Output details

Derriere le Miroir for harpscichord, visual artist and live electronics.

Duration: 12:00.

First Performance: Kings Place London, 25/6/2012. Jane Chapman (harpsichord), Jon Barraclough (drawing).

Documentary Film: http://robwindsorfilms.com/post/34770183364

This composition originated in collaboration with visual artist Jon Barraclough and harpsichordist Jane Chapman. It explores the meeting points between musical and visual gesture, in this instance the mirroring of sight and sound using live drawing and harpsichord. It addresses the interaction between lo-tech (e.g. hand drawing) and hi tech (e.g. digital processing), addressing the following research questions:

• Manipulation of timbre in a manner equivalent to found-objects in film/visual art.

• Adoption of appropriate technical means to integrate moving image with real-time sound-transformation.

• Implementation of live interaction in mixed-media performance.

This approach utilises data derived from measuring the intensity of the artist’s gestures to shape real-time digital transformations of the harpsichord's musical material. For instance, live drawing is founded on a fixed archetype of stroke that's treated as a found object and reflected in corresponding derivation of the work's harmonic and rhythmic material from a frequency analysis of a single recorded harpsichord note (low F). Furthermore, the accumulation of ‘strokes’ in both drawing and music is reflected through the gradual progressive transformation of image and sound.

Finally, Derrière’s aim to discover new forms of fusing visual art and music in performance takes as its impulse the spirit of inquiry, experimentation and invention found in works by Dali (Voyage en Haute Mongolie) and Buñuel (Un Chien Andalou), rather than using recently developed theoretical and technical stances linked to parametric mapping [2] or the imposition of models and processes across both media. It therefore brings together the flexibility and expressivity associated with live interactivity in instrumental music with techniques of montage and illusion associated with visual art.

[2] Alves, W. 2005. Digital Harmony of Sound and Light. Computer Music Journal, 29(4): 45-54.

[3] Whitney, J. 1994. To Paint on Water: The audiovisual Duet of Complementarity. Computer Music Journal 18(3): 45-52