Visualized Linzer Cloud of Sound 2000
		Saturday, 2 September 2000, 9:00 p.m. Danube Park attendance: 60,000 Music, visualisation and direction:  Klaus Obermaier and Robert Spour For the first time in 2000, the audience is able to creatively intervene in the Cloud of Sound.  The artists' intention is not for the visitors to the Cloud of Sound to passively consume, but rather to creatively, actively experience the event. The composition corresponds to this form of public participation by integrating public sound spaces.  Audience participation in the actOpera takes place at three levels: Part 1: Instant Composing In the first part, the viewers themselves generate the sound. Obermaier/Spour create a real-time composition from the audience's noises and scraps of conversation.  Part 2: Controls In the second part, the viewers control various aspects of both the music and the visualization using caps distributed beforehand in the Danube Park. Obermaier/Spour develop a composition, in which the audience is able to influence the parameters of density, dynamics, instrumentation, sequence, tempo, etc.  The 300m wide interactive area is defined and bordered on both sides by video projection screens. These projections provide the audience, that is divided into two teams, with the information they need for control. This makes the aim and method of the system transparent and comprehensible. Team A and Team B can make decisions independently of one another, react to one another, give each other mutual support or compete and even act together. Part 3: Visuals In the third and last part, viewers are visually integrated in the event. The public sound space of a "swimming pool" is morphing in tune with tonal and percussive sounds. Via computer programme, the rhythmic structure resulting from this process controls and alienates portraits of the visitors to the Cloud of Sound that are projected onto walls of water. In aesthetic terms, this composition completes the circle, leading back to part 1. The visualized Linzer Cloud of Sound is also the opening event of Ars Electronica Festival 2000.