WHILE ROME BURNS
Michaela Davies
Photo Credit: MONA/Remi Chauvin Image Courtesy MONA Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Tasmania
Performances at Mona Foma festival, Hobart, Tasmania (2012) & Vivid/Rocks Pop-Up, Sydney (2012)
While Rome Burns (2011) is a live musical performance, choreographed by the movement of the earth. The movements of performers in a string quartet are controlled by sonified seismic data via electric muscle stimulation (EMS). The work explores the ways in which data translates onto a performers’ body through the application of EMS to create a sonic environment, and how this can radicalise accepted notions of creative agency in sound/performance.
Seismic data, collected via an online database provided by observatories around the world, is converted to audio using a program developed in Python. These audio files are combined by the artist to produce a seismic composition. Properties of this audio file determine how the EMS hardware is triggered via midi. Differences in the amplitude and pitch of the waveform determine variations in the pulse rate (hz) and the voltage of the electrical impulse sent by the EMS hardware to the performers’ muscles. The midi-controlled EMS device sends electrical impulses to muscle points on the performers’ bodies, generating specific involuntary movements and causing them to ‘play’ their instruments. Freed from the burdens of artistic responsibility, the resulting work is unexpected and often startling to the musicians themselves. Moving involuntarily, the performers play rhythms and tempos that would be unachievable were they to attempt these of their own volition.
This work extends Davies’ previous work with EMS and data audification to explore new territory in the use of technology to create sound in performance. The work questions assumptions about the role of the musician’s agency in musical performance and also provides a reflective look at both the utility of information and the lack of agency we have with respect to global systems. It also offers a unique way of making visible the fragility and intimacy of human relationships to areas of science that we often think of as being entirely outside ourselves.
data:
Seismic data is collected via the Earthquake Data Portal and converted to audio using a program developed in Python. The sample rate of the audio files generated from the collected seismic data varies from 1hz to 40hz per second, depending on which station they were collected and the resolution of this information. The human audio spectrum ranges between 20 Hz – 20 kHz, which is much above the spectrum of seismic waves. When the time axis of a seismogram is compressed by about 2000 times it become audible. The waveform data was resampled at 2205hz. The audio files are combined to produce a seismic composition- an audio sequence which is used as a basis for determining how midi information will trigger the EMS hardware.
muscle control:
The EMS hardware is controlled via midi, sending electrical impulses to specific muscle points on the performers body. Wires connected to electrodes adhere to the performer’s skin, delivering an electric current which activates their muscles and triggers involuntary movement in their limbs. Differences in the amplitude and pitch of the seismic waveform determine variations in the pulse rate (hz) and the voltage of the electrical impulse sent by the EMS hardware to the performers’ muscles.
Many thanks to technical developers: Richard Allen, Alex Davies & Stock and involuntary string players: Kirsten Morley, Lea Spratt- Simpson, Mark Simpson who tolerated endless electric shocks for the development and performance of this work.
While Rome Burns toured with support from the State Government through Arts NSW
Photo Credit: MONA/Remi Chauvin Image Courtesy MONA Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Tasmania
Composition created from sonified seismic data, used to trigger a MIDI controlled EMS device which controls the movement of players in the string quartet
