Performance for solo electronics and shard-speakers, 2022/23
Program Notes
Beyond Hexagons is a live performance that uses the shard-speakers, microphones, and custom MIDI-controlled Max for Live instruments. The shard-speakers function as loudspeakers made from pieces of broken crystal singing bowls and tactile puck transducers.
In Beyond Hexagons, I experiment with digital instruments and feedback systems that excite, complement, and contrast the unique properties of the shard-speakers. Washes of noise cause the transducers to vibrate in such a way that activates and mimics their “frosted” texture. Sine tones resonate the shards at their resonant frequencies, or evoke sounds of the intact bowls from which they are derived. Transient clicks cause the shards to wiggle or jump, or the transducer to literally smack against the glass-like material. Mixing signals through both the shards and venue speakers, I create the sensation of moving between intimate and immersive spaces.
Audio:
Beyond Hexagons, 2023 cassette/digital, released on Infrequent Seams as a part of their K7 Commissions Series on August 7, 2023.
Each side of the tape features the unaffected sounds of the shards—derived from a recording of the related installation Ode on Crushed Matrices—contrasted with the buzzing digital intensity of the first live performance of Beyond Hexagons, given for Infrequent Seams Streamfest in June 2022.
Technical Documentation
Stage Diagram:
