Sound Clip: Signals Improv by Richard Graham

The following demonstrates cognitive model mapping based on Tonal Pitch Space abstractions between performance “space frames” (cf. Emmerson, 2007).

Video documentation

The sustainer pick-up allows for one to interrogate string profiles within spatial music (specifically within the context of multi-channel speaker arrays). Contrasting monaural and polyphonic feeds also allow for one to interrogate performance space frames, whereby monaural audio may occupy a local (stage) frame, whereby expectancy schemas are met, in terms of musical gesture (both physical and figurative), and field (arena) may present processed materials in a more environmental context where gestural expectancy may be challenged. Interaction between space frames is encouraged in order to establish compositional narrative between abstract tonal pitch space abstractions and physical performance space (cf. Emmerson, 2007). A series of perceptual effects result in relation to typical monaural technology, including the ability to construct unconventional chord voicings relative to complex timbral and spatial configurations. The multi-channel system allows any composer to utilise dissonant tone combinations with reduced roughness or psychoacoustic dissonance, due to the physical separation of each pick-up. Auditory Scene Analysis (cf. Bregman, 1990, 1993, 1994) principles apply here, as spatialising tones apart may encourage stream segregation, relevant to similarities and differences in other concurrent cue configurations.Perceptual groupings ubiquitous within instrumental practice may be challenged by adopting contrasting differences in pitch, timbral and spatial location cues.

The live performance system is constructed in the open source object orientated programming language, Pure Data and allows for the real-time manipulation of each of the strings, allowing various pitch, timbral and spatial morphologies per string-profile. The system consists of a DSP library providing contrasting distortions, granular synthesis abstractions, reverberation, delay, and ambisonic spatialisation abstractions, decodable to stereo, quad, or octagonal speaker arrays. Algorithms have been established based on extraction and interpolation of various hierarchies of effective and figurative performance gesture per string, such as note attack and melodic contour.

Contours may be extracted globally for the whole instrument or independently for each string, treating each string as an individual voice. Contours may be directly applied to an array of synthesis parameters, such as the azimuth of an ambisonic spatial gesture. Scaled amplitude may be applied to distance.

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The artist writes, “I play bells that people put on young tree branches to keep deers from eating the skin of the tree. In this work, I used 14 bells, each having a particular tone due to design and material differences. Circling and closing in and out to the receptors of Olympus LS 10 recorder, this work resulted in a microtonal electric feel.”

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Sound Clip: Chalk for One Performer by Lee Blalock

The following is a sample of a recording from a live performance for which I repeatedly wrote several phrases for 15 minutes at a time for the duration of 6 hours. This action produced chalk ‘drawings’ and patterns which eventually filled a wall of the gallery, representing the rhythm found through the repetitive gesture.

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Sound Clip: Distracted Sense by Francisco Dervis

A piece dedicated to the mind, on which focusing seems to always be a distraction.

Sound Clip: Noise by Joseph Nechvatal

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Sound Clip: Gilligan by Rick Scott

To produce this track, the artist writes that he:

- Acquired the theme music to the original Gilligan’s Island tv show (1:35).
- Played it at .1 to .5 times its original speed in grains from 1 to 1000 ms long.
- Added resonance/delay/reverb.
- Mixed panned forward and backward versions.
- Did minimal mastering (no compression).

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Sound Clip: A Very Fine Needle by Joe Stevens

This track is an edit of a 45 minute test, called EMG (electromyography). The recording reveals the sound of fine needles pushed into the subject’s eye muscles to test muscle function.

Electromyography (EMG) is a technique for evaluating and recording the electrical activity produced by skeletal muscles. EMG is performed using an instrument called an electromyograph, to produce a record called an electromyogram. An electromyograph detects the electrical potential generated by muscle cells when these cells are electrically or neurologically activated. The signals can be analyzed to detect medical abnormalities, activation level, recruitment order or to analyze the biomechanics of human or animal movement.

Sound Clip: Barred Owl by Phonaut

The Barred Owls, aka Strix varia, has a call phrased in 8 quick hoots, the last of which is more like an ooo-aww, and sounds a little like, “Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all?

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Sound Clip: Breathe by Kira Vollman

Sonic interactive wall sculptures with mounted motion sensors wired to modules and speakers. When a viewer passes the work, their movement triggers a sound response. Audio sensors respond at different times and in any order.

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Sound Clip: El Equilibrio del Aire by IRRADIADOR

Direct stereo recording.

Rogelio Nobara: Electric guitar, prehispanic wistles, toys, ethnic percussion.
Adriana Camacho: UpRight Bass, toy-bird wistle, toys percussion.
Alejandro Cayetano: Ocarina, plastic hose, tenor sax.

*No field recordings, all natural ambiences made with acoustic and electric instruments.

*No overdubs.

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Sound Clip: Rhythms of Protest by Robert Doisneau

‘Rhythms of Protest’ is a compilation of demonstrations or ‘manifestations’ protesting pension reform. Recorded in Paris in late 2010, this work  demonstrates the power of sound not only to act as a means of expression but also as a subtle means of crowd control.

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Established in Frankfurt, this performance ensemble includes Roland Etzin and Tobias Schmitt.

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Sound Clip: (The Beatles) in Hamburg by Jorn Ebner

“(The Beatles) in Hamburg” is a public sound art project comprised of 11 compositions and several visual elements. The sound material was recorded in the urban space of Hamburg and edited into new audio works in order to create an acoustic portrait of the city at the beginning of the 21st century. One composition per area. From the compositions I developed 11 graphic scores as visualisations of the audio works on the one hand, that are intended as possible notations for experimental musicians or conductors on the other, potentially spawning new musical works. Sound and images are published as a book and on a website; three signs have been installed temporarily to link the physical space with the sound files.

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Sound Clip: Sound Hikes by Ryan Ingebritsen

Song path was a guided listening hike I first did in the Minnesota State Parks in the Summer of 2010.  I chose locations based on their unique sonic qualities as well as accessibility  along specific park trails.  The hikes began with me leading the audience in a listening meditation focusing on individual sonic elements. In certain locations, and depending on the availability of bodies, I used large drums and other percussive objects to stimulate the sonic environment in ways that were otherwise inaudible.  This was the only “man made” sound in the piece.  The rest was a process of discovering the composition that existed in the space.

Sound Clip: Surveillance 2.0 by Jaydea Lopez

Surveillance usually refers to the observation of a government on its people. We automatically connect surveillance with hi-technologies such as satellites, security cameras, and the interception of electronic communication.

However there is a more insidious form of surveillance: the social control that we exert upon each other through our own value-judgements. As a society we monitor the behavior of friends, family, neighbors and colleagues. Our approval or disapproval of their behavior polices their actions. In turn our actions are equally modified due to the knowledge that people are constantly judging us.

This soundscape features a modified field recording of a police helicopter as it flies overhead. The relatively peaceful isolation of this rural area accentuates a sense of invasion when the sound of police helicopters approach.

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