About
World Online Orchestra
CA$ 30,537
218
THE STORY
World Online Orchestra (WOO) is an interactive symphony that you can join.
It’s a story of how a centuries-old musical genius like Beethoven can travel through time and speak clearly to us with the tools of the present, to make us understand and remember that the rhythm, melody, harmony, and all the colours of music, all form a complex modern language that might not have words, but still speaks volumes about togetherness and transcendence.
Collaboration lies at the core of WOO. It was born from an international partnership between Copenhagen Phil and Makropol in Denmark, and Helios Design Labs in Toronto, Canada.
WOO exists right here www.worldonlineorchestra.com, right now, but we need your help to go one step further in our quest to transform our audience into participants. We'd like to share with you some of our basic concepts, goals, where the project is now, and what is needed to take it to the next level.
Beyond WOO lies an educational dimension. We want WOO to become a fun and inspirational tool from where you can dive into the secrets of classical music, and even be co-creative with them.
THE IDEA
WOO is made of wood and sinew, brass and bone, human endeavour, and thousands of lines of computer code.
WOO is a place where each member participates as an equally important part of the whole - like being one pixel of the total image. But imagine an image where each pixel can also make sound, all together and all at once. And an image where you can explore and get to know and to listen to each single pixel.
Cool, yes? So let’s go one step further! Imagine an image that makes sound and you can explore AND also asks you to be a part of it.
WOO wants to go beyond a process of passive exploration and experience. It needs to lead you to its next logical stage of evolution: playing along and recording through your computer and internet connection, transforming yourself from audience to a participant in the sound and vision of WOO.
OUR GOAL
Our aims are simple:
To associate classical orchestral music with creative, innovative, playful and mind-expanding experiences. DONE!
To explore how important each individual contribution is to the whole. DOING!
To let the users co-create music, in digital and physical space, where young people and old and in-between can join and play around with a symphony orchestra, in a very natural and engaging manner.
THAT'S WHY WE'RE HERE!
WHERE DO THE FUNDS GO?
Phase One of the project has been completed and paid for. Along with 40 members of Copenhagen Phil, we have done the proto-typing for the visual and code-base structure of the orchestra.
The funds will go to making the WOO open for everyone. This is what we call Phase Two, of this multi-phase project.
Our Phase Two super-programming will enable you to be a part of WOO directly and seamlessly though your web-browser. No tools, or special software, no fancy studio, no pressure! The simplicity and the casualness of the whole process is the absolute key to your creativity here. It’s just you, your laptop and your willingness to have fun with music, technology, and countless other like-minded music-makers to build and share new ensembles with new members in the World Online Orchestra.
We have also completed the bulk of the research needed for Phase Two. Our work will focus on the process of converting audio and video captured by webcam or other attached hardware into a binary stream directed into the WOO server, where it is mixed with meta-data, and reassembled into a functioning member of the WOO systems. It's something we only half-jokingly call WOO-Tube.
LOOKING AHEAD
After this Kickstarter of WOO, and the completion of Phase Two, WOO enters Phase Three. In Phase Three it's our ambition that WOO not only exists online, but also enters a physical dimension.
We will work together with talented young audio/visual artists, to create physical installations based on the user-generated material. The installations will be placed in public spaces, foyers to concert halls, museums and other convenient places.
We also want the music to be played live again, so we will hand pick the very best ensembles created by the users on WOO, and arrange them to perform with Copenhagen Phil at the World Online Orchestra live events around the world.
With these initiatives the co-created works on WOO will return in a physical form to a live audience.
What do I get?
Immortality.
Beethoven is still alive and well, and refusing to roll over.
And consider why the Golden Record was made and put on board on Voyager 1 and 2 as messages from us to other civilizations in places far, far from here and tens of thousands of years from now.
It is possible to believe, that the good that you do will last forever.
Risks and challenges
Phase Two will be an intensive development cycle, involving a lot of programming, and venturing into uncharted technology waters.
Phase Two will also set the foundation for Phase Three, which brings the digital orchestra out of the computer and back into the physical world.
Phase Two will be a big adventure. Adventures of any sort are hard work, time-consuming, prematurely aging, but ultimately rewarding.
We will complete the programming part of Phase Two if we meet our goal of $30,000 CAD. If we receive more than our goal, it will go toward completing the entire project.
Helios is small. Your contributions will go directly into the work. Helios is versatile. This type of work can demand a broad and complex range of creative skills, technical requirements and production needs. We bring these to the table as a cohesive set of services. While we have strong technical capabilities, we believe in using technology not just for its own sake, but to help tell a better story.
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Funding period
- (45 days)