Licht Drift

Notes for a new structured improvisation in the Drift Theory series for the Terminal Quartet.

Licht Drift is the eighth collaborative composition in the Drift Theory series. Drift Theory is a structured improvisation, each performance entirely unique, each performance influencing the next, exerting notions of drift as it may occur in creative, social and psychological development, both of the performers and the piece itself.

Licht Drift, inspired by Karlheinz Stockhausen’s epic operatic cycle, Licht, is based on four movements, each movement draws references from sacred music, sounds and text the world over.

All four movements, conceived independently by each performer, and in isolation from each other, must ensure that principles of drift influence the overall direction and outcomes of, for example, any cultural, political and astronomical contexts explored.

Drift is used to define a system having a distribution of events, objects, associations and intentions of individual velocities.

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The theme(s) of the piece would be based on music as a communal, cultural process that seeks to transmit that which separates and that which brings us together…

In effect, I’m talking about creating an electro acoustic work that expresses separation, longing and unification – a contemporary work that draws on the sacred, that communicates to audiences through the relentless pace of commerce, its unyielding drain on finite resources and the homogenisation that results from its opportunistic outreach.

For more details about Licht Drift, go to the Secession wiki.

On Sacred Rights

Have some thoughts on the Terminal Quartet performance commissioned for the Growing the Australian Commons Conference, some of which I’d like to incorporate acoustic instruments that are appropriated in real time, in that what each participant contributes is not only a theme as such, but a process for integration of the acoustic qualities of the instruments at hand… and the instruments would be of a traditional nature, tuned to accommodate a pre-defined markam (or marquam). These are essentially Turkish scales used for improvisation that display unique intervalic characteristics.

So, that’s roughly the theory side of things. In practical terms, everything the quartet performs, from the individual movements created by each performer to the final work would be CC licensed for re-use and catalogued online within freesound, etc. Each participant would also be encouraged to utilise CC licensed samples and soundscapes…

The theme(s) of the piece would be based on creativity, specifically music as a communal, cultural process that seeks to transmit that which separates and that which brings us together… in affect, I’m are talking about creating an electro acoustic work that expresses separation, longing and unification – a contemporary work that draws on the sacred that communicates to audiences through the relentless pace of commerce and homogenisation, the excessive drain on finite resources to sustain modernity and every other mind numbing global crisis.

We may call the piece, Licht Drift and dedicate the work to Stockhausen.

Regenerative Generative

Interactive sound and image performance, conceived in June 2000, by Andrew Garton and Ollie Olsen.

The 2030 Derive

On the occasion of Art’s Birthday Andrew Garton revisits Radio Derive, a non-linear “re-invented” internet and radio play based on a 30 year plan to “manage growth and change across Metropolitan Melbourne.” A reinterpretation of Radio Derive has seen the emergence of a new work, The 2030 Derive.

The 2030 Derive deconstructs ministerial language, reducing it to an ineffectual text and uninspirational narrative of the ongoing erosion of public and individual rights towards the semi-permanent creation of the city as we know it.

Bound within The 2030 Derive is a dialogue that unravels support for commerce at the expense of the citizenry, where centres for creativity and cultural development become the battle grounds between those who aspire to debt and commodified existences and those who choose to live with difference, reverence and a sense of custodianship to the land we inhabit.

The 2030 Derive was produced for “Permanent Creation”, an EBU Ars Acustica Special Evening by KunstRadio (Vienna) for Arts Birthday.

The 2030 Derive Stream
http://radio.free2air.net:8000/arts2005 (stream now offline)

KunstRadio’s Arts Birthday Site
http://www.kunstradio.at/AB2005/

• Conceived and Produced by Andrew Garton
• Performed by Beth Schubal, Mark Tallon, Andrew Garton
• Sound processing and production by Steve Law
• Audio Streaming provided by Free2air.org

Produced by Toy Satellite, Melbourne
http://toysatellite.org/

About Radio Derive and origins of The 2030 Derive
http://toysatellite.org/radio-derive/

Internet: Good Morning To All

Generative interpretations of “Good Morning To All” commissioned by and produced in collaboration with Western Front, Canada, for Arts Birthday, 17 Jan 2004.

Art’s Birthday: y a r t s t h d a b i r

Was art born on a specific day? According to French artist Robert Filliou, it was.

“He suggested that 1,000,000 years ago, there was no art. But one day, on the 17th of January to be precise, Art was born. According to Filliou, it happened when someone dropped a dry sponge into a bucket of water.”

Using generative sound tools and Western Front’s Scrambled Bites server, we’re providing an interpretation of the original song that “happy birthday” was derived from. “Good Morning to all” was written by two sisters as a classroom ditty.

More information: y a r t s t h d a b i r.

All this, and a host of other international guests will contribute towards the proposed Art’s Birthday on the 17th of Jan, round the clock. For more info, see the Art’s Birthday Schedule.

Terminal Quartet: Drift Theory 1

First performance of the Terminal Quartet performing Drift Theory 1 and available courtesy of Betoni.