Our colleagues Mathieu and his friend MiDeRiC of the artist collective 499Reality are hosting a special tent at this year's Superbooth. Their project blends electronic music with live visuals to create a 'Gesamtkunstwerk'. Many well-known artists from the synth scene will be performing, including fxberg, who works for Eurorack module manufacturer Flame. The circus tent will be open every day during the Superbooth, offering a varied programme (see line-up below) and an amazing sound system. The following Mathieu asks MiDeRiC some questions about the project!
Interview with MiDeRiC about 499Reality
Mathieu (Matjö): How did the idea of forming a collective at the intersection of software development, music, and visual art come about? I'm asking you because: full disclosure, I'm a mere contributor who happens to work at Stromkult, while you're the creator of the project. Tell us about it.
MiDeRiC: The idea started about fifteen years ago when the concept of audio-reactivity in visuals began developing in projection mapping and visual displays. This interactivity fascinated me. As I explored the technological art scene, I noticed varying levels of quality—some projects required genuine technological expertise while others were surprisingly simple. I saw this as a new way to express and enhance music.
I realized there was a wide range in quality across both artistic and technological dimensions. The idea of creating a collective was similar to music labels from the 70s, 80s, and 90s that guaranteed musical quality. My personal goal was to provide that assurance of artistic and technological quality in technological art, which is rapidly developing. This requires extensive knowledge of new technologies and how to use them creatively.
Mathieu: So you originally came from a musical background, and the visual element came later?
MiDeRiC: Exactly. I started with synthesizers, music, and sound technology. This approach of creating with modular systems—connecting cables to boxes that do things—has been applied to other domains. Now we can use the same technique to create entire programs, software, and new tools. This allowed me to move into visuals using the same methodology. It's interesting because we can apply the same workflow from musical creation to visuals.
Mathieu: You're already touching on my next question: what makes your software particularly unique compared to existing solutions? I imagine it's the very musical interface for visual software.
MiDeRiC: Yes, in searching for ways to blend sound, image, and real-time movement using video game technologies that have developed in recent years, I wanted to leverage these capabilities. I explored many programs, but found they were either not oriented toward real-time applications or required extreme levels of competence to code real-time elements.
Mathieu: So what video games brought to this type of program is reactivity, since games respond to the player rather than following an immutable timeline. That's what recently entered the game, right?
MiDeRiC: Exactly. This technological evolution simply allows us to react to music instantaneously with visuals and use 3D video game technologies to generate anything with music as the foundation. The RÉAT project was designed to create a suite of programs specifically based on these new video game technologies so they could be applied to live performances in real-time. It lets you create images as you would create music—with buttons and knobs—essentially a true visual synthesizer in three dimensions based on today's latest video game technology.
Mathieu: And it's modular.
MiDeRiC: Yes, we maintain the concept of modularity. You can use everything on a single computer or across multiple interconnected computers. The entire system is designed with the same workflow as musical creation and lighting design, but based on interaction with music and the external environment. We can also integrate pure interactivity with sensors.
Mathieu: So 4/9 Reality seems to connect art and technology. How do you bring them together, and how do they influence each other in your work? You've already partly answered with the software, but does this also involve installations where you create both visuals and music in a context of total art?
MiDeRiC: Exactly. The concept of total art is interesting because the level of competence required for technological art equals what's needed to be a virtuoso in any art form. You must work on your craft and understand your tools. I consider technology as artistic instruments. An event like what we're preparing for SuperBooth is an artistic work in itself—not just the music content, but the entire production. There's enormous work in staging and setting up the project. The technicality behind it is also a true work of art because we're pushing the limits of what's possible with technology to offer a completely different experience to spectators.
Mathieu: It's clear that we influence each other when working on the same musical project within the label. I bring things, you bring things—it's excellent.
MiDeRiC: It's great because it's super functional. We each bring complementary skills. It allows us to work as if we ourselves were modular components.
Mathieu: I'm the education and musicology module.
MiDeRiC: Exactly, and also deep musical technique that I haven't reached. You have experience I don't have because I don't have time to do everything. We are modules, and we complement each other well at SuperBooth.
Mathieu: On your Twitch and YouTube channels, you broadcast live streams that sometimes last several hours. What advice would you give to beginners to keep their sets varied over such a long duration?
MiDeRiC: Know your equipment. First, know your own gear well. There's no point in dreaming about lots of different equipment. You need to understand what you want to play, what you want to do, and what's necessary for that. Today's equipment multiplicity means we're not focused enough on what we really need. We're used to having everything available when using software. It's like with musicians—a great musician can create a beautiful song with just a $5 guitar, while a poor musician with an expensive Gibson won't be able to produce anything listenable. You should prioritize what matches your musical personality and allows you to express your own style.
Mathieu: Simplifying also avoids surprises and makes things easier to manage. There's a trend lately where live acts want to sound like DJs, like a produced, mastered track. That's difficult to achieve with a setup that fits in a suitcase you can take on a plane. You need to be realistic about what you want and what you can do.
MiDeRiC: I'll add to that. Today, we need to stand out a bit and move away from how technology is automatically regulating what gets listened to through algorithms on YouTube and other platforms. These algorithms are gratuitously changing how we compose as artists, especially as electronic artists. Electronic music was originally about sound research and creating different atmospheres, but now we're seeing uniformity in composition. We need to break free from constraints like three-minute tracks. At 499Reality, we're trying to offer another vision of composition.
Mathieu: So long performances...?
MiDeRiC: Long performances help us break away from the immediate atmosphere where everything needs a catchy element right away. Today, we're no longer obligated to make music "bankable"—that's not the purpose of artistic creation.
Mathieu: Can you explain what's going to happen at SuperBooth?
MiDeRiC: At SuperBooth, we'll have the Circus Tent aka. the 499Reality Booth with 50 square meters of three-dimensional audio-reactive mapping, featuring more than 15 artists performing for several hours. It will be a true live performance and technological achievement because we'll have everything streaming live in 1080p. The technological performance aspect is that just three people from our team will manage everything—installation, real-time control—while simultaneously performing live electronic music, controlling cameras, the stream, and visuals. It will be a total live performance streamed directly on our channel, which is quite a technological feat.
Mathieu: Great. I will add that this is a completely self-organized line-up independent from the SuperBooth program and promotional structures. We are kind of the autonomous booth within SuperBooth. This throws back to how SuperBooth originated in the same kind of pirate vibe at the Musikmesse Frankfurt under the impulse of the infamous Andreas Schneider. We'll post the program here. It will be accessible for people at SuperBooth, running for three days from 10 AM to 9 PM. There will be continuous music and visuals—it's a bit of a side business for the show, though SuperBooth is the most festival-like trade show I know. If you want to find a place with a club atmosphere, it's with us.
MiDeRiC: Exactly. And it's worth noting that if you want to see the equipment in real use—not just for demonstration purposes but in an actual live setup—this is your chance. Using equipment for 10 hours on stage presents different challenges than just doing a quick demo. It's fascinating to see how artists make their choices about which tools to use for expression. When artists make these choices, it's because of their experience. It's quite unique to be able to witness that.
Mathieu: Thank you very much, MiDeRiC.
499 Reality Website / Instagram
LINEUP:
📅 Day 1 – Thursday, 8th May
🕙 10:00 - 12:00 | MiDeRiC & Friends - INSIDUB
🕚 12:00 - 13:00 | Thee Balancer Feat. Matjö @thee.balancer
🕛 13:00 - 16:00 | MiDeRiC - Dragons Lair
🕒 16:00 - 17:00 | CROUDS @croudsberlin
🕔 17:00 - 18:00 | Jesusonecstasy @jesusonecstasy
🕔 19:30 - 20:10 | Ana Rita a.k.a. Ana Ritovski + Robin Burke (organized by Superbooth)
📅 Day 2 – Friday, 9th May
🕙 10:00 - 12:00 | MiDeRiC & Friends - DEEPER
🕛 12:00 - 13:00 | fx_b @flame_modular
🕐 13:00 - 14:00 | MIDEMAT
🕒 16:00 - 17:30 | SURCO @surcolive
🕔 17:30 - 19:00 | TORC @oscarunderdog
🕔 19:30 - 20:10 | Be Babe Bab + Cate Hops (organized by Superbooth)
📅 Day 3 – Saturday, 10th May
🕙 10:00 - 12:00 | MiDeMaT - The Blurring
🕚 12:00 - 14:00 | Blaach @jakob__blaschko
🕑 14:00 - 16:00 | MiDeRiC – Boomlands
🕒 17:00 - 18:00 | Stazma @stazma
🕔 19:30 - 20:10 | Yuri Urano + Rahul Sharma (organized by Superbooth)
