A work by Kevin Volans will be performed by percussionist Jonny Axelsson this month.

Axelsson will include performances of Akrodha, which was composed for the percussionist by Kevin Volans, as well as the premiere of a live video portrait of Jonny by visual artist Peter O’Kennedy.

The concerts have been arranged to facilitate the collaboration between Peter O'Kennedy, Jonny Axelsson and Kevin Volans.

A miniature camera is mounted on an arm and attached to the percussionist's head so that it points back at his face as he plays. The camera is locked on the x / y axis of his face, producing a visual feedback loop of the music created in real time by and through the player in the act of playing the piece.

Two additional cameras also record the live event, one recording the audiences’ view, the other recording a bird’s eye view of the percussionist’s performance.

During the initial live performance, the footage being recorded by the miniature camera is shown on a large screen above the percussionist. The performance thus becomes a unique and documented event in itself, while also generating a separate artwork: The final new video work.

In the finished video work, the music is not the soundtrack to the video, nor is the video simply a documentation of the performance or a visual interpretation of the music; it is a unique new artwork fusing together the inputs of the collaborators.

The performances takes place at the Triskel Arts Centre, Cork on Wednesday 10 May and The Baroque Chapel, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin on Friday 12 May. See Calendar for details.

Posted: 29 April 2006