Studioforum
Do 01.06.10 - Fr 31.07.10
Works for outdoor environments with electronics by David Dunn – curated by Kirsten Reese
Works presented in this program (by David Dunn)
01. Entrainments 1 / 8:14
02. Entrainments 2 /45:53
03. Mimus Polyglottus / 5:17
David Dunn
Born, 1953 San Diego, California
Lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico
1970-84 Mentored with Kenneth Gaburo, Jerzy Grotowski, Harry Partch and others
1973-2002 Various Positions: San Diego State Univ., Southwestern College, Drew Univ., International Synergy Institute, College of Santa Fe, Univ. of New Mexico
2000-present President, Art and Science Laboratory, Santa Fe
The works presented here (published on the CD Music, Language, and Environment, 1996, Innova Recordings, together with three further environmental works) can best be described as site specific compositions conceived for outdoor performance in particular places. They exist as documentation of performed events that are not repeatable in the same way that notated musical works generally are. However, while they involved improvisational elements, they are not to be regarded as improvisations since they were rigorously composed for the environmental circumstances in which they took place. Together with a series of other works span the years 1973 to 1985, they represent an attempt to articulate an aesthetic of environmental interactivity through sound-making. Foremost in my experiments was a concern for sound as a means to explore the emergent intelligence of non-human living systems.
These recordings were often made under less than ideal technical circumstances. I recommend that listeners adjust their audio expectations through understanding that the non-studio production values were intentional and unseparable from the reality of the art.
(David Dunn)
More information on the works:
Entrainments 1 (1984)
Entrainments 1 began with an initial interaction where square-wave oscillations were projected into the recording site in order to both stimulate response in some fashion and to explore the inherent resonance characteristics of the space. This interaction was recorded for subsequent manipulation. I then recorded a performer's stream-of-consciousness speech describing real-time events and observations of that environment. Both recordings were eventually merged with a pitch-to-voltage converter such that the speech sounds became tracings of the environmental sounds while modulating the overall timbral spectra of the environment. Four layerings from this procedure were played back into the original location and rerecorded. Realization of the work took place at Azalea Glen, Cuyamaca State Park, California from May to September, 1984.
Electronically altered speaking voice: Lizbeth Rymland
Entrainments 2 (1985)
Entrainments 2 was composed for and performed in a specific wilderness site. Three performers prerecorded stream-of-consciousness descriptions and observations of the
surrounding environment from the three mountain peaks in the Cuyamaca Mountains of California. These recordings were subsequently mixed with static drones derived
from an astrological charting for the time and location of the performance. Playback of these sounds occurred from portable cassette recorders with self-amplified loudspeakers and sufficient amplitude to be audible from the center of the performance configuration. In the center of the space was placed a computer programmed to sample and immediately output periodic sound blocks through a central loudspeaker. The input signal to the computer was from a parabolic microphone. A performer carried this microphone while walking slowly along the perimeter of the large central circle. This performer also recorded the overall performance through use of binaural microphones. Three other performers carried small portable self-amplified oscillators while slowly walking along the perimeter of the three outer circles and altering the oscillator frequency in a process of conceptual tuning to the overall sound environment. The performance took place at Azalea Glen, Cuyamaca State Park, California, on May 19, 1985.
Speaking voices - Ronald Robboy, Lizbeth Rymland, Stephen Storer
Oscillators - Lizbeth Rymland, Dan Schwartz, Stephen Storer
Computer and engineering - David Dunn, Peter Seibel
Mimus Polyglottos (in cooperation with Ric Cupples) (1976)
Mimus Polyglottos is a realtime interactive composition for electronically generated sounds
and Mockingbird. The final recording represents an initial encounter between the bird and
the stimulus. It was recorded outdoors in Balboa Park, San Diego, during July, 1976. The
composition was initially stimulated by a fascination with the Mockingbird's extraordinary
ability to mimic not only the calls of other birds, but also a variety of environmental and machine-generated sounds. Our interest was not only in seeing how we could push that ability in terms of the actual sounds which the bird could mimic, but more significantly to generate a linguistic interaction.
Elektronische Studios aus ganz Deutschland und dem Ausland werden hier portraitiert und stellen ihre aktuellen Projekte, Forschungsvorhaben und Entwicklungsarbeiten vor. Das Studio-Forum dient langfristig dem Austausch zwischen den Studios als Produktionsstätten vielfältiger elektroakustischer Musik und Klangkunst.