At 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:
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:
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.
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!:)
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