Body Waves Sound Waves : Optik

Body Waves Sound Waves : Optik
Live Sound and Performance
Barry Edwards and Jarlett

1.
- Music and sound have always been key ingredients in Optik.
- 1981-1986 : live acoustic solo instruments
- 1992-2000 : specific acoustic sources, mainly percussion, with improvisation
- 2000 : Internet experiment, electronic sound → live electronic sound
2.
- The first approach : working with blocks of performance material
- The second cycle : working with wave-like transitions and emergent moments of event and action
- the dynamics of the human body in space and time
- the size, shape and acoustics of a space, and of the performers and spectators are all ingredients in the starting mix. There is connection.
- Theatre is a process of flux.
- eidetic intuition : a useful term to describe theatre is a process of flux, the immediate knowledge of the form of something, something that is vivid, and present
- eidetic : the Greek word eidos which refers to a mental image that has unusual vividness and detail
- intuition : immediate apprehension of something without reasoning
3.
- Movement and stillness : silent and sound
- dynamogenesis : what happens before you make an action
- In both music and action, repeating is a key technical building block for the Optik process.
4.
- The sound in recent Optik work is always 'diagetic'.
- That is the source of the sound is always present, not imported.
5.
- Jarlett's system
- A way of generation an electronic sound score that did not rely on using any ingredients produced in advance of the performance itself : to use a granular synthesiser called Granulab written by Rasmus Ekman
- Granular synthesis is a process first suggested by Iannis Xenakis and Curtis Roads.
･ Looping : a loop start, length and rate. This looping control simply defines where in the sound file a grain when produced is to start from-in computational terms it could be described as a pointer.
･ Rhythm : Barry Truax identifies that constant sound grains need to be less than 50ms in duration. The sound produced happens regularly, giving a rhythmic pattern for the performer to react to, but its content can change with every repeat.
･ Texture : altering the grain length, grain frequency and grain pitch → creating diverse timbres-from rumbling bass to high frequency distorted screeches, rhythmic patterns at various speeds → lush ambient drones
6.
- Artist-artist collaboration
- Collaboration as director and sound technologist has been based on interaction as artists.