EPHEMERA
An immersive, interactive audio-visual experience where audiences become co-creators, unlocking a series of intuitive, sensory-led moments through playful exploration. Designed to spark connection, discovery, and unforgettable shared encounters.
Music was always ephemeral. People would come together and make it, it would exist, and then, just like that it would be gone.
There was no concept of a definitive version of a song, a master recording, or a music industry.
By the 20th century, music had become a passive experience, played by experts, recorded by engineers and played back by DJs, while the audience consumed it, as spectators.
Then came streaming. Now music once again flows, like water from a tap.
Music is once again plentiful, but has been transformed by it's time as a saleable product into an inert medium. Definitive recordings are laboured over. We have come to expect music to have a definitive version. We have forgotten that music was, for thousands of years, a creation of the energy of a group, an ephemeral experience.
Ephemera asks the question: Can we embrace this change? Can we use technology to unite us instead of siloing us.
What if we go with where our tech could take us, and make music as ephemeral as possible.
What if we use all the modern affordances we now have - Spatial audio, immersive environments, touch screen technology, cutting-edge music creation software - and turn music back into what it always was - a participatory, social, ephemeral experience, different every time it is performed. Like a tribal drum circle, like a folk dance. Living, breathing, alive.
EPHEMERA is powered by Isomorph, a custom-built control software solution over 3 years in intensive development by Beardyman and Chaos Culture. Isomorph was conceived to facilitate effortless music creation for users of Ableton Live and offers unique interaction techniques for music producers. It is now finally entering the alpha testing phase. Ephemera allows music and visuals to be created in real time without any need for training sessions, onboarding, or pouring through manuals.
Ephemera is designed for large Full Dome, immersive environments, but is easily adaptable to smaller ad-hoc setups.
The touchscreen — once full of promise — has become the dark totem of our age. It draws us in, fragments our attention, and isolates us from each other. The infinite scroll has replaced real interaction.
Ephemera reclaims this technology — transforming it from a tool of distraction into a portal for creativity and human connection. Here, touch becomes collaboration. The screen becomes a shared instrument. The moment becomes the music.
Created by award-winning artist and technologist Beardyman (Darren Foreman, UK), Ephemera draws on years of innovation in bespoke touchscreen music systems, spatial audio, and improvisational performance.
Beardyman (Darren Foreman, UK) has been developing cutting-edge, bespoke touch-screen music technology since before the invention of the ipad. Ephemera and Isomorph, the bespoke software that powers it, aim to re-contextualise this technology to help us connect with each other and live in the moment.
Chaos Culture is a software developer based in Germany specialising in Ableton Live devices designed to aid musical creativity and sound design.