[PD] Re:[OT] How do your performance environments looks like?

[Maurizio Umberto Puxeddu]

Hello.

This issue should be split in two part.

On one side there are consequences of the controls you use on the music
you play, on the kind of operation you can do on your music, on the kind
of operation you can imagine to do.

On the other side there are consequences on how people listen/see your
performance. Since you also talked using yourself as a listener, I
thought it was not far from your interests.

Second annotation: there is a point when quantity becomes quality.
My experience here is limited to studying doublebass and playing
doublebass in chamber groups and didactical and semi-professional
orchestras, but I think I can trust that. If it's true that the
sound/gesture splitting is always present even in acoustic instruments,
it can't be compared to the electonics' case, expecially when you assume
the point of view/listening of the public. With acoustic instrument you
can build an artificial gesture but only *around* a set of actions which
are (again, expecially for the public) extremely precise in their nature
and their consequences and so can be easily identified.
With electronics you can even completely change your gesture between two
performances (even if it's not necessarily a good thing for the quality
of the performance!).

Of course what I say it only partially true (but it's hard to be
exhaustive by mail) and we can complicate more the discussion since this
has relations with all kind of questions I have in mind and other things
I talk with my teacher.

I'm sorry if sometimes I say trivial things but I don't have specific
education in this field and don't have people to compare with, since in
my class most discussions (if any) are still about "if using Csound
makes you a computer geek or an artist". So what I say mostly basically
reflects what a person can understand walking in the darkness.
If it's true that you can find articles on the web about that,
understanding the consequences of these issues on thinking music,
organizing your own work, preparing a performance, balancing research
and production in everyday work is more complicated.

> And I think that I can hear this in performances, and see it reflected in 
> the way of sitting at a desk behind a laptop.
> The attention of the performer seems focused on moving the cursor to place 
> X on the screen, and not on making sound Y in the room.

This is because of

1) Use of a bad environment
2) little elaboration of their playing/improvising technique. Here I
have a positive example in my teacher. I mean that using his limited
devices he developed a very good which I currently still lack.

I didn't see many laptop musician performances but from what I saw, what
I'm told and what I imagine, I share exactly your same feelings. I also 
would like to have a similar approach to improvisation and that's why
I'm working on my MetaControl. I would only love to get the real result
quicker but I think I have to live with that.

I'm glad to read and write the mails in this thread. It makes me feel as
I were not completely off road.

Regards,

Maurizio Umberto Puxeddu.