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?
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.
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?
- 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.
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