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Leonardo
Musica Automata: Machines and BodiesAuthor(s): Caroline WilkinsSource: Leonardo, Vol. 36, No. 2 (2003), p. 104Published by: The MIT PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1577434 .
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References and Notes
1. Melinda Rackham, "Carrier-Becoming Sym- borg," in Alison Bashford and Claire Hooker, eds., Contagion: Historical and Cultural Studies (London: Routledge, 2001) p. 217.
2. For information, see <http://www.subtle.net/ carrier>. Authored and produced by Melinda Rack- ham, with Java and sound by Damien Everett, addi- tionalJava byJohn Tonkin.
MUSICA AUTOMATA: MACHINES AND BODIES
Caroline Wilkins, 1 Rue Croix Paillere, 79500 Melle, France.
Received 21 March 2001. Acceptedfor publication by RogerE Malina.
One of my main musical concerns is with the "play of time," a dialogue between present and past. It is possible for music to travel through time quite freely, by sliding through different contexts and juxtaposing different influences. To look at what has gone before and see these origins in relation to the present is to observe tradition from a new perspec- tive, removed from its usual context.
Early recording methods (see Fig. 2) and music machines reveal an undis- guised rawness in their sound. It is exactly this immediacy, this undeniable imperfection of a sound-source, that interests me-the "body," or physicality of a machine. Any comparison between past and present is all the more pointed when seen in relation to contemporary expectations of sound quality, where increasing refinement and standardiza-
References and Notes
1. Melinda Rackham, "Carrier-Becoming Sym- borg," in Alison Bashford and Claire Hooker, eds., Contagion: Historical and Cultural Studies (London: Routledge, 2001) p. 217.
2. For information, see <http://www.subtle.net/ carrier>. Authored and produced by Melinda Rack- ham, with Java and sound by Damien Everett, addi- tionalJava byJohn Tonkin.
MUSICA AUTOMATA: MACHINES AND BODIES
Caroline Wilkins, 1 Rue Croix Paillere, 79500 Melle, France.
Received 21 March 2001. Acceptedfor publication by RogerE Malina.
One of my main musical concerns is with the "play of time," a dialogue between present and past. It is possible for music to travel through time quite freely, by sliding through different contexts and juxtaposing different influences. To look at what has gone before and see these origins in relation to the present is to observe tradition from a new perspec- tive, removed from its usual context.
Early recording methods (see Fig. 2) and music machines reveal an undis- guised rawness in their sound. It is exactly this immediacy, this undeniable imperfection of a sound-source, that interests me-the "body," or physicality of a machine. Any comparison between past and present is all the more pointed when seen in relation to contemporary expectations of sound quality, where increasing refinement and standardiza-
tion assume an underlying aesthetic. I would like to address what it is that has been refined in sound recording and what we have perhaps ignored in the process.
In my earlier compositions, this research resulted in a number of purely electro-acoustic works, such as Music for Mechanical Instruments (1987), or in the combination of live music with ma- chines, as in for accordion and phono- graph (1986). More recently, I have become interested in the medium of radiophonic art as a way of exploring this aesthetic further. Theatri Machi- narum-Theatre of Machines, which was realized at the Studio for Acoustic Art, West German Radio, in 1994, creates a "dialogue" between the mechanisms of early machines and the movement of objects recorded in a large echoing room. For example, a small toy music box placed on a metal resonator and played very slowly is heard together with the sound of a glass chandelier stirred into motion-each recording retaining its own corporeal reality, its own acoustic environment.
Mecanica Natura, produced in 1999 at the same studio, is a further develop- ment of this theme, where music ma- chines come into dialogue with the rhythms and patterns of environmental sound. In this case, I used both histori- cal and contemporary material, such as early recordings of Percy Grainger's Free Music Machines [ 1 ] and a Talking Machine, invented by Martin Riches, a British artist living in Berlin [2]. A third
tion assume an underlying aesthetic. I would like to address what it is that has been refined in sound recording and what we have perhaps ignored in the process.
In my earlier compositions, this research resulted in a number of purely electro-acoustic works, such as Music for Mechanical Instruments (1987), or in the combination of live music with ma- chines, as in for accordion and phono- graph (1986). More recently, I have become interested in the medium of radiophonic art as a way of exploring this aesthetic further. Theatri Machi- narum-Theatre of Machines, which was realized at the Studio for Acoustic Art, West German Radio, in 1994, creates a "dialogue" between the mechanisms of early machines and the movement of objects recorded in a large echoing room. For example, a small toy music box placed on a metal resonator and played very slowly is heard together with the sound of a glass chandelier stirred into motion-each recording retaining its own corporeal reality, its own acoustic environment.
Mecanica Natura, produced in 1999 at the same studio, is a further develop- ment of this theme, where music ma- chines come into dialogue with the rhythms and patterns of environmental sound. In this case, I used both histori- cal and contemporary material, such as early recordings of Percy Grainger's Free Music Machines [ 1 ] and a Talking Machine, invented by Martin Riches, a British artist living in Berlin [2]. A third
Fig. 2. Caroline Wilkins, 78-rpm record and pick-up arm of gramophone. "Schalldose," meaning literally "soundbox," indicates the method of amplification used in early sound reproduction, a small diaphragm being built into the pick-up arm itself and converting the shellac grooves into sound waves. (Photo ? Caroline Wilkins)
Fig. 2. Caroline Wilkins, 78-rpm record and pick-up arm of gramophone. "Schalldose," meaning literally "soundbox," indicates the method of amplification used in early sound reproduction, a small diaphragm being built into the pick-up arm itself and converting the shellac grooves into sound waves. (Photo ? Caroline Wilkins)
element of the work, alongside the music machines and environmental sound, is a composition for flutes, entitled ffffff.. ., which I wrote earlier in 1996 as a result of encountering Riches' Flute-Playing Machine [3]. This composition provides a vital link be- tween the other sound material, stem- ming as it does from the same influences of mechanical and natural environmental sound.
For the purposes of radio broadcast the production team at West German Radio-Daniel Velasco, Barbar Gobel and I-made a stereo version of Mecanica Natura. However, during the same time we also realized a version for five-channel distribution in a live per- formance situation with a flautist, in order to effectively "spatialize" the numerous sound elements.
Grainger's search for a "free music," reflecting the sounds of nature, led him to write complex rhythms and "gliding" tones [4] that were only possible to achieve with machines. This apparent contradiction to nature is exactly where Mecanica Natura begins. Natural sounds juxtaposed with those of machines take on a different aspect when their "mech- anisms" become perceptible through the medium of microphone and sound analysis. Our acoustic reality is no longer "natural" as such. We hear "an- other nature" through the experience of sound reproduction, of the micro- phone "without a consciousness," to refer to Walter Benjamin's study The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Repro- duction [5]. My work confronts this question of our relation to environmen- tal sound, language and music as some- thing unconsciously repeatable through means of technology.
References and Notes
1. Percy Grainger was an Australian composer born in 1882, who built a number of music machines, in- cluding the Kangaroo Pouch Machine (1952) and the Reed-box Tone Tool (1951) in order to experiment with new sound possibilities.
2. Martin Riches has built a number of machines that perform human actions such as walking, writing, drawing, speaking and making music. They are shown both in art exhibitions and in concerts. The Talking Machine dates from ca. 1994.
3. ffffff... for flute(s) and flute-playing machine or tape is published by Edition Modern Tre Media, Karlsruhe, Germany, <http://www.tremediamusic edition.de>. It was first performed in the original ver- sion with Riches's machine in 1997.
4. "Gliding tones" was a term used by Grainger to de- scribe the upward/downward movement of sounds without any definite pitches.
element of the work, alongside the music machines and environmental sound, is a composition for flutes, entitled ffffff.. ., which I wrote earlier in 1996 as a result of encountering Riches' Flute-Playing Machine [3]. This composition provides a vital link be- tween the other sound material, stem- ming as it does from the same influences of mechanical and natural environmental sound.
For the purposes of radio broadcast the production team at West German Radio-Daniel Velasco, Barbar Gobel and I-made a stereo version of Mecanica Natura. However, during the same time we also realized a version for five-channel distribution in a live per- formance situation with a flautist, in order to effectively "spatialize" the numerous sound elements.
Grainger's search for a "free music," reflecting the sounds of nature, led him to write complex rhythms and "gliding" tones [4] that were only possible to achieve with machines. This apparent contradiction to nature is exactly where Mecanica Natura begins. Natural sounds juxtaposed with those of machines take on a different aspect when their "mech- anisms" become perceptible through the medium of microphone and sound analysis. Our acoustic reality is no longer "natural" as such. We hear "an- other nature" through the experience of sound reproduction, of the micro- phone "without a consciousness," to refer to Walter Benjamin's study The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Repro- duction [5]. My work confronts this question of our relation to environmen- tal sound, language and music as some- thing unconsciously repeatable through means of technology.
References and Notes
1. Percy Grainger was an Australian composer born in 1882, who built a number of music machines, in- cluding the Kangaroo Pouch Machine (1952) and the Reed-box Tone Tool (1951) in order to experiment with new sound possibilities.
2. Martin Riches has built a number of machines that perform human actions such as walking, writing, drawing, speaking and making music. They are shown both in art exhibitions and in concerts. The Talking Machine dates from ca. 1994.
3. ffffff... for flute(s) and flute-playing machine or tape is published by Edition Modern Tre Media, Karlsruhe, Germany, <http://www.tremediamusic edition.de>. It was first performed in the original ver- sion with Riches's machine in 1997.
4. "Gliding tones" was a term used by Grainger to de- scribe the upward/downward movement of sounds without any definite pitches.
5. W. Benjamin, Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner tech- nischen Reproduzierbarkeit, Hermann Scweppenhauser and RolfTiedemann eds. (Frankfurt am Main, Ger- many: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1977) p. 36. Originally pub- lished in 1936.
5. W. Benjamin, Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner tech- nischen Reproduzierbarkeit, Hermann Scweppenhauser and RolfTiedemann eds. (Frankfurt am Main, Ger- many: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1977) p. 36. Originally pub- lished in 1936.
104 Artists' Statements 104 Artists' Statements
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