Quantum Echoes: an Immersive Soundscape (Live Installation Footage)

https://vimeo.com/90780627

Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center, 3/28/2014
Designed by Jenn Grossman
Video footage by Leah Harper

speaker under bench

prospect park, brooklyn

Listening: Laurie Spiegel, “Voices Within”

Laurie Spiegel’s “Voices Within” presents a deep, haunting electronic environment that shifts and flows patiently over time. It is both suspenseful and calming and portrays the sense of time being frozen. Dark, distant tones float behind the ears for most of the piece, at times getting slightly more dense; they never quite get to you but are always there. Shifting from soundtrack to merely a sonic space, she creates a layered experience that may seem less layered if you don’t take the time to sit with it.

Listening: David Tudor “Neural Synthesis No. 2”

This piece is characterized by subtle clicking sounds, somewhere between mimicing the sound of a clicking tongue and a squeaking shoe.  Listening to this for the first time, one may not be able to tell that this is a Moog synthesizer or even an instrument/electronic sound-making device. The recording sounds binaural, as it is very easy to place the sounds directionally and far outside the head. 

It manages to bridge the gap between daily sounds and something compositional through its patterned repetition and improvisational qualities. Other sounds later on in the piece mimic the sound of a bouncing ball and honking sounds. Very light, playful, and airy the piece plays more with sensory perception than anything deeply emotional.

 

Toni Dove’s Lucid Possession

Another Roulette event; Toni Dove’s Lucid Possession was a multi-media experimental play/performance/film utilizing media ranging from hand gestured commands, kinetic sculpture, video projection, live music, live sound processing, and sculptural projection surfaces. I was quite blown away by the synchronicity between the recorded movie and the live music and the multiple levels of access the piece created, and was able not to prioritize one over the other.

It created a sense that I was not just a passive audience member, but part of an immersive linear experience. The piece was also conceptually mind-blowing. Jumping back and forward in time, dealing with the conflicts between technology and human experience, the liberation of spirituality and utmost control in a programmed world.

The multi-sensory, multi-narrative encouraged me to question the nature of reality, blurring the lines between our psychological subconscious and alternate realities.

Idea for Final Concert

I came across this max patch called Video Trigger by Zach Poff, which uses jitter/video tracking to split the screen into four quadrants. Each quadrant is assigned to a sound file that is triggered when movement starts or stops in the quadrant. Each of us could either have the same four sound files or different sound files that are triggered when we move our hands in front of an area of the screen. We could even choreograph hand movements to look as if we are “conducting” our own sounds. The patch is freely downloadable & can be used with a built-in computer camera. http://www.zachpoff.com/software/video-trigger/ Adjustments could be made to this to further control pitch or volume, but I think it is also simple and workable as is. We could either create the sound files specifically for this piece or use existing ones. The score could be mapped by quadrants and assigned length of sound clips.

Listening

This week, I listened to Errances for Tenor Saxophone and Backtape by Antoine Chessex  (2011 Belluard Festival). The piece consists of sustained, airy tenor sax overtones and drones slowly fading into sync, and falling out. The slight dissonances make it haunting while the ambience makes it calming. Phasing begins to occur as the tones fall into unison. Flat, and pensive, a level of patience is needed to listen to this piece, but with effort it brings the mind into focus.

Performance Review (Pauline Oliveros, Doug Van Nort, David Arner)

Last night, I attended a performance at Roulette featuring Pauline Oliveros, one of the “godmothers” of experimental music, educator, and founder of the Deep Listening Institute, pianist and percussionist; David Arner, and electronic musician Doug Van Nort. Between the soft glow of magenta light, ornate architecture of the concert space, and perfect placement of speakers; the space was only inviting an amazing multi-dimensional experience of sound. Four pieces were played; the pieces by Arner and Oliveros enhanced and expanded with Doug Van Nort’s electronic manipulations. A piano line played fowards by Arner was within moments reversed and played back with a haunting delay. Oliveros’ cartoonish sounds played from her digital accordion were swept from one speaker to the next, seemlessly, circulating around the room and dissolving somewhere in the center. Sound began to feel like it was hovering over the audience in an invisible but metaphysical space, creating a sort of spiritual lifting. I caught myself numerous times looking up, expecting to see a sparkling cloud of tones and timbres floating over me, but quickly remembered that the image of form was only a product of the thick spatialization the reverberant room created. There was a playful response amongst the elder crowd that attended; perhaps the experience of unexpected electronic manipulation to be a foreign phenomenon. The feeling of magic resonated through the room; both a surprise in the possibilities of this new collaboration and utmost respect for the great innovations of these musicians over the years. I left the concert being physically stimulated and intellectually satisfied.

http://roulette.org/events/pauline-oliveros/

Listening Post

Alvin Lucier’s Brainwave piece; “An EEG connected to the performer’s scalp detects brainwaves which are then amplified by speakers placed upon snare drums.  As Lucier relaxes, the alpha waves (8-12hz) cause the snare to slowly rattle and creak.  The sound would slowly start as he closes his eyes or focuses on making alpha waves, but if he opened his eyes, the sound would stop.” (http://www.squareeater.com/blog/2012/08/01/brainwave-music-alvin-lucier-music-for-solo-performer/)

The setup is Alvin Lucier sitting in a chair with his eyes closed, and what one hears is soft random percussive sounds based on his brainwaves. It sounds much like an experimental/psychedelic jazz drum solo; beginning soft and subtle and picking up volume and texture as he relaxes. It literally closes the gap between bodily electrical signals and amplified sound, transforming one media directly into the other.