Juan Parra Cancino – guitar and electronics
Chris Chafe – celletto and electronics
Jonathan Impett – extended trumpet and electronics
Duration: 15 minutes
The title and approach derive from Michel Serres’ investigation of the materials of physics. Developing Decartes’ thought experiment of a piece of wax (always the same, always different), Serres identifies three views: the object as perceived, the object as described in terms of its properties, and the object as an informational nexus that not only embodies the entire history of its own genesis and interaction, but is further transformed in each encounter or interrogation. The latter, he suggests, is the appropriate view in an informational world. Knowledge derives from the interference of such models.
Improvised electro-acoustic music is paradigmatic of contemporary practise in many ways – it raises questions of the nature of material and its representation, of the distribution of authorship and the emergence of form.
In Three States of Wax, information is exchanged, compared and processed in a range of modes: symbolic, as audio, and in terms of various modes of analysis. The difference between these modes is the engine of the music – a Lacanian motor of real-symbolic-imaginary. Three States of Wax2 adds a new layer to those of processed live instruments. The central ‘difference engine’ now becomes an independent voice, using only analog sounds to reveal the inner dynamics of the emerging form.
For this telematic version, we have designed a virtual, dynamic space that responds not only to the impulses of the instruments, but it continuously changes according to information provided by the abovementioned central ‘difference engine’. In doing so, the apparent limitation of an online performance takes advantage of the opportunity of an additional palette of resonances, displacement, and coloring that can only be experienced in the headset-mediated reality.
Audio Examples (given the improvised nature of the proposal, these examples should be only taken as reference):
Technical Requirements
Telematic presentation. Audiences should listen on headsets. We can adapt to whatever streaming format the organiser plans to use. We propose a combination of zoom for video/jacktrip for audio is a well-tested combination.