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Re: [microsound] re: on working methods for live performance



comrades--

i have been reading this thread with some interest and watched as 
various line started to get crossed--so figured this might be a chance 
to do something other than lurk---the implications of having a laptop on 
stage are quite different for composed and improvised performances, it 
seems to me.  my group works in an electro-acoustic format (piano, 
analog synths, shortwave, etc.)--we use alot of extended techniques, 
particularly on the piano--the space is improvisational (often 
constraint-driven).  We have found that having a laptop on stage--no 
matter what we do with the machine---changes the relation of the 
audience to the music--the best i can explain it is as a withdrawal of 
an element of engagement with the performance--and i think this dervies 
from a tendency to attribute most of the performance to the laptop.  in 
an environment thoroughly dominated by the aesthetic of repetition, it 
seems that experiencing music that unfolds in real time at all levels is 
still disorienting--whence the desire to assimilate the latter to the 
former.  one result of all this is that we are reluctant have a laptop 
onstage or use one in the production of sonic material, even if the 
constraints we are working with would almost require it.   

this says nothing about laptop driven performances as live events in 
themselves.  i can imagine situations where such performances could get 
around the problem as we have encountered it--i would love (would have 
loved?) to see (have seen?) polwechsel and fennesz live sometime, for 
example,  because on "wrapped islands" at least the division of 
technical labour seems to me to be clear.  but i wonder if even players 
on that level would find themselves in a similar bind live.

composition oriented forms might experience similar effects in the 
relation to the audience, but i imagine the stakes would be different, 
so it would be less disruptive of the performance space.

stephen

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