WRITINGS
Impressions from my experiences with creativity
2010 to now
Creating a guitar suit
12/18/2013
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SATURDAY, JANUARY 15, 2011 AT 4:26PM
I am working on the guitar suit that I will be using next Saturday, 1/22/2011 at the second annual San Diego Experimental guitar show. I will create multi-timbral sound clusters (sound clouds if you will), by moving an amplified guitar over the various string-exciting objects adhered to the suit. The most important construction tip came from my brother. He suggested that I use velcro to affix the components. As I began using velcro I realized why it is the most important tip. Now the suit can be configured for different kinds of composition:
Promo Piece 1 Promo Piece2
Update on Saturday, January 15, 2011 at 8:52PM by Randy Chiurazzi
In the coming week, I will be looking to add something mechanical like a wind up alarm bell that can trigger the strings.
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The sound suit as spontaneous soundtrack generator
12/18/2013
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TUESDAY, JUNE 21, 2011 AT 9:27PM
As I watch footage of sound suit performances I have noticed that the sounds that come out work as a soundtrack to the movements that are necessary to create them. So far, I have been purely motivated by wanting to make interesting sound compositions: To get an impulse to make a sound, then move.
I wonder what would result if I am motivated to make an interesting movement sequence first: move, then see what sound results. From this perspective it is a movement piece where the score and the choreography happen simultaneously. We shall see...
Watching musicians with great listening ability
12/17/2013
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THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 2012 AT 9:17PM
I went to hear the jazz group Road Work Ahead. Bill Mays- Piano, Bob Plank- Drums, Peter Sprague- Guitar, Bob Magnusson- Bass. They played Jazz arrangements of some popular stuff and mostly originals. The players made "IT" happen: separate instruments semlessly blend and create hybrid sounds coming from hybrid instruments... if you closed your eyes you might imagine that you were hearing the "Guitariano", the "Guitbass", or the "Drugitarbassiano". I left so highly motivated to continue my ear training practices. Listening is what does it. They had mastererful technique but it was the sound caused by this unseen act that was tieing them together. The players mixed eachother's sounds together in their inner ears, sent that sound out, and received a new version back. It was similar to the feedback loop effect I describe in this blog post. They deserved the standing ovation we gave them. Go see Road Work Ahead if you like Jazz. They are the very real deal. For you Jazz buffs, they are the deal inspired by Buddy Bolden back when it all got started.
I become the suit man
I become the suit man
12/17/2013
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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011 AT 12:47PM
Paul Moeller from Technomania circus shot this great example of a suit composition. This one is called, "wired". Watching this video shows an interesting compositional approach that the "suit idea" is best suited for (questionable puns notwithstanding). It is the following cyclical relationship as composition generator:
The movement of the player causes the sound, then the sound influences the movement of the player, the movement of the player causes the sound, then the sound influences the movement of the player, etc.
The player in this video is tightly linked to the sound and the sound is tightly linked to the actions of the player.
It is that relationship that my work with the suit is exploring.
The post called "Watching musicians with great listening ability" is about a similar effect I found when I saw "Road Work Ahead".
Thanks Paul!
It's about whirring though space
12/11/2013
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30, 2011 AT 8:33PM
Jonathan Piper's picture on "The Garage Gig" page of me whirring in a semi-here/semi not-here moment inspired this reflection. The image gets at what it is like to be behind the controls of the 'sound suit'. In one sense, I am very clear on what I am going to do (I am "here"), but I am also in between knowing what I am going to do, and not knowing (the "not-here"). The image also gets at what it is like to hear what is going on while gesturing: the sound picture is aslo whirring; here, not-here, or not-quite-here- arriving just as the physical gesture arrives...sometimes as a sudden calm where sound and gesture are in the "not-here", and I am in the eye of a moment; the focus of the lens... then slamming together ,"here", like wavecrests, the photo is that moment. Thank you Jonathan!
