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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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