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Beauty crowds me till I die
Beauty mercy have on me But if I expire to-day Let it be in sight of thee |
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Before Local & Long Distance I have been waiting several years for the right moment to deal with Emily Dickinson's words. My first thoughts about Local & Long Distance were conceived in November 2001 when I was at the Western Front (and in Vancouver) for the first time. During that residency, I discovered the amazing Western Front headquartier: a beautiful century-old building with a special charm and oldness. While I was there - working on Devolve Into II, a media project presented afterwards in Austria, Germany, and on-line - I did some film shooting of this building, exploring its various (hidden or less visible) places. One of the things that attracted my attention was an old public phone booth that still had the sign: "B.C. TELEPHONE CO. - LOCAL & LONG DISTANCE." Thinking now about the project, this sign somehow clicked something in my mind: thoughts about communication systems - from telegraph to telephone developing quickly into the Internet - and, at the same time, about the vastness of North American landscapes. This large and floating image landed in the small city of Amherst, Massachusetts, where Emily Dickinson lived. Years ago I wanted to explore American Transcendentalism and it was natural for me to think about Dickinson's life and work as a guide for my observations. Since I was a teenager I have been involved in Henry Thoreau writings. Later, I had the opportunity to share moments with the American composer John Cage who had an important role in the development of my interest in the relationship between sound and nature. Another friend of mine, artist Robert Adrian X, led me into the world of art and telecommunication and several of the projects I did are related to his developments as well. While in Vancouver, magically enough, these thoughts found a dense point of convergence in the forgotten phone booth sign, which became the tangible object of a stream of data - a concentration of information in a small and evocative particular image. My attention is focused on the need for a little frame, a small structure, which makes possible the evocation of something bigger: The creation of a setting that can become extended in space and time. Development of the piece The project started in Copenhagen in the first week of June 2003 with a workshop lead by Roberto Paci Dalò and Luca Ruzza during d!sturbances. The workshop involved participants from Nordic countries in the collaborative production of a large scale sound and video installation hosted by Charlottenborg Exhibition Hall and based on Emily Dickinson's texts. Based on selected texts by Dickinson, part of the preparation work is based on the exploration of human, historical, and architectural environments in the area around the Western Front and in Vancouver in general. Field recordings (voices and soundscapes) are essential for the creation of this piece which tends to involve on various levels the people living nearby the Western Front. The building serves as source material and, at the same time, as object and subject of the project. The building has been carefully "scanned" in order to compile a data bank of images and sounds. These materials - re-contextualized - are part of the presentation, which is also related to the concept of showing the place from different perspectives and times. With Local & Long Distance I use fragments of texts from Dickinson's poems and letters to build up a matrix - with parts of the texts read by people in the neighbourhood - able to open windows on all the other elements. The result of this process is a thin acoustical web of words that runs throughout the piece. Music & Sound The score will be written during my stay at the Western Front in June and the composition will have parts for improvisations to allow the musicians to bring their own personal contributions into the piece. The music is based on the relationship amongst words, instruments, and electronics. There is no hierarchy between text and sounds. Text, here, is one of the elements of the general composition and it is used both for meaning and acoustical qualities. Part of the text is treated through granular synthesis, creating radically new materials out of voice. The result is a veritable teatro dell'ascolto (Theatre of Listening), an acoustical living forest. Presentation of the piece The scenic space is made out of furniture from the building itself. It is not my intention to add extra materials to the piece. I'm thinking about a kind of lounge where the audience should almost have the feeling of being in a private house concert. The images for the digital set are filmed and edited during the residency. The main subject is the building itself (somewhat of the protagonist) in conjunction with other materials from locations around Vancouver. Also involved are live cameras, including infra-red cameras, which capture images, from the space and the surrounding area, projected in the performance and used as a digital set. The piece deals with the acoustical specificities of the space (The Western Front's Luxe Theatre). The sound is based on the relationship between acoustical materials and electronics and it also works on perceptional strategies involving both extreme high and low frequencies. Parts of the sound score are related to the making of an acoustical map of the performance. Web A specific website has been created for the project. It stores sounds, images, and texts collected during the preparation of the piece. Part of the data is downloadable, and visitors are able to use it for their own projects. A remixing webcast of the performance is planned for June 27, 2003 between 9pm and 10pm (Pacific Central Time). Radio production Afterwards, a radio production is scheduled to be broadcasted by the ORF Kunstradio (Austrian Broadcasting Corporation) in Autumn 2003. - Roberto Paci Dalò |
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A word is dead When it is said, Some say. I say it just Begins to live That day. |
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