Hi Johannes,
I'm not sure why condenser mics are necessary; we use all sorts of things
for the input.
The Cave can be either fixed or interactive, responding to the position of
the viewer inside of it, and that position can change the Cave content.
But like hypertext, it's all predetermined, a closed system.
I don't respond to Lucier at all.
About the Cave, it's shaped like a large vestibule open on one side. The
floor is very resonant, the wooden supports of the structure have their
own nodes etc. So it's also an acoustic instrument, a resonant chamber
that projects into the rest of the (quite large) room, which also projects
into it as well. As I wrote years ago, the visual is third-person, but
sound (thinking of Acconci as well) is second person, the You always and
already present, imminent and immenant. It's the sound that shapes the
space, not the visuals; it's the sound that shapes the narrative, the
moving through. One exercise I've had students do - watch a tv show with
the sound off image on, then vice versa; it's through the sound that the
diegesis and identifications are carried forward.
I don't know why things would be hard to see in the Cave; one wears
glasses and everything comes alive. The room is pretty much in darkness,
but that's the way I wanted to work with the virtual world images - so
that they're not defined by screen edges, but by their own internal
boundaries.
At AS220, it was a music performance that had to do with the physicality
of playing, and playing very fast and complexly, so there's a lot of
preparation involved and a dialog with the instrument. For aesthetic
reasons I don't use looping or electronics beyond amplification - except
with the revrev pieces, which can thicken a single voice or woodwind.
So that was a different situation than the Cave room - where the Cave
maybe occupies, by the way, only a seventh or eighth of the space, and
where the content deals with the uncanny body in numerous ways. I should
add in both situations people seemed to be extraordinarily excited and
moved by what we were doing, even though the audiences were small.
(We do better in New York!)
I did feel the Cave and sonic issues had everything to do with each other;
that was clear in the space; just as the visuals in the Cave resonate with
the Cave architecture, the audio in the room resonated with the
architecture of the room as the whole, embodying the cave, in a sense,
which also embodied the room. The divisions were blurred; it was
interesting at the end, when we opened the windows and daylight came in,
we turned the sound off, everything seemed more than ordinary. I spent
maybe 100 hours in the space in the last three weeks or so.
- Alan
On Fri, 20 Mar 2015, Johannes Birringer wrote:
Good questions, Paul, and I enjoyed listening to the music Alan sent us,
and also have figured out meanwhile what revrev is (and noted there's a
way to possibly do it live with logic pro if you are running your
concerts through condenser mics). But the questions for me also were
raised by the spaces. The second one, AS220, seems to be a live
performance space (with audiences), and yet your emphasis, Alan, seems
to have been on your instruments (and voice) and reverberations in the
physical/spatial environment, can you tell us more please (are you
honoring Lucier and looking at reverberation's reverberation?). Now,
these are sonic issues, and they seem, in my mind, to have next to
nothing to do with a CAVE and the Cave's artificial density of
(seemingly immersive, 3D graphic projections) swirls, most likely hard
to see/perceive, and thus perhaps mostly or only a peripheral kinetic
experience (your picture playing the alto seems quite dark)? but not
affective or reactive sonically, or were Kathleen Ottinger's "Caveworks"
intra-active, responding to your music? Well, actually, you must enjoy
the CAVE space to want to play music there......I've never done it, nor
it would have ever occured to me.....
respectfully
Johannes Birringer
________________________________________
From: [email protected]
[[email protected]] on behalf of Paul Hertz
[[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, March 20, 2015 3:50 PM
To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity
Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] sonic architectures
I don't want to detract from the performance?I wish I could have seen it?but
could you say something about the software you are running? Is it exclusive to
the CAVE or does it run on other platforms? Is the CAVE integral to what you
are doing?
I worked with the CAVE for a while, even wrote a 3D sound module for it in
Max/MSP, but its exclusivity always seemed a problem. Now that game engines and
consumer-level 3D begin to be accessible to artists and mere mortals, immersive
3D at least seems to have possibilities. Not sure if in the form of a CAVE, but
I did find the experience compelling.
I like the notion that the technology may disappear if the [cultural|emotional]
expression within it is powerful enough. I get this from your performance.
salud,
-- Paul
On Mon, Mar 16, 2015 at 11:47 PM, Alan Sondheim
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
sonic architectures
http://www.alansondheim.org/irq3day51.jpg
http://www.alansondheim.org/irkclar.mp4
http://www.alansondheim.org/irqclar.mp3
http://www.alansondheim.org/irq3day47.JPG
with Cavework by Kathleen Ottinger,
text by Alan Sondheim, Kathleen Ottinger
alto clarinet, Alan Sondheim
voice, Azure Carter
revrev, Luke Damrosch
how the sound moves anong the imaginary land of shadows,
projects of Plato into the sound of ancient Greek or not
how Plato's project projects Plato's sound philosophy
how Plato's sound philosophy is sound
'He packed his pipe elaborately. "I once had a philosphy,"
he said. "But experience ruined it." He chuckled: "Next
time I'll know better."'
- Frederick Kohner, Gidget Goes New York, 1968
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