since 1999 PangeiArt has developed an award winning exhibition that is part of a collection of more then thirty unique contemporary musical instruments designed by musician/composer Victor Gama.

Instrumentos is an exhibition of the Pangeia Instrumentos series of contemporary musical instruments. These are acoustic musical instruments, sound devices and sound installations designed and built through a process of experimentation with design, sound and music. New digital technologies have allowed the de-materialization of the musical instrument and consequently making music without the object. In designing new instruments they make use of those same technologies to re-materialize the object while using form and design as variables in writing new music.

Instrumentos are a shift from the paradigm of musical instruments with a fixed design to instruments in which design is a variable. This is accomplished through permanent research and development using digital technologies such as 3D modeling, vibrational analysis, CNC machining, laser cutting and rapid prototyping while using all kinds of materials from fine woods and gourds to carbon fiber and aluminum. Its creator, composer Victor Gama, has been steadily designing and building an impressive array of instruments since the early 1990s. His process begins with the creation of an entirely new instrument, one whose design is steeped in symbolic meaning. Concept design, the selection of materials, fabrication, and scoring is all part of the rigorous way Gama creates new music for the 21st century, blending current fabrication technologies with ideas, materials, and traditions inspired by the natural world.

Innovations like 3D printing, digital modeling, CAD/CAM have brought the object back to center stage after becoming seemingly obsolete with advances in file sharing and the creation of digital libraries. Instrumentos are about creating and performing new music with a physical object that is capable of merging both the virtual and physical worlds in profound new ways.

Several of his music works have been recorded on CD including Pangeia Instrumentos for Aphex Twin's Rephlex Records and the newly released Naloga on PangeiArt. As always, enjoy the music!