“Forget the Mercury – now music’s got a Turner Prize.” Neil Spencer, The Observer
Sound artist Jane Grant, musician and physicist John Matthias and BAFTA winning composer Nick Ryan have won the PRS Foundation New Music Award 2008 of £50,000 for the realisation of The Fragmented Orchestra, a visionary new work which will enable us to hear the human brain at work and the sound of the UK as music.
The Fragmented Orchestra is a huge distributed musical structure modelled on the firing of the human brain's neurons. The Fragmented Orchestra will connect 24 public sites across the UK to form a tiny networked cortex, which will adapt, evolve and trigger site-specific sounds via the FACT Gallery in Liverpool, the current European Capital of Culture, from December 12 2008 - February 9 2009.
They are currently looking for public sites across the UK to house their 24 ‘soundboxes’ that will together form the major structure of The Fragmented Orchestra. Sites will be chosen on the basis of the human and elemental sounds they exhibit.
They would like to involve as many people as possible in this process and are looking for site nominations over the next two months.
If you would like to make a site nomination, please visit www.thefragmentedorchestra.com where you can fill out a description of your suggested site and read more about the piece.