A telematic performance of a simulated Pen and Paper Quartet. Delay chains of both audio and video, as well as, three approaches to work with dynamics are used as main parameters in this digitally mediated live music performance.
Anders Lind is a composer and sound artist, situated as an artistic associate professor at the Department of Creative Studies / Umeå University in Sweden.
The medium is an extension of human, but every extension is also an amputation, to use Marshall McLuhan´s vocabulary. This recorded online live performance of Pen and Paper Quartet is a part of my ongoing artistic research exploring artistic extensions and amputations embedded in a telematic performance medium. Pen and Paper Quartet is a simulation of a quartet, where a solo musician is performing in real-time, using pen and paper as instruments and interacting with three delayed versions of the same live performance. Delay-chains of audio and video are used as fundamental parameter for the composition, as well as four approaches to work with dynamics in a digitally mediated live music performance.
Below is the recorded live performance of Pen and Paper Quartet, taken from the SAR-2021 presentation:
BACKGROUND
The COVID-19 outbreak 2020-22 forced us to completely reevaluate our behaviors and to find creative alternative solutions for global communication, including new ways for communicating art. As a composer and researcher, I´ve dedicated the recent years, partly isolated, to exploring the telematic performance medium. Indeed, the idea to work with digital mediation of both time and space in a live performance is interesting, at least from a composer's perspective. However, to use media ecologist Marshall McLuhan´s vocabulary; every extension is also an amputation. A Latency Accepting Approach (LAA) is the starting point for this research with an aim to let the conditions of the telematic performance format to influence the artistic processes. The research is carried out in multiple iterations / short case studies inspired by action research. Each iteration includes three key steps: planning, action, and analyses of results. Consequently, the result of one iteration informs the planning process for the next iteration. The first iteration was carried out in collaboration with a chamber ensemble and included the premiere of the composition Latency Music. Eight musicians were performing together in real-time from eight different locations In Sweden conducted by a rolling screen score. The second iteration included a telematic performance of my composition Embracing Distance. Six musicians were performing together from three different continents (Australia, Europe, and the USA). Pen and Paper Quartet, presented and performed at SAR-2021, was the third iteration of the project.