LUFTLINIEN
2021
recording protocol for a speaker and 4 performers with cameras and audio recorders
(score excerpts)
1. performers and loudspeakers in a space
1.1 Five musicians not using their instruments:
1.11 one static, four moving;
1.111 one static, in a central position;
1.112 four moving, distributed around the space.
[...]
1.23 Seeing or hearing the static performer is not always possible for the moving ones.
1.3 Four small loudspeakers are positioned in the space.
[...]
1.34 Hearing simultaneously the sound of all loudspeakers is always impossible for the moving performers.
[...]
2.11 Each event is a similar version of the reading of this text.
2.111 The reading is done by the static performer in the center.
2.12 Each event is a different version of the documentation of this reading.
2.121 The reading is documented by the four moving performers.
2.122 Two of them operate a video-camera, the two others an audio recording device.
2.13 The reader never changes role while the moving ones can change their recording device type between the events.
2.2 The recording performers devise three different paths.
[...]
2.2211 The fact that a material element stands between the sensor and the reader is irrelevant.
[...]
3.1 The performance space is sonified.
[...]
3.2 The time and the duration of each occurrence are sonified.
[...]
3.3 During events, each point in time and space involves a different perceived combination of tones.
[...]
4.1 During the events, audio and video are never recorded by the same device.
[...]
4.3 The generated material is reduced to the one-channel video work with stereo audio in which this text is embedded.
4.31 During the editing process, the material generated by the three different events is considered as documenting only one.
4.311 The chronological progression of the sequences is strictly maintained.
4.32 The editing principle is that of successive replacement of perspective, common for example to any TV show recorded with several cameras.
[...]
4.4 The final result is subtitled regardless of whether the speaker is heard and seen or not (but still following the actual course of the reading in the video.)
4.5 The result is shown exclusively in the building in which the events were documented.
[...]
5.1 This work is as self-contained as possible. The text is at once the score, the verbal content, the formal principle and the program notes of the work.
5.11 This work is intended to fall in the field of music-making.
[...]
5.113 The structure of this text is envisioned as a musical composition, using freely the numerical system of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus.
[...]
5.2 This is a musical work in which the retransmission of itself is an integral feature.
[...]
5.2221 The relationship between audio and video is taken for what it is: the contingent formation of two parallel technical processes.
[...]
5.22231"To be free is to play against the devices." [7]
5.3 The title of this work is Luftlinien
5.31 Luftlinien, like bee line or as the crow flies, vol d’oiseau, linea d’aria, vuelo de pájaro, hemelsbreed are all natural metaphors used to designate the shortest distance between two points on a map, without considering material accidents separating them.
[...]
"All fixed, fast-frozen relations, […] are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air […]" [12]
[7] Vilém Flusser, For a philosophy of photography
[12] Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party
1. performers and loudspeakers in a space
1.1 Five musicians not using their instruments:
1.11 one static, four moving;
1.111 one static, in a central position;
1.112 four moving, distributed around the space.
[...]
1.23 Seeing or hearing the static performer is not always possible for the moving ones.
1.3 Four small loudspeakers are positioned in the space.
[...]
1.34 Hearing simultaneously the sound of all loudspeakers is always impossible for the moving performers.
[...]
2.11 Each event is a similar version of the reading of this text.
2.111 The reading is done by the static performer in the center.
2.12 Each event is a different version of the documentation of this reading.
2.121 The reading is documented by the four moving performers.
2.122 Two of them operate a video-camera, the two others an audio recording device.
2.13 The reader never changes role while the moving ones can change their recording device type between the events.
2.2 The recording performers devise three different paths.
[...]
2.2211 The fact that a material element stands between the sensor and the reader is irrelevant.
[...]
3.1 The performance space is sonified.
[...]
3.2 The time and the duration of each occurrence are sonified.
[...]
3.3 During events, each point in time and space involves a different perceived combination of tones.
[...]
4.1 During the events, audio and video are never recorded by the same device.
[...]
4.3 The generated material is reduced to the one-channel video work with stereo audio in which this text is embedded.
4.31 During the editing process, the material generated by the three different events is considered as documenting only one.
4.311 The chronological progression of the sequences is strictly maintained.
4.32 The editing principle is that of successive replacement of perspective, common for example to any TV show recorded with several cameras.
[...]
4.4 The final result is subtitled regardless of whether the speaker is heard and seen or not (but still following the actual course of the reading in the video.)
4.5 The result is shown exclusively in the building in which the events were documented.
[...]
5.1 This work is as self-contained as possible. The text is at once the score, the verbal content, the formal principle and the program notes of the work.
5.11 This work is intended to fall in the field of music-making.
[...]
5.113 The structure of this text is envisioned as a musical composition, using freely the numerical system of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus.
[...]
5.2 This is a musical work in which the retransmission of itself is an integral feature.
[...]
5.2221 The relationship between audio and video is taken for what it is: the contingent formation of two parallel technical processes.
[...]
5.22231"To be free is to play against the devices." [7]
5.3 The title of this work is Luftlinien
5.31 Luftlinien, like bee line or as the crow flies, vol d’oiseau, linea d’aria, vuelo de pájaro, hemelsbreed are all natural metaphors used to designate the shortest distance between two points on a map, without considering material accidents separating them.
[...]
"All fixed, fast-frozen relations, […] are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air […]" [12]
[7] Vilém Flusser, For a philosophy of photography
[12] Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party
SILO version:
site-specifiic video installation (18 min. loop) + printed booklet
screening:
13.06.2021 / SILO, Basel
performers:
Raphaël Belfiore (text, performance, editing) / Cristina Arcos Cano, Canberk Duman, Eguzki Irusta Salles & Sylvain Monchocé (performance, filming, recording)
production:
Zeiträume Basel
score EN (pdf)
score DE (pdf)