Virtual Electronic Poem

Under the coordination of the Virtual Reality and Multi Media Park/Turin three Universities worked on the reconstruction of The Poème Électronique (mpg link of the original projection) a Corbusier / Varèse / Xennakis project for the first EXPO after WWII in 1958.

“I will make not a building but an electronique poem in which light, color, images, rhythm and architecture will blend together ….”
(Corbusier, when invited by Phillips)

The presented restoration attempt of one of the earliest multi-media projection connects between architectural history, multimedia installation and vr (virtual reality) design to deliver quite an asthonishing impression how the visual and spatial / sonic experience might have been.
During the last week some few visitors – as there was just a limited amount of opportunities – were able to go through this reinvented rare and unique event at the tesla (Berlin). Still the website established by the research team delivers quite some collection of material including original film footage / newsreel from that time, as well as images and written documents about the recent research work – most of it downloadable as bundled and zipped files.
(... an impression might give this Video of the Ambiances – Demo version may 17th 2005 – an early virtual immersion projection file downloadable at www.edu.vrmmp.it/vep/stage.htm in materials).

The Poème Électronique in the Philips Pavilion at the World Fair of Brussels 1958 was a unique experience, the very first multimedia project to involve a sense of the total experience of vision and sound.

Realized by three relevant personalities of contemporary culture, Le Corbusier (conception, coordination and visual show), Varèse (organized spatial sound delivered over 400 loudspeakers), Xenakis (architecture of the pavilion), the Poème Électronique has never been repeated after the Philips Pavilion has been pulled down after the Expo. The Virtual Electronic Poem (VEP) project is reconstructing the lost artwork with virtual reality techniques. .... link (read in Materials: Varese’s Poeme Electronique regained: Evidence from the VEP Project)

... further nice gimmicks like Edgar a gogo (tiny keyboard Varèse version) to be found in the downloads at www.edu.vrmmp.it/vep/stage.htm look for materials