Ben Heim doesn’t just want his art to be hung on a wall. He wants it to transport his audience out of reality by engaging multiple senses and creating immersive experiences. - Georgina Villa
We The Cool Magazine
I am addicted to make as close and intimate connections between visuals and audio as I possibly can.... The core of what I am always trying to create with TouchDesigner is an interactive audiovisual system which I can perform with, and in which there is a deep two-way connection between visuals and sound (so sound creates visuals and visuals also create sound). - Benjamin Heim
Derivative (Touchdesigner)
The final layer to the live stream is the interactive element whereby the online audience can contribute to the live visuals by drawing on a sketchpad below the stream. The shapes they draw in response to the music are then incorporated into the live concert visuals in real time. I think interactivity is the missing link to creating an online immersive experience. I hope the realisation that they are part of a performance that may be occurring on literally the other side of the world will make them feel they are something more than just a spectator. - Benjamin Heim
Rehearsal Magazine
Turning a female actor into a messed up robotic male AI is certainly one of the more unique tasks I have undertaken in the name of art music. It was sort of like writing music for a film without being constrained by scenes and editing. We could dictate the ebb and flow of the narrative with the music, rather than have it subservient to image. - Benjamin Heim
CutCommon Magazine
I love the combination of electronics and classical instrumentation. It really allows for an expansion of the tonal palate of what I can work with as a composer and it lends this unique ability to focus a listener’s ear on subtle aspects of an instrument’s timbre, much in the same way as a videographer directs a viewer’s gaze. Electronics are also ideal for our events as they allow us to fully immerse our audiences in a sound world of our own creation. - Benjamin Heim
CutCommon Magazine
"My work simply stems from wanting to extend and control the soundscape that acoustic instruments perform in, and create some kind of ideal sound world for the music to occur in. Its really captivating because it lets you evoke moods and emotions in the audience from the moment they enter a venue - you get this kind of “metamusic” in which the performance can take place." - Benjamin Heim
Rehearsal Magazine
So I hope it takes nothing away from the LCO’s brave and accomplished playing to say that the visual component was the evening’s greatest triumph. The dream of “colour music” has ended in bathos and silliness for so many brilliant and ambitious musicians. Now, with the judicious application of some basic neural networking, we may at last be on the brink of fusing tone and colour into an art that’s genuinely new, and undeniably beautiful.
By Simon Ings, New Scientist
Imagine a movie with the hierarchy of senses reversed, where the main show is the music and the visuals play a secondary role, there to help move the music along. This is a careful arrangement of sound effects, field recordings, music for violas, violins, winds, a piano without a player, and an electronic drum kit that sometimes sounds like a xylophone.
by Carolina Caliaba, 4zzz
"This was a typically innovative offering from this talented young duo of composer musicians, whose unique multi-sensory concerts transcend the traditional concept of orchestral music."
By Karen and John Hutt, Scenstr
"However, Argo is a unique concept that is greater than the sum of these parts, and impresses in achieving its aim of breaking down barriers between musical genres- and going one step further, to blur the boundaries between musical genre and art installation.The overall effect of ‘Flow’ was profoundly relaxing and soothing, as the stresses of the week melted away in this otherworldly, multi-sensory experience."
By Karen and John Hutt, Scenster
