SOUNDS SOUNDS SOUNDS SOUNDS PETER DOWLING SOUNDS SOUNDS SOUNDS SOUNDS
SOUNDS DOWLING SOUNDS DOWLING SOUNDS DOWLING SOUNDS DOWLING SOUNDS
a Composition:
2004:
Don't Touch Me! (I Hate You Sometimes)
[Section I of red velvet or nothing at all]
for laptop, live electronics and cheap guitar distortion pedal, with live video [video version with visual artist Rob Kennedy; view info about OTHER collaborations with Rob Kennedy HERE]
[premiere of audio version at Marcus Schmickler festival, CCA, Glasgow, October 2004, supported by the Goethe Institut]
[scroll down for "VIDEO Version"]
Audio version: [buy full audio version here... (seventhings)]
Listen extract 1 (from section I: before the after):
Listen extract 2 (from section II: Between Inside Straight and Señorita):
Listen extract 3 (from section III: Steadycam for your Birthday):
performed by Peter Dowling, live at Le Weekend festival, Stirling, May 2005
...listen to interview with Peter Dowling, talking about this piece, here (by seventhings director John Harris)
...read amusing review of one of the audio-version performances here... ("...made us feel as if we were on mars...")
...read another review of the seventhings release here... ("...a complex, knotty piece of work...")
Video version: [scroll up for "AUDIO Version"]
Watch extract 1:::::::::::::::::::::low(er) quality::::::::::::::high(er) quality::::::::::::::
Watch extract 2:::::::::::::::::::low quality::::::::::::::hign quality::::::::::::::
Watch extract 3:::::::::::::::::low quality::::::::::::::hign quality::::::::::::::
Watch extract 4:::::::::::::::low quality::::::::::::::hign quality::::::::::::::
performed by Peter Dowling (sound) and Rob Kennedy (image) live at Glasgow International Art Biennale opening event 2005
[a live recording of the main video output, for documentation purposes only]
Note:
Don't Touch Me! (I Hate You Sometimes)
Music by Peter Dowling
Image by Rob Kennedy
Music and Video improvised live by the artists to a set of pre-composed parameters. The piece changes with each performance and is more a ‘staged installation' than a ‘concert work'.
The sounds of ‘ Don't Touch Me!… ' are derived mainly from live-sampling the open hum of a distortion pedal with no signal input. There are also a series of ordered audio samples (these are in part the “pre-composed parameters”) that give the piece its ‘backbone'. In addition there are synthesised sounds to compliment the open distortion hum and the use of the samples. Whilst the samples are cycled through, their placement is improvised. The sonic qualities of the other sound sources also exist as ‘composed' elements in order to give the piece its specific sound world, but are also improvised in performance. The boundaries between improvisation and composition were important factors in designing the work, in both the sound and moving image manipulation, and in the interaction between the two performers.
The moving images of ' Don't Touch Me!… ' are derived from the manipulation of live audio signals and video feedback. The visual elements of the work contain no recorded imagery but use live signals to create a dense fabric of signal interference which highlights the innate structure of the video signal as a malleable material. A line out from the sound desk provides a series of visual frequencies when fed into a video monitor. These frequencies form a basic structure for improvisation with the feedback from 4 video cameras and a monitor. The available light sources in the venue provide the minimal light needed to trigger the feedback looping process, which is further manipulated by forcing the video mixer to accept multiple signals into single inputs.
This collaboration between composer and artist is one of two that exist to date, with more planned. Both for the composer and the artist (in collaboration and individually), ‘ Don't Touch Me!… ' represents part of an ongoing series of work dealing with the issues of live sound / image manipulation and composition / improvisation.
Equipment used :
Audio :
1 laptop running Max/MSP
1 small mixing desk
2 mics
1 cheap guitar distortion pedal
Video :
4 channel video mixer
4 CCTV cameras
2 video monitors
1 video projector (and / or multiple TV monitors)
........................................................................................................... March 2006
Other collaborations between Peter Dowling and Rob Kennedy are documented HERE...