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Separation anxiety: metaphoric transmutations from a paradoxical biological instrument, or: What is a cactus doing in our concert hall?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 February 2002

Paul Rudy
Paul Rudy
Affiliation:
University of Missouri at Kansas City Conservatory of Music, 4949 Cherry, Kansas City, MO 64110-2229, USA E-mail: proody@hotmail.com URL: http://r.faculty.umkc.edu/rudyp/prudy.html
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Abstract

In its original rendition, Degrees of Separation: “Grandchild of Tree” (1998) is performed with cactus, outboard digital effects, and CD playback, with simple lighting. The work is a metaphor which portrays subtle transformations (or transmutations) in human existence precipitated by pervasive new technology. A new version consists of a performance with a video component and all electronics fully automated in MAX/MSP on a Macintosh Powerbook. Development of this work, and subsequent versions, have proven invaluable for my own approach to the music I compose, and for the understanding of my position in the contemporary world of computers, technology and art. This paper attempts to describe these discoveries through outlining the levels of symbolism and metaphor in the work as realised through source abstraction (both visually and aurally), spatialisation and (re-)contextualisation. It begins with the question: What is a cactus doing in the concert hall?

Type
Research Article
Information
Organised Sound , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , August 2001 , pp. 125 - 130
Copyright
© 2001 Cambridge University Press

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