photos by Katerina Tamvaki
A MICROPHONE IS TREATED WITH HOT WAX DROPS AND EVENTUALLY SET ON FIRE.
the mic is exposed
no armor to wear
facing the world
a punch in the chest
each touch is a mark
each flame is a trace
its body a map that accumulates
the sound it makes
a desperate cry
feeling all those blows
until when it dies
keyword - microphone
THE BLOWS FROM OUTSIDE
ALL OF A SUDDEN
A microphone is placed on the asphalt at one side of a road.
It is slowly pulled towards the other side of the road where the audience stand.
The microphone keeps on going until it gets killed by the passing cars.
It’s like your loved one being struck on his/her way back home.
It’s like you passing away all of the sudden.
BEYOND THE YELLOW LINE
A microphone is physically exposed to the consequences of breaking the distance limit that conventionally separates it from the subject of the recording. The video is a metaphor about the search for interaction and confrontation.
How Far Can I Get
1) A performer swings a microphone in the air.
2) At each turn the microphone cable is stretched a few inches more.
3) The performer continues in this way until the cable length becomes unmanageable and the microphone goes crashing to the ground.
The performance is a metaphor about becoming aware of each one’s individual limitations. The cable length represents the point of maximum extension beyond which each one meets his own fear and force. The impact of the microphone to the ground represents the breaking point, the realization of each one’s personal limit, character and vulnerable nature.
Video – Research Material: https://vimeo.com/114553487 (password is “ciao”)
Video – Live Performance: https://vimeo.com/119807144 (password is “ciao”)
Mike The Drums
What happens when we stop thinking that the primary function of a microphone is to capture sound and translate air pressure into electronic signal? What happens when we violate the basic rules and principles of audio engineering and recording technology?
Mike the Drums is a series of audio recordings where, rather than a pair of drumsticks, I play drums with a pair of microphones. The project explores the physical properties and affordances of the microphone and presents a more intuitive and analog way to approach audio technology. By giving a body to the microphone, the project reflects on the physical affection and corporal aspect of material culture and how this sensual attraction subverts the conventional modes of consuming technology.
Mike the Drums is part of a series of works that investigates the practical materiality of audio technology. My interest is to go beyond technology’s vocational functions and set a new kind of relation with it. Here are the links to the other works:
Leicester, Beyond the Yellow Line, Wind Sign, Marebello Beach, How Far Can I Get, Slingshot.
Slingshot
photo by Luca Ghedini
A thrower, equipped with a slingshot, tries to hit a microphone.
The impact of the hit is amplified and diffused at high volume from a loudspeaker.
The amplification of the hit allows the thrower to experience the “sensitivity” of the microphone, or in other words: to understand and share the feelings of another body.
Watch the DOCUMENTATION VIDEO here (my piece is at 17′:18” of the video).