Res, a matter.

Rehearsing Music for Flesh II at Inspace, UK.

I just ended a new work residency at Inspace, home to a joint research partnership between the School of Informatics and New Media Scotland.
During the residency, me and Brendan F Doyle (Production Sound Engineering) worked on a participatory Musicircus which included a complex, reactive sonic system for 8 Xth Sense biosensors and 8 audio channels.
The piece was premiered two days ago on 15th March during a public event which gathered quite a good amount of people from different backgrounds, music, sound design, informatics, hackers and general public.

It was awesome to see how the audience positively reacted to this unconventional paradigm of musical performance, namely generating and controlling electroacoustic sounds and music by muscle’s contraction. After some initial – and expected – disorientation, everybody started realizing how to use the sensors and how to interact with the system; only then the actual Musicircus started.

The event was pretty successful, everything worked out fairly smoothly –  except the few things which always “have to” get broken just before the opening –  and we received several excited and stimulating feedback. Overall a great and satisfying experience.

During the same night, I also performed my new solo sonic piece Music for Flesh II, for augmented muscle sounds and Xth Sense technology. The acoustic capabilities of Inspace were challenging: glass walls all around, an empty floor which acts as a resonant shield, and interesting sonic reflections happening all around the space. I need to thank again my colleague Brendan for his great work with the sound engineering of the venue and his live mixing during my performance.

Picture courtesy by Chris Scott.