MAP Project: Tiange Zhou — Write-up
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Tiange Zhou - In and Beyond the Project
There has been disagreement on the criteria for defining Open Score. So to avoid confusion in terminology, it is crucial to identify the definition of the Open Score in this research. Open as an adjective means allowing access, passage, or a view through space; not closed or blocked. If used as a verb, it means moving or adjusting to leaving a space allowing access and view. Therefore, it has to be comprehended into two different viewing angles. Beyond the specific composer-performer relationship in an "open" situation, an open score is an artistic format containing indeterminate aspects or dimensions, which provide opportunities to achieve the transformable morphologies of musical continuity. Moving on now to consider the performative perspective, in the case of a composer-performer relationship, an open score provides opportunities for the broader latitude for performers' creative participation and interpretation. Meanwhile, the artistic outcomes the performers produce will be unpredictable in different performances. In other words, to "open" the score.
When musicians choose to have open score productions, they must be captivated by the specific characters. In the beginning, open-score provides opportunities to establish interactions within the framework of musical practice as inclusive; heterogeneous; and focused on equality, shared authorship, and the right for all participants to be equal, creative entities on the project. These fields of musical interaction have been described not only as participatory and collaborative but also as social or public engagement projects, socially-engaged art, or community arts. These fields are not hermetic or separate but are fluid, depending on the context of the project or practice. Thomas Turino, in his book Music as Social Life: The Politics of Participation, identifies live participatory music as tending towards participatory or presentational—the distinction hinges on whether there is a public performance or not. Democratic processes within these fields of musical interaction will also be in constant flux— principally around negotiating freedom and equality.
Beyond the reasons above, choosing open score notation based upon one fundamental pitch for this ACTOR project with binaural recording devices are related to several specific considerations. First of all, the binaural recording has provided a possible sonic perspective I would not imagine in other circumstances. This perspective empathetically shares the performer's first-person ears with others who have no opportunity to play or even locate their body in the stage environment. Considering this reason, the performer's character and voice have to be very strong and audible. During the collaboration, they have to be in an active position instead of an inactive status. Second, but also significant, the binaural recording devices are good at capturing sonic nuances that are generally exclusive for performers' ears. The open score composition based upon one fundamental pitch could diminish the parameter variables. For experimental purposes, this character would help me quickly check back the recordings from the workshopping sessions with the collaborating cello player Peter Ko to make reliable choices and organizations among all possible sonic phenomenons. Third, focusing on listening to small and fragile timbre transformations is the key to this experimental piece. Creating a time flexible zone is critical for performers to approach the sound one tends to achieve slowly. Therefore, in this piece, the duration markers in this work depend on the performer's perception instead of the absolute time capsule.
Indeed, the piece is composed associating with this specific technology we have. And Peter and I soon realize that binaural microphones tend to catch the high-frequency pitches better. Then the questions came to my mind: Does binaural microphone recording completely represent Peter Ko's listening perception? Does the one who listens to the recording experience whole Peter Ko's bodily experience? Does one's complete listening experience only depend on how one perceives information through the ears? People may know in McGurk effect, the information that our brain believes we hear aurally is highly influenced by the information we have taken visually by our eyes. Similar to the situation during the recording process, the ground sound of the cello, which has physically vibrated a lot with the performer's body, is not very well stimulated. I have tried to make recording my djembe performance with the binaural microphone and listened to them back. The phenomenon happens that many low-frequency sounds have been lost, and I lack the experience of how my arms and hands participate in the whole listening result generating.
However, I do believe the binaural microphone will be super valuable for the current stage metaverse productions, especially in VR and AR fields. In the VR world, most of the human participatory avatars are still very much associated with the upper body and mainly head- related perceptions, so the lack of coverage of the whole body sound perception will not be a problem in the recent stage. And I believe some good HTRF algorithms will make up for this disadvantage. It might be even easier in the AR world since it will not completely take away human aural and visual perceptions from the real world. The AR sound associated with binaurally recorded materials will effectively participate in the whole heterotopia experience. Consequentially, the new utilize of this technology would also emerge various artistic creations that I am looking forward to stepping in.