It Will End grows out of my ongoing exploration of the relationship between improvisation and the design of new digital musical instruments. I am performing with a T-Stick, a digital musical instrument created by Joseph Malloch and D. Andrew Stewart at IDMIL, McGill University (idmil.org/project/the-t-stick/). I am thinking about how the feedback loop of instrumental improvisation—taking action, listening, deciding on a response or continuation, taking action, listening, and so on—echoes design practices in its focus on physical exploration and iteration. The title comes from a meditation on the diverging timescales of political repression and hope in John Berger’s And Our Faces, My Heart, Brief as Photos.
I had the great fortune to meet with Rodrigo Constanzo as part of the play talk play video series that he makes together with Angela Guyton. It was quite the experience to be meeting someone I've admired from afar, improvising with them, then trying to speak coherently off-the-cuff. But I was very happy with how the second "play" went, so take a listen if you will :)
I highly recommend checking out Rodrigo's Max Package Data Knot. It's free, easy to use, and makes all sorts of super sounds and interactions. He is a force of (art-and-tech) nature.
I highly recommend checking out Rodrigo's Max Package Data Knot. It's free, easy to use, and makes all sorts of super sounds and interactions. He is a force of (art-and-tech) nature.
"Affect me and know me better."
I could finally give Ray Gibson's lovely text score INTERACT some well-deserved attention. Each instruction, like the one above, directs the performer to physically engage with their instrument in a new way. The score echoes a ghazal, but one where the refrain has taken over most of each line. It is a text charged with intimate physicality, and approaching it felt poignant and even a bit ironic in this moment of generalized physical distancing. You can see the score and find out more about Ray's music HERE.
I could finally give Ray Gibson's lovely text score INTERACT some well-deserved attention. Each instruction, like the one above, directs the performer to physically engage with their instrument in a new way. The score echoes a ghazal, but one where the refrain has taken over most of each line. It is a text charged with intimate physicality, and approaching it felt poignant and even a bit ironic in this moment of generalized physical distancing. You can see the score and find out more about Ray's music HERE.
This is the final section of a performance in twelve sections called Inward.Mouthward.Outward.
Some general aspects of the material for the performance were written down as a score. However, the specifics of the material were developed through repeated attempts. Ultimately, the performance remains an improvisation. The array of objects used could change from one performance to the next.
The essence of the piece is a trajectory where focus begins on the performer’s body as the source of sound and ends with the body’s emission, the voice, enveloped by objects outside the body.
Some general aspects of the material for the performance were written down as a score. However, the specifics of the material were developed through repeated attempts. Ultimately, the performance remains an improvisation. The array of objects used could change from one performance to the next.
The essence of the piece is a trajectory where focus begins on the performer’s body as the source of sound and ends with the body’s emission, the voice, enveloped by objects outside the body.
I’m still a newbie in audiovisual work, but here’s a 1-minute piece I’m happy with.
Speculative Figuration (or SF): a pun on speculative fiction or speculative fabulation. It plays on Ferneyhough’s notion of the ‘figure’, which is a way to address the many potential forces that can be revealed to be at work in a single gesture. In SF, I try to apply this idea to audio-visual language.
Speculative Figuration (or SF): a pun on speculative fiction or speculative fabulation. It plays on Ferneyhough’s notion of the ‘figure’, which is a way to address the many potential forces that can be revealed to be at work in a single gesture. In SF, I try to apply this idea to audio-visual language.
Flute and vocals improvisation. Recorded by Marie Abou Khaled on March 6, 2018 at the Goldsmiths Music Studios. This improvisation is based on the instructions of a text score cycle for improvising ensemble I am tentatively calling Think of yourself as a dancer.
On this playlist, you can hear my response to the first and second instructions in Think of yourself as a dancer. The second track is the same as the video above.
