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

[Aaron Ximm <ghede@xxxxxxxx>]

Phil wrote:

> ritual of turntablism has become understood in the mainstream. Can people
> imagine the same thing happening with laptop music? Or is the digital
> analog too much of a stretch?

My own sense is that laptop (and other electronic) performance could
evolve its own rituals ~ but also that that ritual may be a growing
acceptance of the absence of performative body language.

I host a concert series that explicitly de-emphasizes performance rhetoric
and emphasizes listening. It's not always, but often, the case that the
person presenting work effectively absents themselves from the
proceedings.

The audience still orients themselves towards the performer, but somewhat
to my surprise (and perpetual delight) people have become quite used to
kicking back and chilling out and simply listening to the work, without
expectation or (or seeming any lingering disappointment at the lack of)
body language, facial expression, etc.

Perhaps at some level people are willing to recategorize this kind of
listening as more akin to movie watching than concert going?

I do think there are performers in our cluster of genres that are very
effective doing more "embodied" acts, high on that list for me is Daniel
Menche and J. Lesser.

However my own intuitive reaction to most performance rhetoric is always
to approach it with caution.

To the extent that people seem compelled to uncomfortably or (dare I say)
inappropriately rock out, I inevitably squirm and feel "second stage
embarassment."  Inappropriate for me usually means when the sound is
devoid of the elements that I believe are the essence of the body's almost
autonomic reaction to music: a recognizable rhythm and dynamic or
harmonic momentum.

Does anyone un-selfconciously swing to von Webern? No. I think people look
foolish doing so.

Does that diminish the interest of any given opus of his? No, of course
not.

Sure, there is undeniably an almost uncontainable physical reaction to
some sound art -- in fact I'd admit this is often a sign of its success,
though I have a great aversion to unmitigated loud noise or attempts to
dominate the listener. But there is, I must admit, something physical can
still go on beyond music's primal elements; just last night there was a
woman at the Infrasound show (R.H.Y. Yau and Scott Arford) at the
recombinant labs who kept dancing and crying out, an understandable
reaction (amazing act btw, highly recommended!) to sheer intensity.
Similarly when I had Leif Inge's 9 Beet Stretch in a couple of weeks ago a
couple of people reacted to it by dancing -- albeit quite slowly, as if
doing Tai Chi... :)

But still... I can't shake the sense that de rigeur head-bobbing, hip
swaying, up n' down body language pasted on celebral difficult listening
is quintessentially cheesy!

Fortunately I predict that as it becomes clear that audiences don't need
it, such histronics will diminish except when they're warranted.

Or demanded by external factors, such as trying to play a laptop in a
bar...

In fact, I guess I've come around to my real point.

I think part of the reason this debate comes up again and again is that
there is still no historical venue for laptop music (etc) itself beyond
those that, well, have a dance floor, a stage, or a DJ booth.

Create a new space, and you liberate yourself to imply a new relationship
between artist, audience, space, and sound.

 aaron

  ghede@xxxxxxxx
  http://www.quietamerican.org

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