Johannes Taelman is an electronic engineer with a special interest in the technical aspects of digital sound and image. Until recently he was a staff member of IPEM (Institute for Psychoacoustics and Electronic Music) at Ghent University, where he worked on modelling musical perception, the use of sensors and interactive media systems.
In addition to his own work, in which he studies the possibilities of creating an interactive musical and visual sensation with the aid of sensors and digital media, in the glass corridor he is installing a key work in the history of the IPEM: Contrapuntos by Lucien Goethals (1966). At the time the composer described this work as a 'mobile magnetophonic composition with sounds that have been determined and sounds that have yet to be determined, with variable superimpositions of sound layers.' The optimum realisation as prescribed by the composer requires twelve 'magnetophones whose operation is determined by a chance factor, such as a photo-electronic mechanism activated by the movement of those present in the space where it is used.' Contrapuntos will be performed once again during 'dedonderdagen' with the use of modern digital techniques, exactly as laid down in the score, but without the technical limitations of 1966. The twelve magnetophones have been replaced by one computer, and the sound is controlled using beams of infrared light.