30 March 2009

COMPOSITIONAL CHALLENGES AND QUESTIONS

The Navigation System Through Sound challenges the composer to determine audio-visual materials beforehand, as the basis for structural development in a mosaic-type form. The performer, also needs to make decisions on what specific gestural, timbral and textural materials are more appropriate than others, to interact with the pace of the visuals. The incorporation of social awareness and a narrative may open new opportunities for non-specialised audiences to understand the vocabulary and grammar of electro-acoustic music and hopefully, to become more engaged. However, it also raises new problems and questions in the world of musical aesthetics. For example, how applicable the system would be if used to recontextualise existing repertoire of electro-acoustic music?; would it be more suitable for recreating existing soundscape compositions (e.g. Luc Ferrari’s Presque Rien 1 and 2), than more abstract acousmatic works such as, Parmegiani’s Moins l'infini? It also faces other musical challenges: Can strategies for chance and determinacy in decision-making contexts (those provided by the journey map) be formulated to create structural coherence and articulation between sounds in motion, cartographic coordinates and the inner rhythm of the slow-motion images and text?; even more, what sound taxonomy is more effective to enhance the sonic experience?; to classify them by spectro-spatio morphology?, to organise them by source?; what ‘modes of listening’ should be projected to audiences?

Above, the system staged