Title: To See, To Sea
Project Abstract: A live audiovisual performance designed for a taste of life, oddness, and warmth.
Project Description: Generating visual content through a combination of both analog and digital manipulations is the key guidance during the creation process of the project. Always keeping Thomas Wilfred’s lumia in mind as the main inspiration or reference, we intended to create something organic and abstract. The preparation process started as we intensively contemplated which objects have the most potential to be teased out interesting visual content. After a few experiments with light source, lenses, liquids, and leaves, we finally decided to base the visuals on the interaction with a bowl of clear water which will be added to acrylics during the performance. My group mate Phyllis contributed a lot to the arrangement or development of movements, coming up with the much-appreciated idea to use the performance for a narration of something emerging, growing, coming alive, and eventually disappearing. Overall, the performance aims to convey a sense of fluidity and vitality through an experience which can be found both odd and absorbing.
Perspective and Context: As mentioned above in the project description, we hope the outcome to be a creative response to Wilfred’s lumia. The historical record of Wilfred’s speeches where he publicly guided his spectators towards artistic and spiritual interpretations helps us take a glimpse of his intention as an artist. In the opening remarks of his lecture at Grand Central Palace in midtown Manhattan in 1933, he shared the hope for his art in the possibly most poetic way – to “transform this hall into the cabin of a fantastic dream ship capable of traveling through space with the speed of thought” (26 Orgeman). Wilfred ’s vision for lumia was a transformative experience which invited spectators for a journey from the realistic and physical space to an unfamiliar outer space dimension where spectators could contemplate the genesis of life from an alienated perspective however also feeing the innate and primitive attachment to the medium of light. In Keely Orgeman’s words, an experience which feels “as strange as floating through space yet as familiar as sunlight touching the skin” (27). The idea of something strange, alienated yet familiar inspired us in creating our own vision of lumia. Visually, the projection of liquids contained in a transparent bowl results in the plainest shape; however, through manipulating the effects digitally, the shape, color, and texture gradually become distinctly unfamiliar. In correspondence to the alienation effect in the visual presentation, we also redesign the sounds of water drops which results in an even more digital impression. In short, we hope our performance to offer a dream-ship-like experience as initially created by Wilfred, invite our audience to forget about the realistic situation and feel as if having the perspective of a microscope, traveling through both time and space.
Orgeman, Keely, Thomas Wilfred, James Turrell, and Maibritt Borgen. Lumia: Thomas Wilfred and the Art of Light. , 2017. Print.
Development and Technical Implementation: In summary, the creation process is vaguely divided into these steps – deciding which materials to utilize, arranging movements, creating a Max patch for Vizzie modules, creating soundtracks according to movement arrangement and visual effects, combining the soundtracks with a new patch with Beap modules, and cooperating the visual and audio content in rehearsals. All of the stages make influences on one another. In terms of work division, while all of us cooperate within each stage, each of us did have different focuses – Phyllis on live manipulation of objects, Amber on digital control of visual content with me also digitally controlling the soundtracks.
Before creating a Max patch for sounds, I created two soundtracks in DAW as the ground layer. The first piece is a minimal and ambient composition designed for the emergence and awakening stage of the performance; the second piece integrates an upbeat rhythmic part which becomes stronger along with the change of visual image. Since liquidity is a main subject for the project, I also use a sample of the water dropping sound with the plan to trigger it during the live performance. To explain how the patch works – during the first part of performance, the first piece of soundtrack runs through a low pass filter and a pan mixer which I control with a midi controller during the performance in order to create a hovering soundscape. In the middle stage of the performance, I start playing the water drop sample on a midi keyboard while the first soundtrack is still playing. As I trigger the water drop sounds in different keys, Phyllis drops water to the bowl at the same time to connect the visual and audio experience into one. As I gradually fade out the first piece of music, I start playing the second soundtrack. Amber makes sure that the visual effects should become more apparent and layered with each stage of the music progressing. Approaching the end of the performance, I repeat playing the water-dropping sample at the same time of triggering more apparent effects including chorus and delay.
Max patch for sounds: https://gist.github.com/HoiyanGuo/b56d4fd6c1e00e94277d079f0562e113Max patch for visual: https://gist.github.com/PhyllisFei/4ec4c3338de1da2f67211cbe38a5f5e0
Performance: In general, I think the in-class performance went well with a few unwanted surprises- since most of our rehearsals happened in open classroom or the lab, I needed to take some time adapting to the performance environment including feeling comfortable controlling the laptop and MIDI keyboard in the darkness and with how the music sounded in the auditorium space. Since the music was recorded in advance, what brought us most panic were the digital visual effects. In the middle part of the performance happened a sudden blackout and a few unplanned effects since the MIDI controllers were all sensitive. Moreover, during the first few minutes of the performance, although I was constantly panning the soundtrack hoping to create a hovering effect, the panning was not easily heard. Other than that, I found it quite a fun experience performing with my friends!
Conclusion: Accomplishing the project was a valuable experience for me. I appreciate the combination of digital and non-digital approaches in generating visual content. The project helps me to understand Max as a practical digital tool to polish or alter materials coming from the physical world rather than having everything created digitally. Moreover, with the help of my group mates, I feel that I have gained a stronger intuition in terms of the coordination between images and sounds. The project inspires me to care about materials, texture, and their interaction with lights, and teaches me to use technology as a new lens to look at the world. In conclusion, I feel satisfied with the project outcome – it was imperfect indeed, but full of human touch.