[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: [microsound] Laptop, etc as Performance device
Taking the basic kernel of laptop performance to be sitting behind a
keyboard, and then theorizing about how to make that more interesting
as performance (or how it is /already/ interesting as performance)
seems to be, to some extent, a dead end. One of the primary qualities
of the laptop is that its portable... making it perfectly capable of
generating performances nearly anywhere (probably anywhere you can get
a pair of speakers, if its a musical performance). Secondly, computers
can be an incredibly powerful tool for recording input from their
environments, and creating/controlling interesting outputs (outputs of
all kinds... sound, video, network data, electrical signals, radio
signals, etc etc). There is very little need for a laptop performance
to rely on (and try to fit into) the context provided by a traditional
concert/show event. A cello is an oddity, it relies heavily on the
concert/show performance environment to connect to the audience and to
the world... its out of place and alien nearly everywhere else /but/
here. But a laptop is already at home nearly anywhere, and can be
adapted to fit itself into a huge variety of situations. Using a laptop
artistically, to break from the politics of the laptop as a business
tool, is an interesting idea... but why perform this break in a
club/concert venue/etc. when it can be performed in an office?
- Scott Carver
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: microsound-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
For additional commands, e-mail: microsound-help@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
website: http://www.microsound.org