Stones Whisper Secrets (2024)
Livecode (Supercollider) and handmade ceramic percussion performance with Mercè Jara Muns at VIU Festival 20024. Part of a broader series of experiments with using livecode as part of electroacoustic performances, for which I’ve developed a number of Supercollider instruments.
A collaboration between Tim Cowlishaw (Algorithms, Codes, Wires) and Mercè Jara Muns (Earth, Air, Water), Stones Whisper Secrets is a sonic reflection on the “vibrant materiality” (as Jane Bennet describes it) of computing, and its links to the earth that gave birth to it. Silicon converses with clay, copper with glass, water with electricity. We both work with terrestrial, geological matter – Mercè with the latent resonances of mud, clay, stone, and Tim with the alchemical activation of silicon, copper and rare earths through computation.
In this performance, we bring these two ways of approaching the earth as a sonic or musical instrument into dialogue – the taps, touches and caresses of the hand, juxtaposed with the tickles of electricity, the touch of keys. Using the 8-channel sound system to immerse the audience in the diversity of sound coming from the earth, we set up a dialogue between our respective practices to open a space for meditation on the multiple ways in which this raw material is also involved in musical creation through electronics.
My code for the performance is available on github.