Something solid 05/11/08

Trying to answer those questions, I have mentioned earlier in my blog, I have ended up with more questions and things started to drift away. At that point I knew that I had to arrange a meeting with Greg to put things in order. After a conversation with Greg (28-10-2008) about my new ideas and questions i had in mind, I have realized that it was not clear to me what I am going to do for collaborative project. So,to make my project clear I have to be able to explain it.

In my collaborative project I am focusing on how the audience can influence and transform a live musical performance.

WHY?

It is fairly accepted, at least from me, that the audience is able to contribute to the final musical outcome. If there is no audience then music can not exist. There is a connection between the audience and performer/s as it is with the composer and performer/s. To make things clearer here is a small drawing how they connect with each other.

Every element can affect the others in any direction.
To create, what we can label as, a live musical outcome we need all of the three elements above. All of these factors can influence and transform the music in a live performance.


HOW?

I have to find ways that I can engage the audience to participate into the music. I have mention earlier the conscious and the unconscious influence of the audience. In most of the western civilisation musical tradition the audience contributes to performances/compositions from the unconscious point of view. Their influence is more psychological to the performers. They can not control the mental influence since they don't know how the performer is going to react.

From the conscious point of view the audience is very restricted. There are few concerts that the audience is allowed to interact with the music. The next videos are from the concert Rock Music, Rock Art that held at Birmingham Conservatoire on the 24 of October 2008. During that concert the musicians wanted the audience to clap their hands as a part of the concert. At the end of the concert the musicians from the Uganda Dance Academy ask from the audience to participate by dancing with the rest of the group. Here are two videos taken with my mobile phone.






Furthermore it is forbidden to influence the performance/composition in a western tradition. In concerts they give you the performance notes in a hard paper so that you don’t make any sounds accidentally during the performance. They also supply you with throat drops so that you will not disturb the concert and the others. Moreover you feel so uncomfortable by the unwritten rules that you are waiting for the section to finish, you cough and then you prepare yourself mentally to seat still for the next 22 minutes.

So for my collaborative project I want the audience to be able to choose their participation consciously or unconsciously. For the hardware I am planning to use mobile phones the Wii remote and other portable devices as a part of conscious participation from the audience. Mobile phones because now almost everyone has a mobile phone and they will feel comfortable enough to use it during a performance. Also I am assuming that the already know how to use the Bluetooth or take a picture. The Wii remote because is a small wireless device which I can get lots of data from it. For the software I will us Max/MSP and Ableton Live.