review: Sergi Jordà (reactable) talk

[cola_fan]

Review of Sergi Jorda's talk, 4 October 2007
reviewed by Graham Coleman, to be posted at the seminar wiki

Comments

[zeroplate]

thanks for posting this, graham. there's a device that is sold at places like Spencer's that actually is kind of similar to the way this interface works. it's essentially a toy/party game, but it works on the idea of placing tactile shapes on a surface that lights up and reacts by triggering loops, effects, and so on. each shape does something different and where you put it on the board causes a different reaction. you can actually record INTO the thing too, and use one of the shapes to trigger a loop of that recording. it's really primitive and probably not useful for anything serious, but just playing with it for 20 min got me thinking of possibilities.

the thing i appreciated a lot about what you wrote was about how the speaker talked about taking advantage of the computer's ability to do things like keep in time and play the right pitch. i've been trying to move my own performance away from those kinds of tasks that are usually associated with playing an instrument for years! to me, interacting with other things that the computer can do in realtime is a lot more interesting than playing the right sequence of notes in the right order in time with a click. it's definitely a different way of looking at an instrument, but given what a computer can do, i think it's completely valid and i'm glad to hear someone from the more academic end of things echo that.

[cola_fan]

I agree with you; performing with a computer can remove the burden of some tasks (note selection) and offer other forms of articulation and expression (effects processing, more global changes to the arrangement). However, I think process automation can create a vacuum, of connection and of risk.

The performer has to make up for the fact that there is no longer a direct, immediate, visual link (the traditional instrument) between his actions and the music. In this way, gap between the performance model in the computer and the audience restricts the flow of information between performer and audience.

As well, an automated performance can proceed without interaction from the performer. This is safe, but a performer who takes no risks for his audience will be uninteresting.

In the worst case, nothing fills the vacuum. Seeing performers hit "play" and pump their arms for the most of the performance is sad. After seeing this a few times at an early laptop battle, I hoped I could do better.

Because my first musical traditions were classical and jazz, I tend to respect technique and improvisation the most. But there are a variety of musical traditions, and other aspects of music that are also important (composition, emotion, poetry, etc). Laptop music particularly excels in sound design (due to processing and automation capacity) and theatrics (again the automation, as the performer is free from his instrument). When you are used to having certain things and they are not present, you feel their lack.

Not that I believe in a weakness model of music. I think that any art or music that has something new and original to offer will be respected, despite any percieved deficiencies.