THE UNDERSCORE

From Andrew Garton's wiki

The MAK, Great Hall

Accentuating the acoustic qualities of The Great Hall at The MAK (Museum for Applied Arts, Contemporary Art), Vienna, with solo voice, voice actuated choral resonator, hard curve saturation and as many working valve radios as can be acquired for the duration of the project. Conceived and proposed by Andrew Garton.

THE UNDERSCORE is a component of a major work, Requiem in A Modulation, being composed and produced for KunstRadio in memoriam for the closing of the analogue television and radio broadcast spectrum.

Contents

Description

THE UNDERSCORE makes use of the eight second delay afforded by the Great Hall at the MAK. This is a site specific performance that explores the acoustic subtleties and extremes the venue provides the composer / performer.

THE UNDERSCORE is also an interactive work. Audience members will be invited at the outset of the piece to tune a temporary installation of valve radios within available "white space", that is, un-used frequencies within the analogue radio spectrum. Others will be invited to make what ever sounds they wish from any level of the Great Hall... they may whisper, they may shout, but not use any intelligible words.

To further the immersive effect of the sound work it is proposed that all available surface areas of the Great Hall be awash with video projections of close up views of the radio dials / face plates.

Movements

The UNDERSCORE is based on the four movements of the Requiem in A Modulation:

  1. BABEL: random voices, whispering and shouting, unintelligible sounds morphing with pre-recorded vocals of remote voice communications indigenous to Austria;
  2. BELL: European church bells that were the loudest sounds to be heard until industrialisation;
  3. FREQUENCY: Radio spectrum frequencies;
  4. TUNING: solo voice bringing disparate elements of prior movements, including live sampling of the first, towards conclusion.

Collaboration

It is proposed that this work is produced as a collaboration between The MAK, KunstRadio and Andrew Garton towards the realisation of the major work, Requiem in A Modulation.

The performed components, or movements of THE UNDERSCORE, will form the basis for the Requiem's underscore. As such, the entire work would be multi-track recorded by ORF/KunstRadio. This would require close collaboration between MAK and ORF production staff, the composer and the KunstRadio producer.

Rights

The recorded work would be licensed under an appropriate Creative Commons (CC) licence which would require all participants to complete a release form. The composer, in collaboration with the Creative Commons Clinic, Australia, has prepared template release forms for such purposes. These can be re-drafted to accommodate Austrian CC licenses which may require translation of the release forms from English to German.

Setup and technical requirements

Sound

Basic floor plan
  • Minimum 8, maximum as many as possible working valve radios (placed in semi-circle near centre of The Great Hall)
  • 4 to 8 contact mikes, or 2 – 4 near-field mikes to amplify / record radios
  • 1 x appropriate PA

Require separate speaker array strategically placed within Great Hall for play back of pre-recorded sounds (voice and bells).

  • 2 x mikes for remote audio sampling + balanced cables
  • 1 x audio interface (USB or Firewire) (e.g. M-Audio ProFire 610)
  • 1 x 4 channel stereo mixer for performer with 2 separate sends for sound to be heard on secondary speaker array
  • 1 x USB keyboard / controller (semi-weighted keys, 3-4 octaves) (e.g. M-Audio Axion 49)
  • 1 x external LCD monitor
  • 1 x suitable desk-lamp or equivalent
  • 3 x tables (as used in GRIT 02) for performer

Video

  • 4 x video projectors
  • 4 x cameras + tripods
  • vision mixer, or cameras direct to projector
  • DV/HDV tape or storage (depending on camera type available)
  • cabling

Floor plan

The floor plan places the composer / performer at the front entrance to the Great Hall facing inwards. The audience is seated facing out from in front of and either side of the radio array.

A pear of speakers faces the composer / performer whilst a second pair are placed on either the first or second levels. These are not fixed positions.

Other

  • Private room for Andrew Garton's vocal warm-up / preparation.
  • Two litres of still water at room temperature.
  • No smoking within the Great Hall, prior to or during performance.
  • No photos to be taken during performance other than by nominated personnel.
  • Audience to be made aware of the need for silence, when required, for purposes of recording.

Acknowledgements

Andrew Garton's participation in all Austrian based projects would not have been possible without the financial, logistical and infrastructure support of ESC im Labor, Graz.

In addition, Garton's ongoing stay in Austria has been made possible by the personal support provided by Reni Hofmueller (ESC im Labor), Jogi Hofmueller (mur.at) Doris Carstensen (University of Music and Dramatic Arts Graz), Elisabeth Zimmerman (KunstRadio) and Grant McHerron (apc.au, Australia).

For information about Andrew Garton, projects and background: http://agarton.org/

Retrieved from "http://agarton.org/wiki/index.php?title=THE_UNDERSCORE"