For my "cyber-padam," I decided to create a sound-score. I thought about what the usual elements of our internet conference calls are: bad reception, overlapping voices, the sounds of typing, and the occasional interruption by Anjali's little daughter Neva. In addition to referencing some of these sounds literally, I created a more abstract sense of overlapping voices through the use of kathak bols. I took two different compositions - one an amad and one a chakradar, but both based on the syllables "tat tat ta tuka" - that I had learned from my teacher Bandana Sen, and overlapped them. This compositional technique reflects my interest in exploring polyrhythms in a North Indian rhythmic context, an interest that was sparked by my collaborations with tabla player Lenny Seidman. Underneath all this, I added an old field recording of Begum Akhtar singing a ghazal to give a sense of a love story.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This study is the first instance of a curious phenomenon that happened for me during our long distance creative assignment process. Perhaps because of the medium of transmission, I found myself less and less inclined to make dance studies that would be performed by live bodies on a stage. Instead, I found myself drawn to media that lent themselves to being transmitted across the internet: sound design, artbooks combining writing and photographic image, site-specific dances choreographed for the gaze of the camera.
ReplyDelete