< Back
![]()
Audio-Visual Performance
Run Time Error (2009) is an audio-visual performance that is both accessible and intelligent. The image and sound content of two video files are mixed live by the artist, who controls them with two computer-game joysticks. The video content itself is pre-recorded and documents the artist as he generates and plays sounds from the immediate environment of the theater or concert venue (banging on lampposts, for instance), which he captures through a hi-definition microphone. The joysticks run the videos at different speeds, forwards and backwards, warping the visual and sonic playback, turning the video file itself into an improvised “instrument.”
Simon Steen-Andersen is a Berlin-based composer, performer and installation artist, working in a field somewhere between instrumental music, electronics, video and performance within settings that range from symphony orchestras and chamber music concert halls (with and without multimedia) to stages, solo performances and installations. The works often concentrate on integrating concrete elements in the music and emphasizing the physical and choreographic aspects of instrumental performance. The setups often include amplified acoustic instruments in combination with samplers, videos, everyday objects and homemade constructions. He has received numerous prizes and grants, including: Mauricio Kagel Music Prize 2017, Ernst von Siemens Composers' Prize 2017, the Nordic Council Music Prize 2014, the SWR Orchestra Prize 2014, The Carl Prize 2015 and the Kunstpreis Musik from Akademie der Künste in Berlin 2013. In 2016 he became member of the German Academy of the Arts.
Simon Steen-Andersen: Run Time Error, photo by Paperlyte, installation view at Dallas City Hall
SIMON STEEN-ANDERSEN:
Run Time Error
Audio-Visual Performance
Run Time Error (2009) is an audio-visual performance that is both accessible and intelligent. The image and sound content of two video files are mixed live by the artist, who controls them with two computer-game joysticks. The video content itself is pre-recorded and documents the artist as he generates and plays sounds from the immediate environment of the theater or concert venue (banging on lampposts, for instance), which he captures through a hi-definition microphone. The joysticks run the videos at different speeds, forwards and backwards, warping the visual and sonic playback, turning the video file itself into an improvised “instrument.”
Bio
Simon Steen-Andersen is a Berlin-based composer, performer and installation artist, working in a field somewhere between instrumental music, electronics, video and performance within settings that range from symphony orchestras and chamber music concert halls (with and without multimedia) to stages, solo performances and installations. The works often concentrate on integrating concrete elements in the music and emphasizing the physical and choreographic aspects of instrumental performance. The setups often include amplified acoustic instruments in combination with samplers, videos, everyday objects and homemade constructions. He has received numerous prizes and grants, including: Mauricio Kagel Music Prize 2017, Ernst von Siemens Composers' Prize 2017, the Nordic Council Music Prize 2014, the SWR Orchestra Prize 2014, The Carl Prize 2015 and the Kunstpreis Musik from Akademie der Künste in Berlin 2013. In 2016 he became member of the German Academy of the Arts.