1 the Role of Physical Gesture and Space in the Creation And
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The role of physical gesture and space in the creation and performance of acousmatic related music Contents 1. Themes and problems addressed 2 1.1 Introduction and goals 2 1.2 Background 2 2. Methods 3 3. References 5 4. Results 6 4.1 Artist production 6 4.2 Other documentation 6 5. Timeplan 8 6. Resources and financing 9 6.1 Artistic resources 9 6.2 Practical resources 9 6.3 Financing 9 6.4 Veileders 10 7. Personal skills and qualifications 11 8. List of attachments 12 1 1.0 THEMES AND PROBLEMS 1.1 Introduction and goals “Acousmatic sound”, or electro-sound lacking the immediate visual bond to the acoustic means of production, is common in concert halls, in art galleries and in public-space art installations. Yet although composers, performers and sound-artists often are clear in their reasons for incorporating this art form into their work, the problem of how to perform ‘non- visual’ sound, and how its presentation is embedded in its creation, is an area shrouded in vagueness and ambiguity. The project will create a number of fully documented compositions and performances designed to investigate and present solutions to three problematic areas in the creation and performance of acousmatic related electro-sound: • The relationship between the content of the music and the way it is performed: the project will combine composition and performance in both fixed and flexible music forms, focusing on the connection between composed intentions and performance practice. • The position of the audience in the concert experience: the project will find alternatives to the conventional approach of audiences ‘watching’ loudspeakers by experimenting with how the audience can explore their own relationship to performance- and public-spaces through flexible room interiors and practical ‘atmosphere architecture’. • The loudspeaker orchestra as a performance instrument: the project will design a system that uses latest 3-D sound spatialisation technology with the goal of finding a practical solution to the requirements of the loud-speaker orchestra performance instrument. 1.2 Background In many ways the era of experimentation in acousmatic, electroacoustic, electronic, and computer music as it was seen from the 1950’s-1990’s has passed. Although one can be “experimental” in approach, the results find direct connection to, or even duplication of, historical practitioners in the field. We are now in a position where various different electro- sound aesthetics are established, and now is the time to build on, and refine what our predecessors achieved. Freed from the spatially static acoustic sound source, acousmatic music has the ability to live throughout space. The need to project and perform the music’s qualities to an audience and enhance the composed spatial information has left an impressive history, knowledge and skills, climaxing in the 60-speaker strong loudspeaker orchestras of France and the UK. However, increased interest amongst composers and sound-artists is currently coupled with a decreased interest amongst the public outside commercial film and popular music. Three areas of cause can be identified: It is rare for the composed intentions of the acousmatic related music to be seriously considered in performance practice. The relationship between the composed content of the music and the best performance technique can be assessed by combining a study of the existing repertoire with the complete through-process of composition and performance. Application and testing of appropriate performance practice is inherently tied to the performance instrument. Practicality, cost and portability of the loudspeaker orchestra as a performance instrument are important performance obstacles. A loudspeaker orchestra catering for a wide variety of electro-sound forms requires significant (and rarely available) skill, financial investment, and labour. It furthermore has to be redesigned to function in the geometry and acoustics of each performance space, which although is interesting in that each design is uniquely connected to each room, in practice rarely results in the optimum sound due to unreasonable set-up and testing time requirements. 2 The ‘sound-carrier’ in electro-sound is the loudspeaker, and audiences normally find themselves ‘watching’ loudspeakers in a concert situation designed for acoustic music. In the past this mystery was new and exciting, but the loudspeaker is not ‘the source of the music’ and the ‘loudspeaker novelty’ has worn off. Unlike an acoustic concert which can be regarded as a multi-media event involving both visual and sound as inseparable and immediate elements, acousmatic material is a mono-media involving sound alone and its capacity to evoke our imagination as a common collective group and as individuals. The nature of the mono-media can be approached as a positive aspect of the art-form and allow an investigation of how the audience’s physical location and individual choice may be more appropriately considered in relation to the music. 2.0 METHODS Following through composition into performance In investigating ways to perform different styles of acousmatic related sound it is necessary to begin at the compositional level. The project takes as its starting point the main difference between acoustic and acousmatic art: physical presence verses physical implication through gesture and space. Composition focusing on gesture and space will be followed through into performance. The mediator will be implied physicality and its connection to real spatial sound gesture. Practical work will therefore necessitate both pure “acousmatic” and mixed electro- acoustic art-forms in the investigation of space, gesture and physicality. Composition work will be designed to answer questions such as how a gesture at one point in time can find continuity into an electronically transformed and abstracted sound at a different point in time; how a physical gesture can connect to a sound through sensory and muscular activity; how a link to unseen physicality on the composed level can find a link to listener physicality in the performance space. Custom made controllers and software interfaces will be investigated for controlling sound transformation and spatialisation in real-time. These tools will allow a direct and practical investigation of the physical-gestural connection. Custom made devices will be necessary. In addition to personal experience and technical skills, contact will be made with international groups working with within this field. In particular, STEIM (Holland), IRCAM (France), MIT (USA) and ARTeM (Bruxelles) have knowledge and experience. Technical resources may be available from these institutions as well as from Norway’s NoTAM and TEKS. The collaboration with performers will allow me to explore the relationship between gesture, physicality, and electro-sound as both composer and performer. This is an important stage in understanding the integration of performance and composition in the field. Collaborative work will feature both fixed and open or improvised forms, and allow an exchange with professionals (see artistic resources) and students at NMH. Practical work with spatial-gestural performance Modern technology can provide a modern solution to the problems of large sound-diffusion performance instrument. 3-D sound field recreation allows, with a minimal number of loudspeakers to achieve similar results to traditional virtuosic spatialisation diffusion achieved using the larger loudspeaker orchestras. But currently there are few suitable tools for live use of this technology, and little performance practice. Tools to control 3-D sound-fields in both the composition and performance stage will be designed and used practically to perform already composed multi- channel and stereo sources. Although no group is currently working with this idea, a few groups are experimenting with 3-D spatialisation, and contact will be made with these institutions: IRCAM, York Music Technology Group (UK), Radio France, Swiss Centre for Computer Music. A practical discussion has already taken place between myself and the Swiss Centre for Computer Music. 3 Workshops and performances will be a necessary part of the practical work. Students at NMH will be invited to test spatial-gestural performance tools in a workshop situation. This will allow me to assess the practicality, flexibility and intuitiveness of the tools I find useful and appropriate. These tests will gradually be integrated with performance. A commissioned work from another composer will be a useful part of the performance development. I will be able to compare how the performance tools and techniques function for a work commissioned under specific criteria compared to a work from the existing repertoire, without my direct effect as a composer influencing the results. Investigating the listener and the ‘unseen’ sound With an architectural approach to space new audience-performance-space relationships will be investigated. The goal is to place the listener in different focused or relaxed spaces, enhancing the listening experience appropriate to types of electo-sound. In this malleable space the public will be able to physical move between open works and fixed music forms, explore different seating possibilities and find their own physical-spatial relationship to the music. The method will involve literature research in fields of music and architecture, collaboration with the architect Birger Sevaldson from AHO, collaboration with a video-light artist (as yet undecided), and