I am an artist/musician who works in a process driven way. This frequently manifests itself in the creation of site-specific sound performances. The sonic content of these performances is improvised i.e. each sound performance is unique and unrepeatable. The sound creation process usually involves the live manipulation of pre-recorded soundfiles (fragments of sound) on a laptop using custom software. I use a laptop because it is a portable and flexible tool.
I consider my work experimental in the scientific sense and it is informed by my interest in structures (physical, social and theoretical), flows (light and sound) and infrastructure. I set up situations in which certain elements or ‘initial conditions’ are pre-defined. Other aspects of the situation are left open to develop as a result of the characteristics of the site and the people present. Sometimes I set up a series of such ‘experiments’. Although every event in a series theoretically begins with the same set of pre-defined parameters, the outcome of each is a product of a network of complex interactions.
A recent project I undertook in Brazil is a good example of this approach. At my request, a Brazilian friend who runs a record label sent an e-mail to his large mailing list asking for offers of locations in Brazil where I could play concerts. In each case, I requested that a number of criteria be met. They were, as follows:
1. Request: I will be in Brasil between 18th and 29th of January 2006. I would like to perform in domestic spaces, preferably in apartments near the top of buildings in urban areas. I am interested in playing in the following cities: São Paulo, Brasilia, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, and Rio de Janeiro. All other reasonable offers will also be considered.
2. Audience: Up to 5 people invited by me and as many other people as you think will be comfortable in the space. If the space is not very big then the audience, the speakers and I may be in different rooms. We can discuss it.
.jpg "Magic hour - Porto Alegre")
3. Duration: I usually play for between half an hour and one hour although other durations are possible. We can agree on a duration before I begin playing.
4. Time: I would prefer the performance to take place during ‘magic hour’ [the hour just before sunset], but I’m open to discussion.
5. Equipment: You provide a table, a chair, an amplifier and two speakers. I will need some amplification. A domestic stereo system should be fine, but it must have an auxiliary input.
6. Documentation: I will make a recording of the performance and I will provide a camera if you know someone who is willing to take photographs.
7. Payment: You provide me with a meal.
I also asked people to e-mail me three images: one of the room they wanted me to play in, one of the view from the room and one of the back of their stereo. I used these images as the criteria for choosing which apartments to play in and set about arranging the details via e-mail. I played nine concerts in four cities: São Paulo, Brazilia, Rio de Janeiro and Porto Alegre.
Each concert developed uniquely as each participant ‘filled in the blanks’ in my scheme in their own way. For example, some people set the performance up as a concert whereas others set it up as a party. Sometimes the audience sat watching me. Sometimes they focussed their attention on the window or balcony and the view outside. Sometimes the apartments were in buildings that weren’t actually very high, so the sound of the street or the children playing in the courtyard below were audible.
At the most basic level, my desire was to improvise a soundtrack to the view from the apartment window – to create a unique soundtrack to a place and the view from it at a specific time. I was also thinking of myself as a tourist who had managed to find a way into people’s houses, allowing me to become a kind of anthropologist, or a musician on an ‘anti-tour’, inverting the logic of a traditional rock tour or a technician trying to find a way to slow down time, so that it expanded to fill the space inside the apartment before flooding out into the cityscape.
I discussed my intentions with the audience members after each performance and they in turn described to me how it had affected them. Many of the concert organisers told me that hosting the event had changed the way they related to their surroundings. For some audience members, the experience functioned on the level of a musical performance. For others it was therapeutic, giving them some space to re-evaluate where they were going with their lives. Others had an profound experience that related to watching night fall slowly over a city – the colour of the sky changing slowly and lights beginning to come on in other buildings and on the streets, triggering a realisation of the vastness of city and acting as a ‘now-ness’ amplifier.
Note:
The mp3 is an excerpt of one of the performances I did in Rio. You can hear the sound of the children and the birds in the courtyard below the apartment.