Music in Impossible Spaces I
The body is a heterotopia / A boat is a heterotopia; they are both moving spaces capable of inhabiting spaces of otherness
For any number of musicians on small boats
Instructions
- Gather any number of people on separate small boats and separate bodies of water with any instrument. (e.g: 3 people, 3 boats, 3 rivers).
- At the same time, each person is to play various aspects of their surrounding: the river, the movement of the boat, the wind.
- Do it again only this time sense yourself in relation to the river, sense your movement in relation to the boat, and your breath in relation to the wind.
- Sense completion, then without pause, sense yourself with all three.
Draw a line on a piece of paper, or whatever means you have, that represents the movement of the boat, the river, the wind, and what you noticed about yourself. Combined the drawings, and recordings with the other players to see/hear the impossible spaces together.
Each performer can also set up a live-stream allowing people online to watch and listen to each performer live together at the same time.
Music in Impossible Spaces II
A work for a solo performer of any instrument, who imagines a performance in a hypnagogic dream state. The hypnagogic state occurs when you first fall asleep – a transitional state between wakefulness and sleep. The performer is encouraged to bring their own thoughts, ideas, and desires to the imagination of the concert. They are to contemplate a concert deeply right up until the moment of sleep allowing the involuntary nature of the hypnagogic hallucinations to take over. The performer wakes up, writes down what happened, and the description is to be used to realise a waking performance.
The performer is to do this while in a heterotopic location, such as a place of crisis, deviation, of, or outside of, time; a place of ritual or purification; a space of illusion; or a space that is other.
The performer can also use their dream report to influence a hallucination in the hypnopompic phase – the state just before waking up. The performer writes another dream report from this phase which is also used to construct the concert.
Music in Impossible Spaces III (WVM Rivalry)
WVM Rivalry is a piece where the performer makes changes to the music based on real-time changes in their perception. Below are the notation instructions for a performer to use. They indicate action to do when: their mind has wandered (W), come back on task (veridical perception (V), or has had a misperception (M) where the mind has been confused or tricked or the eyes glaze over.
= An indication to play or rest when the mind wanders.
= An indication to play or rest when the mind is experiencing a more veridical perception.
= An indication to play or rest when the mind is experiencing an illusion or a misperception of reality.
Choose 3 pieces that you know from memory.
Select an excerpt from each piece. Assign one to (V), another to (M), and the third to (W).
While playing the excerpts, watch a visually disorientating / perception altering video, like a ‘binocular rivalry’ video to alter your perception while playing, for example – https://vimeo.com/282140221
When you think your mind is wandering play the first excerpt (W)
When you think you are in veridical perception play the second excerpt (V)
When you think you’re experiencing a misperception play the third excerpt (M)
