Metaphysics of Notation
Percussionist Andy Bliss and I performed the installation The Metaphysics of Notation at the Cantor Arts Center of Stanford University. Composed by Mark Applebaum, the piece is musical “notation” on 12 separate panels displayed throughout the museum, which are then realized musically by the performer.
Applebaum explains the piece as a score of “visual art teeming with evocative glyphs and dense arranged pictographs. The meaning of its visual figures is deliberately left undefined… Each performer is invited to make their own sonic realization of the score.”
Bliss and I performed four panels over the course of an hour using four different percussion instruments such as snare drum, tuned almglocken, ceramic pots + bowls, rattles, shakers, cymbals, frame drums, and even squeaky toys. We filled the empty space with an accompanying soundscape + visualization which I programmed to respond to the movement of those passing by in the gallery. The soundscape included separate rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic planes all synthesized using found sounds.
We controlled the soundscape via two iPhone TouchOSC interfaces which cued a custom synth programmed in Processing. I relied on both the Sonia library for sound interaction and Toxi’s toxiclibs for the visualization.
