Flaws in the Body and How We Work with Them: An Interview with Composer Alexander Schubert
Zubin Kanga, Alexander Schubert · Contemporary Music Review · 2016
This interview with Alexander Schubert, one of the most significant of the younger generation of German composers, examines his work as an innovator of new types of gesture-technology relationships. We begin by discussing his background, education and influences, and in particular his relationship to the peers discussed above. We then examine some specific questions about his use of video (both live and prerecorded) and the use of choreographed gestures. Finally, we discuss four key works which show three very different approaches to his use of gesture. Your Fox's a Dirty Gold for solo performer with voice, motion sensors, electric guitar, and live-electronics (2011) features a solo performer, singing and seeming to play electric guitar, although all the sounds are produced by the movement of sensors, rather than the instrument. Laplace Tiger for drum-kit, arm-sensor, live electronics, and live video (2009) shows the use of live video triggered by the drummer's gestures, amplifying while also transforming the audience's perceptions of these movements and the resultant sounds. Sensate Focus for electric guitar, bass clarinet, violin, percussion, live-electronics and animated light (2014) uses lighting to create the illusion that the ensemble on stage is a digital projection. And HELLO for any number of instruments, live-electronics and video (2014) uses a video of himself performing everyday tasks in his home, as both the graphic score and the ‘conductor’ for the ensemble.