ABOUT THE FLUIDITY OF SPACE

In spite of the, hopefully, self-sufficient aesthetics of the sound performance by Borut Savski, Luka Prinčič and Matjaž Manček (sound / music performance = concert), it may be worth mentioning or identifying the separate pieces, more or less independent, that together form the concept (the structure / the composition / the dramaturgy) of the event.

The primary idea of the two moving, mutually corelated spheres (-> bowlfuls of sound), in the end (of this writing) connects with some ideas of a fluid space, which we would like achieve at the event and maybe – because of the personal experience – take as a kind of moment of catharsis.

The fluidity is (here) of course measured in the field of sound (since we are sound artists). Fluidity means, that the present masses can relatively easily move one past another, they can spiral together, circulate at will, but almost never hit hard on each other. Because of the softness of materials there is no hard confrontations. The dynamic changes in one object / sound are softly transferred to the edge of space – at some points exhibiting resonance, at other points they die out. Of course this is the metaphorical language – of a world softer and more open.

In opposition to any fluidity stands – the hardness of material. The hardness of fixed relations, of immense inertia – the inert space. In such a space nothing ever happens, all is known, all questions have answers. The measure of inertia are inertias of relations between the objects / entities in a given space. The relations change slower than we can observe – so they seem unchanging. The fluidity of space means shortening of the reaction time of such relations, to provide the ability to observe the passing of time.

But it is only from a fixed viewpoint that we can observe what we measure – to see the changes. Therefore we need a construction of the situation – the event.

Construction / composition is defined by:

Two spherical bowls have simple motorics and a bit more complex sensorics. The are susceptible to the sound they hear, but they also coproduce the sound (compressed microphony). This is why the bowls are full of sound. They can see each other (infrared sensor) and then they change direction. This should allow for the bowls to slowly zigzag closer to each other, which doesn’t really interests us anymore, but for the bowls this may be defined as a motive (with human it could be called the sense). A simple autoreferential algorythmics produces / gives birth to a kind of autonomy of the machine.

The two wobbling spheres thus become two sheep and need a shepherd. But the shepherd (swinging the stick) was there before! It is a wish of a player who wished for a very concrete sound – sharp, loud hit. The bowls become sheep only because of the shepherd. The stick played on an active background become a musical instrument. It can define the quality of the rest of the sound. The soft drone of bowls and the sharpness of the hits against the floor and the plucks against the strings.

The third idea / object (since we are three) have crystalized around the manipulation of image and translation into sound. This algorythmics is powered by the visual information fed in directly from the event, so that we are all included into this segment. The projection of us in the space in front / at the back could be a lead to another aspect, but let it be enough. We will add to fluidity with one more approach – the changing of the positions of sounds among the four loudspeakers.