Erkki Kurenniemi's sound studio
DIMIs Re-connected is derived from the work of electronic music artist Erkki Kurenniemi (also shown in the exhibition in the Orangerie), and his series of electronic synthesizers called DIMIs, used for performances in the 1960s and 70s (DIMI A, DIMI-O & Electric Quartet).
Between December 2011 and March 2012, Atoui visited Kiasma and the University of Helsinki where he got introduced to these instruments by Perttu Rastas, Jari Suominen, Mikko Ojanen and Kai Lassfolk.
On his visits, Atoui noticed that Erkki Kurinniemi did not to write user manuals for these instruments, as he believed in an intuitive and individual use of his inventions. The Electric Quartet, one of the first collective electronic music instruments to be conceived also got his attention and drove him to then extended Erkki's idea of collective instrument.
Atoui therefor connected the DIMIs between them through his computer interface, and re-created a collective instrument to be played by 4 persons. While on the EQ had a distinct sound identity for each player, on Atoui's instrument, through feedback and sound processing, the performers lose track of their sound and individual contributions and become part of one fused and sustained collective body.
During the dOCUMENTA, the DIMIs reconnected instrument was installed at the Orangerie in Erkki's exhibition space.
On the first 3 days of the exhibition's opening, Atoui, Lassfolk, Suominen and Ojanen held 12 different performances on DIMIs Re-connected that became Atoui's first iteration of the concept of collective instrument.
更多