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Interactive session with Don Sinclair
A recent session with Don Sinclair at the York University Digital Media lab: trying out an interface for interactive performance, we were wearing hats since the winter deep freeze was keeping that large space kind of chilly.
Don had made a Max patch to collect data from a Myo armband controller (https://www.thalmic.com/en/myo/) so that as movements are made along the yaw pitch and roll axes, three associated sound files can be mixed. With a band on each arm, it would then be possible to mix six files.
I had brought several sounds to work with the system. Shorter and more abstract electroacoustic sounds were unsatisfying in terms of gesture, feeling choppy. Two sets of sounds worked well together: in each case, one was a track which had environmental sounds accompanied by improvised vocalizations, my approach here influenced by Viv Corringham in her Shadow Walks, as well as the vocal work of Kathy Kennedy and Kok Siew Wai. This vocal-environmental track was effective when mixed with complex, active environmental recordings such as ice in a river at spring breakup or a spring field with abundant wildlife.
We developed performance strategies by getting feedback from two projections. One was a ball with yaw, pitch and roll mapped to x, y and z, in which the sonic effect of gestures could be understood intuitively by watching the ball. The second gave the values of yaw, pitch, and roll as a dynamic vertical bar graph reflecting each stream of data individually.
We decided that files in the range of 30-40 secs are most effective gesturally given our aims, so will think about combinations for next time. Also it seems that this setup will work well for vocal performance including spoken word and more abstract vocalizations. We have plans for next time to practise further, perhaps with two armbands, to articulate the range of motion more clearly, and work with different sets of sounds.
La marche sonore comme processus d’interaction à Dance Dramaturgy (Université York, 2011)
(An English version of this text can be found here)
« Soundwalking Interactions ». Présentation, installation et performance, par Andra McCartney (artiste sonore), Don Sinclair (artiste interactif), Susan Lee (chorégraphe), ainsi que Tracey Norman, Bee Pallomina, Shannon Roberts et Jesse Dell (danseuses). Conféremce Dance Dramaturgy : Catalyst, Perspective and Memory, Université York, 23 juin 2011.
Les membres du groupe ont d’abord participé à une marche sonore dans un parc de Toronto. Andra McCartney, qui initiait la marche, s’est ensuite retirée par moments po ur encourager le groupe à prendre le contrôle de la marche. Ces changements de leader et de directions ont créé des effets de masse qui ont ensuite été repris dans la structure improvisatoire de la danse. Le groupe s’est arrêté quelques instants pour discuter de la marche, puis a continué. Le lendemain, l’enregistrement de la marche sonore a été publié en ligne et partagé entre tous les participants. Le groupe s’est rassemblé et à procédé à une écoute en groupe, faisant des pauses à toutes les dix minutes pour des fins de discussions. Celles-ci ont ensuite permis de produire un montage sonore pour la performance. Suite à a la première répétition, la chorégraphe a indiqué le besoin d’obtenir plus d’extraits sonores, autant pour les danseuses que pour les besoins de la chorégraphie.
La structure de la chorégraphie de Lee était basée sur de courts segments de 45 secondes à 1 minutes, entre lesquels elle laissa des espaces d’improvisations gestuelles, le tout résultant en une performance d’environ 16 minutes. Les mouvements des danseuses étaient basés sur l’expérience de la marche sonore ainsi que la nature des extraits sonores conservés. Les danseuses se déplaçaient dans l’espace performatif en se suivant l’une derrière l’autre dans un jeu d’échanges, de poursuites, de pauses, de boucles, articulant l’espace et les sons par des gestes de staccato, des changements de tempo et des déplacements de masse. Tous ces mouvements se traduisaient en une multitude de formes et de couleurs projetés sur l’écran géant. Cette installation constitue une exploration corporelle des possibilités acoustiques d’un lieu circonscrit. Cet exercice révèle aussi les relations entre les mouvements du corps et le sens du lieu. Par exemple, l’absence momentanée de mouvement peut provoquer soit le silence ainsi que la disparition de traces visuelles à l’écran, soit l’intensification de sons qui autrement auraient été atténués par le mouvement. Chaque extrait, chaque lieu est porteur de possibilités quant aux articulations corporelles de l’espace à travers le son. Les mouvements produits dans un espace spécifique révèlent sa forme et ses frontières. Les danseuses explorent cet espace en activant chaque son (volontairement ou non), en retournant aux sons jugés plus évocateurs, dérangeants ou intrigants, et en les combinant. Les mouvements s’affirment progressivement, gagnant en confiance, en gestuelle et en musicalité. Ainsi, la chorégraphie se développe en phases et en trajectoires définies à travers les mémoires auditives de la marche, l’espace circonscrit de l’installation ainsi que ses multiples configurations sonores.
Ce texte est basé sur une analyse antérieure de l’installation, parue dans le Canadian Journal of Communication :
Paquette, David et Andra McCartney. “Soundwalking and the bodily exploration of places.” Canadian Journal of Communication, 37 (1), 2012: 135-145.
Soundwalking Interactions at Dance Dramaturgy (York University 2011)
(La version française de ce texte se trouve ici)
“Soundwalking Interactions.” Presentation, installation and dance performance with sound artist Andra McCartney, interactive artist Don Sinclair, choreographer Susan Lee, dancers Tracey Norman, Bee Pallomina, Shannon Roberts, and Jesse Dell. Dance Dramaturgy: Catalyst, Perspective and Memory, York University, June 23, 2011.
All members of the group began by going on a soundwalk together in a Toronto park. Andra McCartney began by leading, but then held back in order to feel which direction the group tended at different moments. She then encouraged others to take over leadership. This shift in leadership and direction created different feelings of flocking that were later referenced in the improvisatory structure of the dance. The group halted part way through the walk to exchange listening ideas, then continued. The next day, the recorded soundwalk was posted online for download. The group gathered and listened to the whole soundwalk, pausing after every ten minutes to discuss what was heard. On the basis of this discussion, sound excerpts were edited for the dancers to use in the installation. After the first rehearsal, the choreographer asked for more sounds to be generated, based on the desires of the dancers and the needs of the choreography. Lee designed a choreographic structure that gave room for improvisation in gesture and movement within scored moments of 45 seconds to 1 minute in length, creating a piece in five gestural sections that lasted around 16 minutes. Movements were linked with the experience of the soundwalk and the attributes of the sounds. In the space of the installation, dancers walked behind each other, sometimes embracing each other, leading and following, circling and pausing, sometimes listening with eyes closed, articulating the space and the sounds through staccato gestures and changes in tempo, moving closer to each other and farther apart; all of these motions translated into swirling colours and shapes on the projection. The installation relies on a bodily exploration of acoustic possibilities within a circumscribed space. The exercise also reveals relationships between bodily movements and a sense of place. For instance, stillness could result in silence, as well as the absence of visual traces on the screen, or alternatively it could result in loud sound that would be attenuated by movement. Each case provided different kinds of possibilities for bodily articulation of the space in sound. Movements inside a given place reveal its shape and boundaries. Participants explore the space, activating each sound voluntarily or by accident, returning to the most appealing, disturbing or evocative sounds and mixing them. Movements become progressively more confident, musical, gestural. Thus the choreography develops into defined phrases and trajectories through the audible memories of the walk, the circumscribed space of the installation and its various sonic configurations.
The text in this posting is developed out of a former analysis of this piece in the CJC.
Paquette, David and Andra McCartney. “Soundwalking and the bodily exploration of places.” Canadian Journal of Communication, 37 (1), 2012: 135-145.