Presentation Feedback. The question of interactivity is often raised when critiquing my project. I suppose because it involves hands it seems natural for the viewer to want to control them. I have been thinking about what Ian said about the time consuming and 2D nature of rotoscoping my footage. I felt rather defensive at the time but in retrospect, I feel that I have decided to do it this way due to the connection to the hand. The gesture of drawing connects me with the gestures in the footage, enabling me to then to channel it to the music I compose.


Steve Reich Birthday celebration, Barbican & St Lukes London.
Incredible. I attended concerts of both his early tape manipulation experiments ‘It’s Gonna Rain’ & ‘Come Out’ and his seminal works ‘Drumming’, ‘Phases’ & ‘Different Trains’. Included in the programme were relevant music like 12th century vocal pieces by Pérotin, contemporary reworkings of Reich by Coldcut and DJ Shadow and video version of ‘Phases’ by David Cossin.
I had an epiphany about Reich’s music during ‘Four Organs’. There were 5 musicians: 4 organs and one man on two maracas holding time like a metronome. This was the only constant rhythm. The organs played a series of notes and chords, sometimes in unison sometimes not. All the notes they played were from the one chord extended over many octaves. This acted as a constant tonal palette so all notes whenever played together sounded harmonious, some creating matching resonances, some creating a ‘buzz’ or beat frequency (when the 6th or 2nd of the chord were played against the root note).
So while the harmony has a constant tonal palette, the rhythm is broken down and explored. The metre (or beat) is constant in the maracas but there is no time signature or set bar length. The organs play a very structured system but the listener can find no repetitions within it.
This has the potential to sound very disconcerting to the listener but because the tones are harmonious, the rhythmic experiments flow without jarring. This idea is owes to African music.
This idea of a tonal palette could work with the sound palette I have been making for my project and the rhythm can be derived from the movement and passion of the gestures.