Listen To the Motion 2024

PROGRAM NOTES 

SUNDAY JAN 28, 2024 | 2PM | XMPL THEATRE

Organized by Mari Kimura & Presented by ICIT

William David Fastnow, technical director

Weaving Worlds by Chieh Huang

Weaving Worlds is the initial series of my dissertation creative work. In this series, I utilize computer-generated Kalimba-like instruments and Crotale-bell sounds as narrative elements to portray the historical stories of the Atayal people. The narrative revolves around the oral tradition of the spiritual bridge, which becomes visible to the Atayal community during rainy days accompanied by a rainbow. According to the legend, the Atayal originally resided in the spiritual realm, but some Atayal individuals disrupted the harmony of that realm and descended into the physical world. The spiritual bridge serves as the sole pathway for returning to the spiritual realm. To depict this journey, I employed a motion sensor to traverse different realms and explored their significance through musical notes and phrasing. Weaver is a customary symbol of identity for Atayal women.

Peach Boy by Lisa Yoshida

Peach Boy is a fun piece based on the Japanese folklore Momotaro that experiments with how performers can enchant an audience into a story. Through the sounds from the violin, electronics, and the narrator’s voice, the roles of each switch rapidly from sounds that illustrate the scenery, sounds that connect emotionally with the characters, and sounds that literally recite the story. Special thanks to Spencer Pepke for workshopping the narration part and bringing my vision to form! 

Bhallelak by Jiryis Ballan

This composition unfolds as segments of a traditional Palestinian lullaby are integrated into the themes of longing. The mother tenderly narrates cheerful tales to lull her child to sleep. Promising delights and sweets as the child succumbs to slumber, the mood takes a poignant turn. The mother articulates a heartfelt melancholy, a deep yearning for her homeland, and a longing for her loved ones. Within this composition, I have chosen portions of the song, rearranged the structure, and seamlessly incorporated it with the Buzuq’s samples of different timbres and characters. Additionally, I present the Buzuq’s acoustic sound while utilizing the Mugic motion sensor with conventional and unconditional gestures to trigger and manipulate these samples. The piece entailed a partnership with the Palestinian singer, Amal Murkus.

Filament by Alyssa Wixson

The piece Filament is based on a poem by Walt Whitman, titled “A Noiseless Patient Spider,” which appears in his (now classic) collection of poems, Leaves of Grass. My setting of this poem is a reflection on distances, as well as on the struggle to make sense of a vast and complex universe from our limited situatedness in time, space, and the workings of our own minds and bodies. 

The text is as follows:

A noiseless patient spider,

I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood isolated,

Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,

It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,

Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.

And you O my soul where you stand,

Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,

Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,

Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold,

Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.

-Walt Whitman

Buzzcut by Oliver George-Brown

Buzzcut (2024) is a solo performance artwork for electric clippers, voice, household objects, MUGIC motion sensor, and live electronics. The piece is a meditation on private rituals of self-expression and transgender bodily negotiations. Drawing on a lineage of queer and feminist performance artworks, Buzzcut counterposes the mundane, private act of shaving/trimming with the performative nature of musical improvisation. Initially, the buzz of my electric clippers is expanded into an atmospheric resonance which pervades the ritual-performance space. As the piece continues, I process the sound of the clippers hitting my shaving basin, exploring how these everyday tools can be used as both functional and musical instruments. Aside from some sparse vocal lines, the sonic content is derived entirely from the clippers, and manipulated live by the motion sensor mounted on my hand.

Mira esa Luz by Fabricio Cavero

Mira esa Luz is elaborated on one of Jorge Luis Borges’s 17 Haikus: ‘”Look at that light going out, is it an empire or a firefly?” This poem suggests attention to a visual element, which guided this composition while integrating what I learned during my first year at UCI. Being part of the Concert Choir, and then joining Dr. Messoloras Conduciting’s class was crucial in the artistic and technical motivation for this piece, which will be performed by classmates from the UCI Chamber Choir. Considering that singing is a musical expression that does not depend on technology, this piece observes the contrast and complementation between the human voice and electronically produced sounds (oscillators and filters made in MaxMSP) to offer a musical experience that is complemented by visual art mediums. For this, I conduct the choir wearing a Mugic on my left hand, which allows me to integrate the MOTION of my left hand, both as musical gestures for conducting and controlling video and sound projection.