The Hacking Orchestra

The Unexplored Pitch in the Misapplication of Ordinary Things.

What is the audiovisual character of a thing? How can it be sensually invented, re-interpreted, and transformed within the context of a band? In only ten days, students of Köln International School of Design formed together as dialoguing futurists and bizarre musicians, delving into the »principles of misuse« of objects to explore pitch singularities and through modes of »instant playing«, formed The Hacking Orchestra.

Their first live performance centered on a wired sound park of found objects, including blenders mixed in automated percussion, razors and power tools effected, synthesized marbles, amplified water, a stroked radiator, sensorized referee stand, and destroyed TVs.Through unconventional inputs and outputs, The Hacking Orchestra enhances improvisation with hardware and software, creating circuits, translations, compositions, notations, and in the affordance of space, discovers live dramaturgy.

The Hacking Orchestra is a KISDproject, supervised by Prof. Nina Juric (Department of Image and Motion) and Prof. Andreas Muxel (Department of Interface Design). Participants: Kyosuke Ishii, Manuel Alejandro Juarez Saucedo, Martin Simpson, Stefanie Grawe

The Artists

Stefanie Grawe

Designer, Producer

stefaniegrawe.de

Stefanie Grawe / GRAY is an interdisciplinary designer and electronic music producer studying at Köln International School of Design in Cologne. Her preferences range from audiovisual media, graphic design to interface design. She is a member of „female pressure“ (femalepressure.net) and produces a radio show for the abovementioned network. In 2016 her remix for Natalie Beridze was released on Monika Enterprise. She also composes music for trailers, documentations and jingles.

Kyosuke Ishii

Product Designer

Kyosuke Ishii studied product design at Chiba University, Japan. In 2016, he studied on exchange at KISD, Germany. His work deals with interaction between people and pro-ducts. He tries to make products with fascinating physical interfaces, whether digital or analog. His point of view is applied to music as well, making comfortable instruments that he has played in performance.

Martin Simpson

Artist, Designer

Raised bouncing between Africa and the United States, currently pursuing studies at KISD, Germany, Martin Simpson is a globally-minded designer and artist particularly interested in the connecting power of music. His work includes experiments in acoustic/electric instruments, tangible interfaces for digital processes, and »Musik für Alle«, an interactive, passerby-generated audiovisual intervention in public space designed to bring strangers together.

Alejandro Juarez

Anthropologist, Designer, Musician

Alejandro Juarez considers himself an interdisciplinary designer. Initially he worked as a product designer in different environments (NGOs, Design studios, education). He even started a furniture company back in Mexico. He is now studying the master in Integrated Design at KISD. Music is his alter ego, anthropology his tool to trying to understand and predict humanity. Pragmatic by philosophy and nature.