2 min
Berlioz Trip AR, Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique in 360°
Berlioz Trip AR is an augmented reality experience that transports us into the enchanting world of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique.
From classical repertoire to augmented reality
Pierre Friquet and Géraldine Aliberti, a specialist in virtual reality and a musicologist respectively, are behind the immersive experience Berlioz Trip AR, which plunges us into the fifth movement of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. Coordinated by Sonic Solveig, a digital publisher of interactive musical content, this journey into Berlioz's psyche takes us into the forests of his childhood, populated by creatures from popular tales, such as the Loup Garou (Werewolf) and the Dame Blanche (White Lady). It is an innovative experience that offers a fully dynamic listening experience as the listener moves around the installation.
Unhappy in love
Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique is a symphonic poem in five parts. Composed in 1830, it recounts the imaginary journey of a young artist who has taken opium. Sometimes considered one of the earliest psychedelic works of the 19th century, the piece was written as an exaltation of the composer's unrequited love for the English actress Harriet Smithson. She finally attended a performance in 1832, two years after its première: suitably impressed, she agreed to meet Berlioz, and they married the following year. Acclaimed during the composer's lifetime, the Symphonie Fantastique has been reinterpreted and adapted many times over the past two centuries.
An interactive experience
Berlioz Trip AR is an augmented reality experience that plunges us into a Sabbath night, taking us into the fifth chapter of Berlioz's famous Symphonie Fantastique. Composed in part under the influence of opium, it is a highly innovative work for its time, in which the doubts and dreams of a young 19th century artist are brought to life in one phantasmagorical tableau after another. Using a tablet, which acts as a magic lantern, Berlioz Trip AR allows users to interact with chimeras that have captured the various instruments required to perform the symphony. They must free them to allow the piece to be played.
Mediation around the music
The creators of Berlioz Trip AR wanted above all to offer a new experience of listening, through the prism of an interactive experience that shifts the aspects of perception of a musical work. Presented at the Newimages festival, the application for iPad allows visitors to immerse themselves in the mind of the composer. This spatialised work has also been designed to introduce a young audience to this famous masterpiece of classical music.
Berlioz trip AR of Pierre Friquet and Géraldine Aliberti, is part of the works exposed in Futurimage, a platform which provides a rich panorama of new forms of narrations.
Futurimage has been created by the Institut français, in collaboration with Producteurs d’Expériences Numériques (Digital Experiences Producers). Find out more information about Futurimage