RE: College Kills Electronics

3 years of grad school.
2 laptop computers crashed (one of them did it twice!).
1 bank account.

Priceless!

I'D RATHER BE A CYBORG THAN AN ACTOR... part 7

While technology may not be THE answer, it may be AN answer. It seems that to help rediscover the theatRE, we need to rediscover the theatER. As times change and as tastes change, the theatre has always been forced to reinvent itself. As members of the information age, we are in constant dialogue with technology. For theatre audiences that may not have been previously conditioned (for whatever reasons) to be in concrete dialogue with theatrical performances, why not take an aspect of life where dialogue is essential for a use value. If we cannot control a computer, then it is no use to us. Likewise, if we--as audience members--have no control/immediate identification with a performance, then it is no use to us, and thusly no use to society.

I've come to the opinion that, for theatre to succeed, the theatre must be like contemporary religions. Theatre has the power to save--to convert--but first the theatre must be welcoming of its patrons. We must offer ways for them to express, perhaps help instead of show, how to express. In techno-babble, traditional performance utilizes actions that work as a closed system: applaud, laugh, sit and observe, get up and leave. If we wish to bring people to action, we must let--and help them--to act in an open-source way. This was the way of the ancients and somehow it has been lost.

I'D RATHER BE A CYBORG THAN AN ACTOR... part 5

In the years of the English Restoration the rise of the proscenium stage and proscenium arch overcame the thrust. Additionally, scenery became more elaborate and a love affair with realistic settings began. As time progressed, the area that the pit occupied moved further towards the stage, until most of the apron was pushed behind the proscenium arch and the audience was effectively barred from the area conceived as "onstage". A few centuries later, thanks to Thomas Edison and his incandescent light bulb, a greater divide was established between the actor and the audience.

Performances began to become more concerned with "realism" and "historically accurate" tendencies. Plot took precedence over experience and the upper classes moved closer towards the stage, pushing the members of the middle and lower classes towards the rear. As monarchies dissolved in the 1700s, theatres became increasingly middle class and began to cater to more bourgeois tastes. In addition to effectively ending the raucous behavior of "the pit", this rearranging of priorities allowed upper class tastes to dominate the theatres.

In addition to changes in stagecraft and theatre construction, there seemed to be a shift in how the plays of the restoration and afterward addressed the audience. While the days of pure direct address (such as in Shakespeare's time and that of the Greek chorus) were more or less passe, theatre historian Dr. Dawn Lewcock argues that there was a kind of onstage shorthand that maintained this relationship in an article entitled "Converse with the Audience in Restoration Theatre". In addition to prologues meant to instruct the audience in how to behave--both mannerly and unmannerly--she argues that onstage characters shift between characters and actors. Continuing her argument, the "inside jokes" of the time worked as an inside conversation that took place between the audience and the performers. As theatre changed, the "inside dialogue" disappeared.

Levy and the Air Marimba

I went to see a concert that a friend of mine in the music department held over the weekend and had my mind kind of blown. It featured traditional marimba and percussion, as well as a "new" musical instrument--the Air Marimba. Using motion sensors, Levy created an instrument that was "playable"--in the sense of a traditional instrument (and not in some John Cage-ian way) by picking up the motions of one's hands.

If that wasn't enough, after the intermission he and another musician (?) played "electronic" music. Levy put his percussion skills to use and his collaborator manipulated a sound board. The most mind-blowing piece had Levy scraping, pounding, and finding new sounds by using a butter knife and student ID against a tabletop. I'm assuming that the electronic "box" was hooked up to some kind of sensor underneath the table that picked up vibration? No matter how it worked, it was pretty psychadellic, dude!


Levy Lorenzo
Air Marimba, 2010

Rosewood, Infrared Distance Sensors, Microcontrollers, Embedded Software

The marimba is one of the oldest and simplest musical instruments. It is played by using a mallet to strike differently sized wooden bars to respectively produce different tones. Reminiscent of a traditional marimba, the Air Marimba is a new electronic musical instrument which is played by manipulating the air above two rosewood bars.

The Air Marimba can exist in installation mode and concert mode. In a gallery exhibit, the viewer is invited to play and explore the instrument but will only have a limited range of musical expressions that he or she can play. However, compositions or improvisations can be performed on the the Air Marimba in a concert setting by a musician who has spent significant time practicing and understanding the instrument's technique.