The feeling of performing in front of a live audience does not arise at any other point in the process. The music is exposed to the public for judgement, and the system is put to the test. How well do we handle performance-related challenges? What happens when something does not go as planned? Looking back on the many performances we did between 2014 and 2020, some went more smoothly than others, but more importantly, each one serves as a ‘snapshot’ of where the project was at that time, providing a resource to help us reflect on our artistic work over a longer period of time.
This way of viewing the working process, as a series of data points telling a more and more detailed story, is an approach borrowed from research. We are constantly striving to gain a more fine-grained understanding of the possibility space in which we work, and our working method is structured to trend in that direction. This is not a framework that relies on moments of inspiration or genius, but rather on ongoing, sustained experimentation and reflection.
After devoting significant time to the previous phases, the presentation of the piece represents an abrupt shift in timescale. The preceding work can be done non-linearly, moving forward and backward, discarding and rebuilding system elements as needed, exploring musical material through open-ended trial-and-error, and carefully shaping the piece itself. The concert performance, on the other hand, is unforgivingly linear. It unfolds one note at a time, committing our musical statement to the record without the opportunity to go back and revise it.
In addition to our aubiome concert performances, the flexibility of our system has allowed us to incorporate elements of it into other projects and collaborations. While our musical rehearsals focus on exploring a certain territory, the terrain may shift when aubiome is introduced into a different context. Collaboration across disciplines can shed light on our project and bring unexpected elements to the surface. For example, working with the Vienna-based dance company Pop Up Collective (PUC) and the Berlin-based dancers from INNER brings physical gesture to the forefront and forces us to think more explicitly about how our musical gestures might map onto dance-related gesture.
Working with video artist Max Windisch-Spörk raised questions about perspective and point of view, while another collaboration with Ulrich Kaufmann prompted us to consider how our music might interact with light projection. When the resources developed in each of these interdisciplinary projects are transferred to another project, they may produce unexpected results. Furthermore, these experiences can help us gain a better overall understanding of our own practice, almost like viewing a single object from a variety of different perspectives.
As people consume more media online, video has become one of the most popular ways for them to listen to music. If a sizable portion of our audience engage with our music online, then video and audio production must be considered a part of ‘public presentation’.
We approached this in a variety of ways, and several of them can be seen here. The video of manifold, which we produced for this exposition, can be found at the top of the page. We filmed it in our studio in Vienna, using a filming style similar to how we film our working sessions. This provides a close-up view of both performers, providing a unique experience that differs from attending a live performance.
Another approach we frequently use is more cinematographic in nature. For example, in 2017, the first version of aubiome was created in collaboration with Siavash Talebi, who attempted to capture the spirit of each movement through lighting and camera movement. The 'Listen to aubiome' page includes three movements from that video session. Working with visual artists can result in completely different types of videos, such as the one above by Ulrich Kaufmann.
