Sounds, Alterations : Delicacy and Prejudices
With this installation I wanted to explore the middle ground between a music performance, and a sound art installation. Therefore I created a set-up that could be added to, and manipulated by human influence – contributing to its performative nature – whilst also being able produce sounds all by itself.
Using computers to create music gives one immense control over the resulting sound. When one becomes fluent in playing a traditional instrument, it becomes a communicative extension of the mind. I built a "machine" * that was complex enough to surrender my control over it, in order to re-purpose the tool which was normally a musical instrument that was an extension of my mind. This was so that the performance existed as more of a negotiated exploration between myself and the "machine," in order to create an entirely new idea, born from cross-platform collaboration.
*I installed a system of microphones about the space - including a stripped down drum kit - as well as at the audience's entrance and exit to and from the space. These mics ran into two different computers, within which they would run into one of two Max patches. The patches then would record the sound entering the mics when said sound reached a high enough amplitude. These 1 second recordings were then looped, and had their pitch, loop speed and timbre altered by the extent of input information being received by other mics, until being overwritten by a new sound that was loud enough to trigger its self-recording. Audience members were welcome to project whatever sounds they wanted into the mics, which then made themselves sonically a part of the piece - much like the inevitable audience participation in any sound piece as a result of their movement about the space, obstructing and redirecting sound waves with their bodies - until another audience member replaced them.
Other Uses
While sitting at the boarding gate for a flight that wasn't mine, I recorded a run through of the Max patch I used for the installation above - starting from a few minutes before the passengers were called to board the plane, and ending after everyone had boarded.