A Hole in the World, for Electric Guitar and MAX
David G. Wall · ERA: Education and Research Archive (University of Alberta) · 2015
A Hole in the World is an open composition for prepared electric guitar, archival recording, and audio programming. Text-fragments culled from my father’s recorded autobiography serve as the focal point of the piece. Transformations of these text-fragments within the audio programming language Max are created using the Kinect motion sensor camera, and through use of the computer keyboard. Invoking my father with the use of computer technology highlights the relationships between myself and my father, between human and machine, between composer and performer, and between the real and the virtual. These relationships are played out over the course of three movements. Each of the three movements is conceived of as a unique “memory-space.” Each contains related texts, and each constructs sonic relationships between electric guitar textures and Max patches. The goal of the project is to begin to define a method of composition that allows for the acceptance of nonhuman others as part of a collaborative process. In order to do this, I use a process of decentering to explore ideas of multiplicity, boundary dissolution, non-human centric composition, and connection with nonhuman others.