<![CDATA[Svetlana Maraš - sound-blog]]>Tue, 22 May 2012 19:01:20 -0800Weebly<![CDATA[Bourgeois]]>Fri, 13 Apr 2012 16:13:09 -0800http://www.svetlanamaras.com/2/post/2012/04/bourgeois.htmlAt the moment, I am working on a new piece that will be performed EXACTLY on my birthday, next week on April 21, in Rovinj, Croatia. The piece is called as the title of this post says - Bourgeois, and it is inspired by two bigger ideas. 
First one is my experiment from some time ago about which I wrote on this blog - Searching, finding, abandoning. While wearing a blindfold, I was playing with objects randomly distributed on the table. At the same time I was exploring the shape of objects and recognizing them through the use of sound, but I also used them in musical way, concentrating on the aesthetic quality of the sound being produced. These amplified sounds I recorded and arranged later, composed a short piece of music out of them. 
The new piece Bourgeois, is based on the similar concept - by wearing the blindfold, musical material is produced on the spot, but not by me but by other people and in this case the sampling and composing process happens LIVE. So, while other people (6 of them), are sitting at the dining table and playing the objects while wearing the blindfolds, I am mixing these sounds live with the use of the PD patch that I made for this occasion. 
When I was invited to do a piece for this specific event called Cyber dinner, which consists of culinary, music and other performances that take place during an actual dinner at a fancy 5 star restaurant in Rovinj, my idea for this piece started widening up and becoming more complex.
Thinking of a dining table, objects at the table, sounds in relation to other senses, blindfolds as blindness in a wider sense, somehow to my mind came the situation from Bunuel's film The discreet charm of bourgeoisie, where the 3 couples always meet in a dining situation without ever actually sitting down to have lunch or dinner. There is always some interruption, something immensely weird or banal which stops them from sitting down. Like in a dream scene for example, where they realize that the dining table is on the stage and they are part of a play - there is always an aura of something FAKE and STAGED that surrounds these people.
Merging the two mentioned concepts, I came to the idea to create the similar situation - while people with blindfolds at a dining table will be producing sounds, they themselves will be the only ones to hear those sounds as they are originally (through the headphones). On the other hand, I will be mixing these sounds live, and sending different combinations of them to the audience. One small detail is that the audience will be listening through their own dining tables which I will (by the use of transducer speakers), turn into loudspeakers. So, all in all, this complex situation is weird as much as it can be, the same way like the scenes from Bunuel's movie. The following graph should explain how the system works:
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To make an actual realization of this, I went to a company in Belgrade which produces the transducer speakers, also called exciters. These speakers transmit vibration to any surface where they're put, and the sound quality depends on the material, size of the surface etc. After doing some tests, we realized that in order to use them with dining tables which are most probably wooden and very thick, we would loose a lot of sound and a lot of frequency ranges. Therefore, in consultations with sound engineers and technicians, we decided to place exciters to another surface (a styrofoam plate), which will be attached to the tables from downside, so that it remains invisible to audience where the sound is coming from.
I am still in the process of collecting the objects and props for the table, which will also be important for the overall performance, and to do this, I am thinking about both the visual and sounding aspect of the artifacts that will be placed on a dining table. The situation should more or less resemble that from movie scenes I have mentioned, so I am carefully studying them through this print.
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That's about it so far, the performance is next week and there is still a lot of things to do (perfect the PD patch, arrange the equipment, get the props etc.)Good video of the performance coming hopefully soon after 21st. Stayed tuned and wish me luck!:)
]]><![CDATA[Composition - experimentation - tradition]]>Wed, 21 Mar 2012 10:31:24 -0800http://www.svetlanamaras.com/2/post/2012/03/composition-experimentation-tradition.html The title above was a name of theinternational seminar that I participated and that took place at Orpheus Institute Center for Music Research in Ghent, Belgium in February this year. I had a wonderful opportunity to present a part of my work Embodied composition - Treatment and meaning of physical object in experimental music and sound art, to many composers and theoreticians that participated the seminar. The title of my presentation was Thingification of compositional process - Emergence and autonomy of physical object in Western Art Music.
 My presentation was based on a chapter from my book, which is a historical overview of appearance and acceptance of physical objects other than musical instruments into the discourse of Western art music, starting from the beginning of the XX century until 60's and 70's. This was a first time for me to have public presentation of a theoretical work and I found it quite challenging. There was a lot to tell in a very short time (20min) and I couldn't afford myself to improvise, therefore I read from the notes I was carefully preparing for a few weeks, which were followed by the slides containing the scores examples and similar. 
 With keynote lecturers - Chaya Chernowin and Richard Barett and many interesting researchers and composers who participated, the seminar was an inspiring 2 day-brainstorming environment. My thesis supervisor and evaluator from Finnish Sibleius Academy, participated as well with their own project, so in the seminar breaks during lunch or dinner, we had great talks about music and issues brought up in the seminar. 
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 Much of the talk in seminar was centered about experimentation in music and its relation to improvisation and composition as practices derived from experimentation. Chaya Chernowin in her opening talk made an interesting remark about experimentation in music which can lead towards invention or a discovery, making a clear distinction between these two things in her composing approach. Beside philosophical examinations of the topic, there were also a few musical performances.My Finnish friends demonstrated new tools and methods in electro-acoustic improvisation using objects, prepared tam-tam and MaxMSP patch which controls the sounds with the use of randomized lines that influence many acoustic parameters of what's being played live. Musician who especially drew my attention was Frederik Croene, who ended the seminar with his performance on a modified piano without keys, bringing a very healthy dose of humor and simple but refreshing musicality to the seminar. To conclude - the experience was excellent, and I look forward to more opportunities to be on a place like this and exchange my thoughts and ideas about music with other competent people from the field. I hope to do this in the following period and present my book in search for comments and suggestions before the possible publication.
]]><![CDATA[Svetlana Maras & WoO duo, March 2012]]>Wed, 21 Mar 2012 10:05:52 -0800http://www.svetlanamaras.com/2/post/2012/03/svetlana-maras-woo-duo.htmlAnd so WoO and I had another live gig. This time the music sounded much closer to what we imagined it should be in the first place - giving enough time for each idea to develop, for every single sound to be heard and being very careful about each sound played. WoO was playing with his standard setup - 4 or 5 pedals and electric guitar, producing beautiful small noises in combination with objects of different kinds, and making touching layers made of simple musical motives looped in irregular times, fading into harmonies, drones and sound masses made of clicks, glitches and other sounds we were producing on the spot. I played with my Pure data patch, updated a bit to provide me easier manipulation of the samples, with a new possibility of building rhythmical patterns of different length, speed and color. Beside Korg nano control I also used Touch OSC app on my iphone which turned out to be quite compatible with my patch.

Watch the video excerpts from our performance here:https://vimeo.com/38903643
]]><![CDATA[WoO & moi, part 2]]>Fri, 11 Nov 2011 00:05:00 -0800http://www.svetlanamaras.com/2/post/2011/11/woo-moi-part-2.html
Ambient, glitch, electronic improvisation
el.guitar, effects+laptop
]]><![CDATA[Rehearsing with WoO]]>Sun, 09 Oct 2011 04:56:25 -0800http://www.svetlanamaras.com/2/post/2011/10/rehearsing-with-woo.htmlWoO and I meet at Rex Cultural Center to play music together for the first time.
Rex is a place where I started my career of experimental musician almost 8 years ago. It's THE place for experimental music in Belgrade where workshops take place, concerts, lectures...

WoO and I know about each other for a while through various ppl. He's been performing solo and with other musicians for quite a while now and I had a chance to listen to him live once or twice. Recently, after a radio show in which we both took part (him from Belgrade, me from Helsinki), we exchanged couple of emails and tweets and finally met in Belgrade when I moved here a month ago. 
We have met couple of times to discuss about collaboration and ideas, and we finally found a place where we could try-out some of the things that we talked about. We meet for a rehearsal at Rex. Each one brings his/ her own equipment - Woo his guitar with bunch of pedals and effects, I bring my plastic gadgets and toys. We connect them all together in a circuit. We jam and make the recording above.

This is the try-ONE, let's see what comes out another time with another setup. So far, so good, looking forward to more.
]]><![CDATA[Sound artists on film]]>Wed, 17 Aug 2011 14:57:32 -0800http://www.svetlanamaras.com/2/post/2011/08/short-video-about-being-a-sound-artist.htmlAs an exercise for Devid Levin's course at "The arts collaboration lab", we've been assigned to make a video which depicts our profession in the most realistic way.
I've never made a serious video or rather - never made a video with an intention to say or show something particular. So, I gave my best to describe the profession of a sound artist as I see it - there are moments of contemplating (chair, empty space), of working (writing in notebook, typing on a keyboard), of exploring (watching the youtube videos in this case of cage's prepared piano pieces) etc. There are also moments unrelated to thinking about work (street scenes, trees..)For a few days I was taking shots with my compact camera and tried to make some sense when editing (in iMovie, probably the most unpractical video editing software ever). I used my own music - voices at the beginning are from the piece "Sample spaced" that I composed for BOAC festival, and the video ends with my tune from the project "Maybe young maybe old".
I wasn't very much happy with the visual aesthetics since I made it all really fast and with no skills for video editing, so in the end credits I called my little video: a horror film about sound artist:))
don't be afraid though, sound art is so much nicer profession than how it looks in my video..:))))))
]]><![CDATA[About collaboration - The Arts Collaboration Lab]]>Sat, 06 Aug 2011 18:39:16 -0800http://www.svetlanamaras.com/2/post/2011/08/about-collaboration-the-arts-collaboration-lab.htmlPicture
Month of July, I've spent in New York City, in the most amazing artistic environment of the Columbia University. The Arts Collaboration Lab was a course organized by Columbia University (The School of Arts) and performance space P.S.122.

As the name says, the topic of the course was collaboration, and we had the opportunity to learn from some of the most brilliant contemporary artists and collaborate with them. David Levine was one of them, with whom we've developed a work in three weeks time - a rehearsed and prepared round table discussion where we've examined depiction of a profession (any profession and especially artistic one) in movies, and mostly Hollywood movies. We made a lot of preparation for the discussion, and we were guiding it (sculpting the conversation) with other guest participants. The event took place at P.S.122.

Apart from that, we were all involved in group projects with the aim to COLLABORATE and try to create a work within a group we were assigned to.

It all resulted with some more and some less successful projects, and also with the thoughts on collaboration that we had to submit as a part of the final assignment. Here is what I think/ learnt about it:

  1. Collaboration is very often based on: a personal relationship with another artist or mutual interest in a specific topic. Another case is a situation where two or more artists are brought together to work on a project commissioned by someone else, where the goals of collaboration have been set by someone else but themselves. While there is a big chance for failure in the first and last case, the second case in my opinion, gives the most interesting and unexpected results since both (all of the) artists are individually inspired to work towards the same goal, inspite of the fact that their approach might differ. 
  2. An artist with developed artistic practice who is collaborating with another artist from a different field, is ready to modify his/ her way of working influenced by another one’s, only if the newly proposed approach is clear enough and understandable to him/ her. Therefore, artists who are starting to collaborate, have to be fully aware of their own artistic practice, be able to analyze it and describe clearly to others the way they work, the tools they use and the processes they are going through when creating an art work.
  3. Importance of each individual artist in creating a collaborative work, is not necessarily the same. The hierarchy is revealed after a certain period of time, based on the project demands and skills and personal engagement of each artist, and this should be accepted as is, each artist being ready to understand, define and accept his/ her own role in the project and contribute the most within this role.
  4. If the end result of a collaboration is unsatisfactory, than all aspects of the project should be questioned from the beginning and ready to be abandoned or modified -  topic, working methods, chosen artistic form, chosen artistic tools, etc. If the collaboration was grounded in conceptual thinking, than the group should leave that on a side and start producing material. Than, in combining the two approaches (conceptual and practical), new ideas can emerge.
  5. Improvisation is a good starting point in collaboration, which can generate the material which is to be used in creation of work, or which can help artists understand each other’s practice better. It brings artist closer together (personally, artistically) in the act of creation, since they have to observe carefully and understand intentions of each other while improvising.
  6. Collaboration is not possible at all times/ with all people. When there is no common ground between the artists in the mere start of the collaboration, it is better to abandon the project than to keep searching for ways to collaborate, because there might not be any.
  7. Very often, the general idea of the project is interpreted in different ways by different artists who collaborate. Therefore it is very important to discuss to a smallest detail, main objectives of the project, to define them together, and build the collaborative methodology for the creation of work. 
  8. It often happens that intuitively, artists can find a perfect way of working together without too much talk and analysis. 
  9. The way of working in collaborative project, must always be a comfortable zone for every artists, and although it may be challenging, it should always be a positive experience for everyone involved in it. If it isn’t so, the basis of collaboration within the group should be questioned.



]]><![CDATA[searching, finding, abandoning]]>Sun, 05 Jun 2011 19:30:55 -0800http://www.svetlanamaras.com/2/post/2011/06/searching-finding-abandoning.html
Sound improvisation with amplified objects, randomly distributed on a table, wearing a blindfold - recorded, edited, composed
Experiment description

There is a table. Large number of small objects are distributed randomly on it. There is a microphone which highly amplifies the sounds on the table. I am wearing a blindfold and headphones through which I can hear the sounds amplified by the microphone. I am searching for and grabbing the objects without being able to see them, and I listen to the sounding outcomes of their interaction with one another. I appreciate the sounding quality of these objects without knowing their original purpose. Sometimes I realize what kind of object it is by its shape and size. I’m using the sounds in musical way, I am playing (music) with objects.

Experiment duration: approximately 1 hour

- setting up, 20 minutes
- recording in 3 phases, 10 minutes each
- documentation / recordings: audio, photo, video

Discovering the physical space by touching - playing with the sounds of objects

Initial idea for this experiment came from the thought that properties of physical space can be discovered in our interaction with objects and through a sounding outcome of that interaction only. Further on, I was interested in a fact that functional meaning of the sounds of objects which are being discovered by touching, can be converted into musical meaning. The question which emerged from this experiment and I chose to answer, was: How complex the musical meaning and how flexible the performance can be when playing an instrument of non-defined structure, in the context of free improvisation?

  1. I have succeeded to define one (musical) process which one goes through when playing a “randomized” and structurally undefined instrument:


The stages of searching for the sound that meets some aesthetic criteria of the one who plays, finding the sound that one likes and abandoning the sound in order to search for a new one, are always possible in exactly the same order, and musical meaning can arise from any of these stages.

The experiment has shown that just by playing the objects in this setting, musical possibilities are quite limited and monotonous, but the quality of the sound material that I produced that way was interesting, so inspired by the same three processes (of searching, finding and abandoning), I have composed this 3-minute section of sound.


]]><![CDATA[glithchchhhciiing]]>Tue, 12 Apr 2011 10:50:42 -0800http://www.svetlanamaras.com/2/post/2011/04/glithchchhhciiing-old.html
an old glitch. kinda JINGLE..
]]><![CDATA[japan_2011]]>Tue, 12 Apr 2011 10:30:31 -0800http://www.svetlanamaras.com/2/post/2011/04/japan_2011.html
Chris Burden - Atomic Alphabet 1980 (cut-up)
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