I found jose’s lesson really valuable and covered a lot of things that I had already been thinking of in relation to my recently established performance practice.
Id been thinking a lot about how I dislike the previous ways ive performed – both with my game ‘A Forest of Wooden Antenna’, and when playing with guitar (much like the music ive been releasing under ‘my grey leaving’). All these times the performace has been quite standard – I sit situated at the front of the venue, the crowd detached, and either play the game or guitar.
For the game its an audio-visual performance with my playing of the game projected, but for guitar performanes it is currently the standard of laptop music – dark room, my face lit by the mystical screens glow
This brings up the interesting relationship of me using my own diy tools to create the music – Ive never given any context before the performance – the audience dont know what im pressign on my laptop – Should they know? Is it important for them to know, or should the music be the priamry focus? I could project the screen for them, but what would that acheive – its the ethos of live coding, to watch the embodied action just as they do when i use the guitar.
On the topic of ‘Virtuosity’ it brings up interesting things for me.
My current perforamce aspect is intentionally anti-showman, following in the footsteps of shoegaze, and laptop music – however the showmanship and virtuosity seems to be transposed/transformed onto the technology (effect pedals, coding ability) – This isnt my intention though I think can come across that way, the reason Sometimes by My Bloody Valentine has been one of my favourite songs for years isnt the idea of ‘studio wizardry’ but for the emotion power I feel it has when played loud into a space
Sound Examples
The current interface isnt really designed for performance – grids of numbers and boxes – I find it difficult in performative moments when I need to make a decision as most of it looks the same, and the funny thing is its own fault (haha). This is something that I want to work on further, potentially as the 2nd part of my portfolio – designing a more interesting interface for my performance, that allows me to stay on my feet.
With the guitar performances Ive played a few times without a controller, though I recently purchased a midi footswitch so that I can trigger paramaters in Max (currently toggling the 4 looped buffers). This makes it easier to perform in terms of timing things. It does also raise questions on what I choose to automate or expose parameter wise – the current interface isnt constricted into any linearity.
Jose touched on the relationship of playing live when you release music as an artist – people often expect you to play something of the same ‘studio’ quality as releases. This is something Ive not experienced with my current practice, mostly due to my performing practice being a way to promote/share my released music instead of the other way around – This is also unlikey to be said of my current work as I use the same tools I created in max to both record and play live, both being a practice of improvisation.
I realised quite early on that the concept of improvisation is much more apealing to me that practicing something in order to create something ‘right’ or perfect. It allows me to set up a framework/work on building a structure/tools, which then I can explore.
For my next performance – whenever it may be – I aim to change my role as a performer, whether that be facing away from the audience, playing away from the stage, hiding myself with either a full screen or cloth. Ive performed solo so few times that at this point I just need more experience in order to find the way that works for me.
Most of this was covered in the lesson when hearing Robert Henke’s thoughts on performance:
- The importance of taking risks.
- It’s very hard for anything that is art-related to be objective.
- This is not just a playback.
- Multi-channel surround sound: hard to reproduce in my living room, or-this is as meaningful in my opinion-volume.
It can be a ritualistic situation that forces me to listen to something in a way I wouldn’t do at home. - One-hour modulation of a sine wave, it’s probably something you wouldn’t expose yourself to at home.
- Perfection is not a value in itself.
- I would be super bored if my performances were 100 per cent predictable.
- It is a unique chance for an artist to do something else.
- Perfect reproduction is boring, deviation is interesting.
- I’d rather experience a performance that is 50 percent failure and 50 percent really interesting, than 100 percent predictable.
- Different genres and different types of performance have different degrees of freedom.
- I build a system that allows me to present something that I find interesting to be presented and this system defines what I can do with it, it defines the amount of freedom I have.
When I played my game as a performance I found it quite boring to do, yet simultaniously also found myself more nervous walking through the environment along the same path, than when performing with my guitar as an instrument. If something went wrong I wouldnt have any control to try and fix it (such as it crashing – id have to start over from the begining what wouldnt work with the timeslot of a performance).
A final aside is the idea of playing as part of an organised event or scene – the performances that ive enjoyed the most have been when other friends are on the same line-up
1) Design a fictional live performance and showcase it in your blog. This project should include a technical rider, promotional flyer, artist bio, and venue details. You aim to create an appealing and original performance concept, even though it won’t be executed. Conduct thorough research to attract a specific audience, demonstrating your creativity and event-planning abilities.