Performance | 2013-site

“Hidden Frequencies” is a performative work that playfully explores musical sounds that stem from early communication and sound technologies. The performance moves from transmission to transcription, from the experience of decoding language to the material qualities of the machines of communication, and structural music. The first part of the work incorporates morse code patterns; the violin, tuning forks, and telegraph oscillators, forming a multi layered exploration of musical qualities. The second half moves into transcription of early images of sound vibrations from formats including optical film tracks and phonographs. These abstract renderings are filmed in ways to represent audio as a form of landscape as well as optical illusion and pattern. To enhance the haptic experience of sound and an interactive involvement with the work, the audience receives sound cards, which are opened and closed on cues supplied by the film.

At the culmination of the performance a record lathe cuts a record of the performance itself, and an endoscopic camera captures the image of thin threads of plastic waste spiraling off onto the turntables’ center spindle. The sampling from the records and the playback of the cut degenerates into an abstract layered wall of sound interweaving melody, speech, and drone.