The Eye Hears - The Ear Sees

Magdalena Pederin / Ivan Marusic Klif / Natasa Lusetic

A multimedia event, that merges together the

elements of mime, music, fine arts and technology.

The intention is to research possibilities of modern

technology and seek new ways for an artist to use that technology.

The particular field of research is a performer controling

the sound and other events by movement in real time. The way in

which a performer interfaces with the machines is crucial here. The

interface has to be usable and easy to learn and adjust. The

performer must be able to relate the movements to the events

caused by these movements. The final goal would be to enable a

performer to control sound and visuals in a way an african drummer

plays a drum - simple and direct; and to develop and collect hardware

and software needed to make it all work.

The actual performer is a woman, directly controling the

sound by her movements. The source sounds are picked directly from

the performer (breathing, mechanical noises, heartbeat, sounds of

performers teeth and mouth, etc.). Additional sounds are triggered

by the performer from the sampler. Eventualy these sounds are

grouped on the mixing console and processed through the effect

processors. Effect processor parameters are controled in real time by

the performer via body movement to MIDI converter.

Individual sounds or groups of sound are

monitored/visualised on a number of huge LED bar meters (like the

ones on the tape recorder) which surround the performer. That way

the performer controls sound and light during performance.

As the performer moves, she, as well as the audience,

can hear/see/feel the connection between the movements, the

sounds, and the lights. There are further possibilities to mute certain

(or all) sounds from the main output (so you can't hear them), but

to keep their output to the LED bar meters (so you can still see

them), and vice versa. Two radically opposite possibilities would be

the reduction to sound only or light only. Altough, technically

speaking, the performer actually controls the sound and sound

controls the light, the result is equal as if the performer

independently controls the sound and the light sources. Once the

movement/ sound/light connection is established we can play music

without sound or make pictures without light. It will be kind of

Pavlov's multimedia reflex experiment.

There are many possible ways to go. Which movement will

be assigned to what? Will each group of sound have a dedicated LED

bar meter, or it will change during the show? What order (or

disorder) are we going to use for muting and unmuting lights and

sounds ?????

The posed questions will be solved during the working

process. This is what makes it a research.

Hopefully, many new questions will be raised along the way.

ABOUT THE SET DESIGN

The basic element of the set design for this performance

are enlarged LED bar meters, like the ones that you find on tape

recorders and professional sound equipment. They are a graphic

representation of the sound level passing through the apparatus at a

given time.

Few years ago LED bar meters were used only on

professional audio equipment or expensive hi-fi devices. Today they

are the part of almost every cheap tape recorder. Since most

households today are equipped with at least one such device, the

LED bar meters have become an integral part of the urban landscape.

They are unobtrusive, but unavoidable. It is hard to imagine a day go

by without coming accros them at least once. Therefore, it's not

unusual that we meet them often in music videos, where they

function as a kind of trademark of the contemporary sensibility. This

tiny sensation has become a visual sign for the sound signal. A

question is raised: why should rhythm and sound level be visible? The

answer given by the profesional sound engineer would be: to measure

and calibrate the operating level of signal during recording and

reproduction. But the non-professional user, like myself, doesn't

concern himself with this . For us these are burning lights, a luminous

picture that is at times interesting to watch.

Considering this, the light wall made up of enlarged LED

bar meters functions well when exhibited in a gallery space as an

independant art piece. It is interactive - it reacts to sounds

produced by the viewer.

On the other hand, in this performance it visualises audio

signals and movements of the performer. This opens space for a new

dialogue between movement, sound and light. In the traditional

performing arts they are synchronised, but each is generated by a

different performer/ source, whereas here all three come from the

same source. The discourse of these three elements of performing

arts is thereby internalised and given a monologue form.