Network 5 - Fragile Coexistence (2020)

In Network 5, I play a white noise generator with small gestures that create unstable electrical contacts. The analog sounds of these contacts are processed by the computer and become part of a wider network of sounds. Some responses are immediate and easy to follow, helping me to keep my intuition engaged while playing. Other processes work more slowly, storing information that later affects what I can do. Over time, my gestures shape the limits of my own actions. I can’t fully predict these limits in advance; I discover them by listening as the performance unfolds.

The development of the piece is regulated by a series of concentric time cycles which are all related to the intuitive durations of the live gestures. The longest cycle, the upper level of organisation, can be repeated a fixed number of times for a stage performance or ideally repeated endlessly in an environment where the audience is free to join and leave the space at will.

The circuit generating the input signal is an analog noise generator that amplifies the residual noise of a resistor: the component is exposed and I manually create the contact generating white noise by pushing the resistor on the terminal. The contact not only generates white noise, but also a series of glitches and hums. Through the selection of an input source with evident limits and imperfections, the information channel that mediates human intentionality is reduced to the bare minimum. The reduction of the information channel does not configure a reduction of the information processed but redirects attention to information meaningful to the piece: the gesture, occasionally reminiscent of morse code, highlights the focus on duration and how a simple set of durations chosen intuitively can frame the entire compositional space; the limits and the glitches of the operation contribute to the uncertain positioning of human agency in the network. The acoustic qualities of the glitches are also used extensively in the piece in that the digital response mediates these analogic imperfections and use their features for the synthesis. At times, I looked for processes that turned these imperfections into familiar sounds, such as drum machines or synths that recall Eastern stringed instruments. These sounds set up recognizable references, but the way they interact with what happens during the performance reshapes them in unexpected ways, often pushing against my intentions or suggesting different ways of expressing them.

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