weekend and further wanderings into local religious practice
Taller d'Improvisació Lliure
Originally uploaded by raveliteThis weekend I participated in a sound free improvisation workshop at hangar.org, hosted a new master student, went to see Dmitry of MTG (and of disconinjas.net) do a chiptunes DJ set, and watched my neighbors celebrate the last days of la Mercè with more bingo, more drinking, and more karaoke. The workshop was excellent, with our teacher A. Costa Monteiro challenging each of us (performing on guitar and bass elements, walkie-talkies, toy keyboards, contact mics and springs, pencils, and laptops) until the end.
Here are some of the points he made (through exercises, sorry if these seem trite, it is only my attempt to summarize them):
- take time to explore the sound by approaching you
- when you can make a complex sound with many elements, it may be better to make a simple, one "note" sound instead
- throw away your technique and approach the instrument by other avenues. for me it was specifically hard, he kept asking me to make it not sound like a computer. what I ended up with were a few simple techniques to extend the sound of the laptop, like miking the fan, with feedback, and alternating between playing it to PA and through the onboard speakers miked or not miked to the PA.
- intention, such as strong and resolute entry and exits
- discussion of ways to agree or to disrupt the other players
- how you can create a positive situation by getting together good people