PERISONIC is a large-scale, immersive, sound and video-panorama of Dublin. Immersed in surround-sound, the audience is invited to travel through a strangely uninhabited Dublin, revealed through a series of audio portraits and reconstructed in enigmatic visual perspectives.

Originally commissioned by Dublin Sound Lab for Music Current Festival 2017 to mark the 230th anniversary year of the patent application for ‘panorama painting’ made by the, now little-known, Irish artist Robert Barker. In the 18th century, Barker created massive large-scale panoramic paintings of exotic cityscapes, which were exhibited in a purpose-built gallery in London. These paintings provided visitors with a 360° visual likeness of places to which they could only dream of travelling. Barker’s paintings might be said to be precursors to today's virtual reality experiences.

In this major collaboration, composers Scott McLaughlin, Gráinne Mulvey, Fergal Dowling and creative producer Sabina Bonnici, extend Barker's vision of a 360-degree experience by re-imagining a cityscape constructed in pure sound, with accompanying visuals by video artist Mihai Cucu.

Since the premiere at Music Current Festival 2017 (29 April 2017), individual movements have been performed around the world, including at: Sounding Out the Space Conference, Dublin; Electroacoustic Music Festival, Osaka; and Ecos Urbanos Electroacoustic Music Festival, Mexico. Now, for the first time, the full PERISONIC installation will travel outside Dublin for a special presentation in Bremen produced by REM Festival (Reihe Elektronischer Musik Festival). In this project, Barker’s idea of re-visualising a distant cityscape is fully realized through the complete installation of PERISONIC, and by re-imagining and relocating the Dublin cityscape for a Bremen audience.

This event is produced by Reihe Elektronischer Musik, Bremen. See Schwankhalle event page and Facebook event page further details.
Schwankhalle, Bremen, 14 January 2018

Gráinne Mulvey, Aeolus (surround sound)
Fergal Dowling, Unearths (surround sound)
Gráinne Mulvey, Part I (surround sound and video)
Fergal Dowling, Part II (surround sound and video)
Scott McLaughlin, Part III (surround sound and video)
Mihai Cucu, video photography and editing
Sabina Bonnici, original creative producer  

Dublin Sound Lab's particpation in Bremen REM festival is supported by Culture Ireland.