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Alternative performance devices Was: fan reaction to laptop



On Thu, 29 May 2003, The pHarmanaut wrote:

> I have a hard time seeing something like this drumitar as more than a
> novelty. It strikes me as more about the spectacle of performance.

Well, I agree, and disagree. Although I didn't write this in my first
e-mail, I was originally thinking less of the visual aspects of performing
-- where (culturally speaking) the performers maintain a degree of
authority even in less structured or participatory listening situations --
than it did with responding to issues of the physical mechanics of laptop
playing... Besides, saxophone was a novelty in 1850...

If the interface is lacking, or the haptics are inappropriate to the kind
of work that is being done, maybe it is necessary to look at different
ways of triggering the technology.  A computer requires focused attention
from the operator, quite precise and small gestural movements to activate,
adjust, etc... It is difficult to maintain visual contact with an audience
while staring intently at the screen.  Someone else mentioned the haptics
issue--that making live computer-based music, art, operating spreadsheet
software, and checking e-mail all involve the same sort of motions, the
same minute gestures...

> What's the value of being able to move about?

technical, in one sense--being able to access different pieces
of equipment... expressive, if this is a quality that is desire(able)d,
and of course visual as well.

> Does it really involve more audience participation in, commitment to, or
> interaction with the performance? This sort of gesture seems to me to
> be more about maintaining the authority of
> the performing entity, and his/her separation from the audience.

I asked Wooten why he made his drumitar, and he said that he felt
too anchored behind a set of drums, and disabled when interacting with the
audience and other musicians on stage.  Doesn't playing a laptop induce
the same degree of audience-performer separation, and the same
performative spectacle as playing a guitar?

-Michael

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