SoundContainment
Control - Controlled - Controller
Sound Containment is a multi-media installation where the audience is invited to take part in the progression of the music being performed to them. People weave around the musicians on a pre-set path and their movements and actions influence the outcome of the piece. Hence there is a large amount of unpredictability and no performance can ever be exactly the same as another. While this is all happening, a visual signature of each piece, derived from the microphone pickups, is projected onto the wall of the room so that the audience can absorb the installation with their eyes as well as their ears. The concert is made up of three pieces: ‘Controlled’, ‘Control’ and ‘Controller’.
In the first piece ‘Controlled’, the musicians are told to closely observe the footsteps of the people walking amongst them, the pace of which they must imitate with their instruments. The audience is not told about this and figure this relationship out as the piece unfolds. As the people warm up to the space and begins to move more freely, the music consequently speeds up. Halfway through, again without the audience’s knowledge, the relationship is reversed and the musicians start to set the pace of the music themselves while the surrounding people unknowingly synchronise with the musicians.
In the second piece ‘Control’, the audience is told that they have an influence on the outcome of the music and must figure out the exact way they can influence this. Little do they know that in reality what they’re hearing is a static score and that they actually have no impact whatsoever. Their resulting behaviour within the space during the piece is fascinating to watch.
In the third piece ‘Controller’, the audience is provided with the players’ foot pedals which turn their pages. The pages of the score are programmed to appear in a random order, and players must play the piece thus. This way, the pace and progression of the music is set solely by the people and the players must relinquish total artistic authority to them.