MGNT

An immersive homage to the pioneer of electronic music; Kid Baltan.

To celebrate Dick Raaijmakers’ a.k.a. Kid Baltan’s first electronic music composition, we have created MGNT: a large immersive audiovisual experience to emulate the synthesis of electronic music via recording of sound and manipulating magnetic tape.

CLIENT: STRP Festival

AGENCY: WHAT IF Collective

SUPPORT BY:
– WHAT IF Collective – Production
– Sound Design – Andri Pétur Þrastarson
– Undisclosed – Software Development

MY SCOPE – DESIGNER
Concept Development
Interaction Design
Spatial Design
Art Direction

AWARDS: First Prize STRP ACT II award

Heritage of electronic music

Electronic music compositions were pioneered in Eindhoven around 60 years ago. At the time, one of the first electronic pop-music albums was released by Dick Raaymakers (Kid Baltan), who invented the techniques and recorded his album in the Philips NatLAB in STRIJP.

At the time, engineers at Philips experimented with magnetic tape-loops to synthesize tones and clicks. Dick Raaijmakers’ experiments at the time formed a major contribution to the development of electronic music as a genre and to using electronica in music in general.

MGNT brings attention to this powerful story and the all but forgotten heritage of electronic music.

Heritage of electronic music

MGNT brings attention to this powerful story and the all but forgotten heritage of electronic music.

From sketch to reality

What seemed to be a far-fetched and ambitious idea, worked out to be an impressive installation fitting its surroundings of the Klokgebouw during STRP festival 2017. Even though the concept is perfectly scalable, it became clear after testing many models, that the installation had to support the immersive experience.

Combining generative audio and visuals in combination with the scale made the installation a central piece of the festival. Through intense collaboration and the help of audio and visual designers that were part of the dynamic What If collective, the vision became reality.