[NetBehaviour] Viola, Stockhausen, Infinite Space
michael szpakowski
michael at dvblog.org
Mon Oct 6 10:22:28 CEST 2014
Definitely interested! The list is not a jar or bottle which spills over -keep posting your stuff but I personally welcome discussion about it , at what ever length too...
cheers
michael
--------------------------------------------
On Sun, 10/5/14, Alan Sondheim <sondheim at panix.com> wrote:
Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] Viola, Stockhausen, Infinite Space
To: "NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity" <netbehaviour at netbehaviour.org>
Date: Sunday, October 5, 2014, 11:54 PM
Hi
Johannes,
I'll
intersperse comments re: below, but I'm not sure anyone
else is
interested (I'd hope so, but I
send so much to the list)
On Sun, 5 Oct 2014, Johannes Birringer
wrote:
[...]
> I wonder whether we could have a longer
discussion, here, and whether
> that
might interest others as well? I am particularly curious
about
> three aspects, and just mention
them here.
>
> - the
sonic:
>
> you speak
of "the world" as being resonant, reverberant, and
draw
> particular attention to the viola
recording and the vibration (low hz)
>
reccording, thus also on what is audible and how, and what
affect the
> lower (drone) resonances
might have. I then became interested as well
> in the associations you made
(Stockhausen), and went back to what you
> refered me to ("Gesang der
J?nglinge", an early piece and we have a 1956
> recording of it [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XfeWp2y1Lk]
-- speech
> sounds, edited and combined
with electronic sounds, at one point we find
> out that the percolating sounds are
layered in such a way that: "each
>
speech sound is regarded as one permutational manifestation
of the
> elements contained in
it" --- which now makes very interesting
> listening after I heard your viola); then
again my interest is in why
> vibration
is such a hot topic at the moment, it seems; why has the
> tactile/kinesthetic, and haptic and the
vibrational (bodyradio,
> sensortized
sound, physological signal transmission, etc) feedback
> aroused the interest of sound artists,
theatre artists, performers and
>
designers, and why such a recent increase in studes of
affect (and
> affect design)?
>
I'm
not sure re: above, but musicians I know have been
interested for
years in vibration, which
also connects to video feedbacks - not just
audio. People have performed in silos, etc. and
there are a great number
of people working
with natural phenomena in natural circumstances. Anyone
by the way playing a qin or performing noh -
two examples - works with
resonant surfaces
- the qin table or noh stage for examples; there are
also people claiming that paleolithic sites
exhibit sonic characteristics
that were
deliberately cultivated. Guitar feedback is another example.
My
own work with the synthesizer we built
in 1968 explored reonant harmonics
produced
by overdriving oscillators. The current work is based on an
awareness of the resonance / vibrations in
the Cave, and I've worked with
recording building vibrations for years. Even
VLF lightning signals are
based on
resonance within 'tubes' in the ionosphere connected
antipodean
points on the earth. So it's
not new to me at least, nor to a number of
people I admire, for example the environmental
artist Geoff Dugan.
[...]
> -
the 3D visual cave environment: you speak of an immersive
world, and
> spaces opening up under you
(you are seated "on" visual graphics), and
> also wonder how this could be conveyed to
anyone else. yes. it probably
>
can't, as we knew with powerful VR worlds such a Osmose
(by Char Davies)
> that were for single
wearer (goggles, strap around chest with sensor).
> And in my memory, being inside a cave, the
projected "virtual" worlds
>
seeemed too close for me to recognize/perceive anything in
particular,
> except, say, color and
motion, vertigo. Now how do relate that to the
> music, is it perhaps consonant with the
sonic the way you sense
> transcendence
of place and time? do you even believe in transcendence
> or the cosmic? what evokes in you
those resonances?
If I knew
what the transcendent was, I might believe in it; we were
talking with a friend about the numinous
yesterday. I'd say I was seated
within
the graphics, and you're right of course, that can't
be transmitted
which is a huge problem with
the cave. I do think that Oculus Rift or some
such will clear that up - I know people who are
using the developer's Rift
in Second
Life - objects in fact are clearly recognizable and you can
walk about your own creations. But I
haven't pursued this - partly because
of lack of money, and partly because of the
privacy of the experience -
others would
have to purchase the same equipment to see the same things.
In fact if people went 'around' my
structures, now, in MacGrid or on
Second
Life's Odyssey Sim, they _would_ be in the immersive 3d
objects;
all the information is there!
Of course music is easier, and
one can use binaural headphones - I've
worked with binaural recording / playback at
times and it's amazing.
I believe btw in the cosmos - how could one not
- but again, I'm not sure
what the
'cosmic' is - I've certainly had mystical
experiences, but I
don't ascribe any
ontological or epistemological status to them. I feel
I'm lucky enough to see the amazing variety
and beauty of our own planet,
even while it
disappears -
> - the
metaphysics so I go back to the reference to infinity and
worry
> that the ref to Stockhausen is
peligroso. I am not taken by the "Licht"
> cycle and its bombastic transendentalism,
though earlier work is
> fabulous and
inspiring, and I do enjoy listening to Oktophonie, which I
> think went into part of "Dienstag
aus Licht." Why Stockhausen's
>
heptalogy, the seven days of the week composition, is titled
"Light" is
> of course strange
too. For the 19th century painters of the sublime,
> light probably was crucial; for 20th
century german composers, at the
> time
of Kraftwerk and Einst?rzende Neubauten, I wonder where
Stockhausen
> thought he was lifting off
to, Romanticism having been thorough
>
discredited, and terror and the sublime (now that you refer
to ISIS) a
> dangerous ground.
I'm not sure what you mean
by 'peligroso' - I'm unfamiliar with the word,
although I did look it up. The Stockhausen
I was referring to was the
Gesang; I'm
not that familiar with any of his more recent work, so
I'm out
of my depth here. Are you
referencing the helicopter piece? I would have
loved to have heard that, and I can see
relationships of course. And I
would have
liked to have heard Octophony.
> The "Octophony" is available on
line as an audio-video, appearing around the time a concert
of this dense piece was done at the vast and enormous Park
Ave Armory in New York, March 2013 - a concert spatially
designed in white concentric seating (audience given white
ponchos to wear) arrangement by Rirkrit Tiravanija, lighting
design by Brian Scott. Pic attached. Listen here:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcvTUNWYtW8
>
> what I found very
intriguing, of course, in both instances, yours and
> Oktophonie's, was the emphasis on
spatialized 'total' sound experience
> (and, given the lighting and projection
designs), perhaps also something
> one
could call synaesthetic experience or transformational
> kinetic/tactile experience of sound (I
became aware of Brasilian
> musician and
sound researcher Serg?o Basbaum's interest in
synaesthesia
> effects of his
"chromossonium" a few years ago when Serg?o wanted
to do
> a project with me - but we have
not yet worked together for me to find
>
out how the chromossonium works)(see his Pantharei
performances (2014):
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUwskBoO6H4)
>
I also want to mention
Jackson Moore, whom I've worked with, who did a
sonic cube with twelve channels - he was
creating 'sonic objects' within
it,
in a pitch-black environment; they were amazing, and a kind
of
parallel to the cave. (we also did some
performances in the cube, but
that's
another story). And even back in the 70s I think, at UCSD,
there
were similar things going on with
12-channel compositions fully occupying
a
space.
> do you think
the "cosmic" sensation is multiple effects of
light,
> abstract motion graphics,
vibration, hum, drone, and high freqency
> squirms (as an acoustic range of
phenomena, with the visual a necessary
>
vertigo arouser)?
It all
adds up to a totality of course, of one sort or another;
nothing
really 'happens' in these
pieces, but they're surrounding, and I try to
convey that on the small video screen that can
be transported within the
Internet, on
personal laptops. The visual 'swaying' does create,
even on
the flat screen, an illusion of
depth, and of course listening with
headphones contributes as well. Everything goes
together. I think of the
sphere...
But the cosmic is only a
sensation -
Thank you!,
Alan
>
> regards
> Johannes
Birringer
>
>
>
________________________________________
> Sent: Friday, October 03, 2014 11:54 PM
>
>
>
Hi Johannes, and thanks for your comments. The visuals were
built by
> Kathleen Ottinger, and
designed so that the bow movement would 'slosh'
the
> three-dimensional architecture at a
fair wide and fast rate. I always play
>
both violin and viola like this; there's a movement
afoot in fact for
> classical viola to be
played vertically, since players get carpal tunnl
> otherwise. It's also played vertically
in some Arabic countries, as is the
>
violin; for me, it's comfortable. The strings are tuned
as 5th-4th-5th,
> which gives me a number
of drone positions that are really useful.
>
> In this piece,
I'm using the bow very near the bridge, played lightly
on
> two strings and heavily on the third
(second highest) so that harmonics
> are
sounded everywhere - the strings played lightly are played
like the
> qin, without pressing them
down to the finger board.
>
> It's a different sort of coupling for
me, and I saw the bow/viola as part
> of
a larger resonant whole, not the traditional relationship.
The same is
> true of the graphics; space
were opening up under me. The real problem of
> the Cave is trying to convey all of this
to someone elsewhere.
>
> The two channels are different. The left
channel is from the vibration
> unit
which reads from around .1 to 400 hz, very low - it records
room
> creaks, everything like that, as
well as the lowest tones of the music. So
> I tend to raise this into hearing range.
Here instead of that, I
> compressed the
sound so that the tones would come through at natural
> frequency; some 60-cycle hum also comes
through, but not much.
>
> Stockhausing - Gesang der Junglinge (bad
German spelling!) has stayed with
> me,
and some how this connected. Noh and Kabuki, absolutely.
>
> When I play in this
environment, it's as if I'm surrounded by the
world
> (well, obviously), but the world
is resonant, reverberant, and within
>
reach - it's amazing. Would love to do this live, at
least this part of
> it, sometime. And
there's a darkness to it, still thinking about ISIS
etc.
> - it's an expulsion/emergence
(reading again the Navajo creation story in
> another version now).
>
> Thank you so much -
Alan
>
>
> On Fri, 3 Oct 2014, Johannes Birringer
wrote:
>
>>
>> Hi Alan, am listening to it a second
time, thanks for sharing, unusual
>>
performance/concert in a Cave (what were the visuals?), and
you played
>> the viola like a cello?
when you say you imagine bow-coupled-to-the
>> viola, what would that be? is the
playing of bow on strings not already
>> coupling? the sound on my headphone
seems to differ (right clean, left
>>
channel compounded by a room hum or would that be the
vibration meter? -
>> what does that
do for you during the playing? and lastly (great photo,
>> you would be so good as a musician
with Noh and Kabuki, I already see
>>
you there, seated on the left side of the stage; now, what
has all this
>> to do with channeling
Stockhausen? which day? Samstag aus Licht?
>> Freitag?). warm regards Johannes
>
>
>> ++
>> Viola,
Stockhausen, Infinite Space
>>
>> http://www.alansondheim.org/caveviola44.jpg
>> http://www.alansondheim.org/violastarcave.mp3
>>
>> The viola was
coupled to the floor, fed through a standard
>> instrument mic and vibration meter;
the latter's track was
>>
amplified; my movements were coupled to the
three-dimensional
>> tunneling
surrounding me in the Cave. Thanks to Kathleen
>> Ottinger for stunning visuals, Azure
Carter for videography,
>> and the
Brown University Cave. I channeled Stockhausen, I
>> channeled cries and whispers,
everything through the viola in
>>
this one take. The sound, the music, is something I
haven't
>> heard before; I've
taken the right track, which was stunning
>> and I dreamed of the bow coupled to
the viola, replete with
>> cries and
whispers. We worked for hours, produced new video,
>> audio, and stills; we used radio,
Alpine zither, and viola;
>> we
recorded everything, even the secret transmissions of the
>> equipment itself.
>
>
>
>
==
email archive http://sondheim.rupamsunyata.org/
web http://www.alansondheim.org / cell
718-813-3285
music: http://www.espdisk.com/alansondheim/
current text http://www.alansondheim.org/sw.txt
==
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