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Ensayo Sobre La Bicicleta

Ensayo Sobre La Bicicleta (originally named ‘Close-up’) is a live-coded composition using SuperCollider software where computer music code is edited, compiled and projected in front of the audience. The work is a practical application of the research in the portfolio chapter: Wilson, Scott and d’Escriván, Julio, 2011. Composing with SuperCollider, in SuperCollider. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-23269-2 The piece belongs to my series of ‘live code essays’ (2008-2011: De la Torpeza and the Ixi Lang performances at Manchester University and ICMC2012-Slovenia) underpinned by ongoing research mixing and projecting natural language and machine code on screen in a performative environment. The code editing process and new lines of code are presented on a large screen to an audience. Photography and live-text are also presented algorithmically and related to the prepared code in translucent, palimpsest-like, windows. My original contribution is to play with the use of ‘non-compilable’ words and phrases from natural language, interspersed with the code that a lay audience can read and understand. Extramusically, I am interested in the hyper-linking essay style of Michel de Montaigne's (1533-92) classical referencing and the potential for plundered media to enrich the poetry of the audiovisual event. The relative chaos of the screen shared with the audience reflects the coexistence of the different media formats. The piece has been performed at: King’s Place in London as part of Music Orbit’s ‘Sound Source’ Series in March 2010; ‘From Helmholtz to Hard Drives: Music’s Material Legacy and Digital Future’ conference held at the Cambridge University Faculty of Music, May 2010; the 5th Festival of Electronic Arts of Ionian University, Corfu, Greece, May 2011; and the Cosmo Rodewald Hall of the University of Manchester in December 2011.