Amera, Etch, Hand to Mouth, Chimera

HAND-TO-MOUTH (for performer/vocalist, the Bodycoder System & live MSP)

Only the energy, breath and raw fractured tonalities of the voice are employed to populate and animate the soundscape of Hand-to-Mouth. Mouth/Larynx and the hands of the performer engage in intimate dialogue in an act of sonic puppetry and ventriloquism. This dexterous piece of sound manipulation is an overture to the full embodiment of sound manipulation in the following pieces.

THE SUICIDED VOICE (for performer/vocalist, the Bodycoder System, live MSP, video streaming & computer graphics)

In this piece the acoustic voice of the performer is “suicided” and given up to digital processing and physical re-embodiment. Dialogues are created between acoustic and digital voices. Gender specific registers are willfully subverted and fractured. Extended vocal techniques make available unusual acoustic resonances that generate rich processing textures and spiral into new acoustic and physical trajectories that traverse culturally specific boundaries crossing from the human into the virtual, from the real into the mythical. In The Suicided Voice the voice, transformed and re-embodied within the interactive medium, becomes a fluid originality that is defined only by its own transmutations.

ETCH (for performer/vocalist, the Bodycoder System, live MSP, & computer graphics)

In ETCH extended vocal techniques, Yakut, open throat, overtone and Bell Canto singing are coupled with live interactive sound processing and manipulation. ETCH calls forth forna – building soundscapes of glitch infestations, howler tones, clustering sonic-amphibians, and swirling flocks of synthetic granular flyers. The visual content for this piece is created in a variety of 2D and 3D packages. In ETCH video content is manipulated on the screen by the performer using the same interactive protocols that govern sound manipulation. Visual content is mapped to the physical gestures of the performer and its live manipulation forms a significant part of the piece. As the performer conjures extraordinary voices out of the digital realm, so she weaves a multi-layered visual environment. In ETCH sound, image, and gesture combine to form a powerful ‘linguistic intent’. Etch was created in residency at the Confederation Centre for the Arts on Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia.