Bindu Point: Telecommunication with
the Mythic Present
Martin
Franklin (MA)
e-mail: martin@codetrip.net
Abstract
The “Bindu Point” project applies technology in the creation of a
hyper-dimensional performance environment. Camera input to motion detection
software feeds a generative parenting algorithm which outputs a layered stream
of synthesized drones in response to the movement of the performer. Performer,
musician and the system itself form an organic feedback loop, both triggering
input and responding to the resulting audio and video output.
Performer as Ritual Technician
The format of
“Bindu Point” attempts to address the use of technology as a mediator of
experience, in that it exists within non-virtual space where the technology is augmenting human reality. The
performer encounters the system in physical, human space, rather than entering
their consciousness into virtual, machine space.
The motion
detection hot spots set by the camera input, create the potential to activate a
sonic environment. The presence of “Bindu Point” in the performance space
allowing the manifestation of an invisible dimension which can be explored
intuitively rather than by learned technical knowledge.
The resulting
performances use trance-state improvisational movement to set in motion
generative audio and chaos driven video feedback, creating a constantly evolving
immersive environment of electronic drones and images.
Bindu
Point was performed at the Out There Festival in July 2004, the
Sonorities Festival at Sonic Arts Research Centre, Belfast 2005 and Generative
Art 2005 in Milan, Italy. Video documentation from the first performance of Bindu Point has been screened at the
ePerformance & Plugins Festival, Sydney, Australia and Inport 2005, Talinn,
Estonia.
This performance piece comes out of
research and development begun during my Computer Arts MA and a subsequently
funded collaboration with Lee Adams by Arts Council England South East and
South Hill Park.
The initial
design of the system used the Big Eye application from STEIM, feeding midi
information into another application created using Macromedia Director. The
processing then uses a parenting system to splice the binary equivalents of
each two note values together to create a child value that is mutated and sent
to the output. The current system incorporates motion triggering, midi
processing and audio into a single new application written using Max/MSP.
With the
creation of this new instrument, the challenge lies in learning how to
creatively pilot it. By augmenting the audio output with additional synthesiser
voices and audio processing, I am able to manipulate the output and create a
spontaneous, improvised audio response to the movement of the performer.
Lee’s recent performance, installation and video work has begun to explore the limits and boundaries of his physical control and endurance. His melancholic, often visceral performances range from the intimate to the epic and often examine the positioning and relationship between performer and audience, questioning notions of true/fictional and performed self, otherness, difference, gender, sex, love, pain, suffering, transcendence and the politics of the body in relation to culture and power.
In 2001 Lee
began to devise a series of solo performances starting with The Bachelor Stripped Bare selected for
the NRLA Platform at the New Territories Festival 2002, and described by Robert
Ayers in Live Art Magazine as ‘… a wonderfully old-fashioned and self
conscious Genetesque apparition … violently transgendering …’ this was
followed by Cruising, commissioned by
the LIFT Festival Club and broadcast on BBC2 television as part of the cultural
history series Taboo – 50 Years of
Censorship. Later in 1992 Lee developed and performed Valentine for The Centre of Attention and collaborated with Ernst
Fischer and Helen Spackman on Fallout
at the Riverside Studios.
In 2003 Lee
performed at Tate Modern with Guillermo Gomez-Pena in Ex Centris: The Museum of
Fetishized Identities, described by realtimearts.net as ‘A bit like
partying your way through the Apocalypse’; with Oreet Ashery in Central Location for Wonderyears at the NGBK Gallery, Berlin
and at Visions of Excess an ‘ …
eighteen hour voyage into the heart of darkness …’ staged in the Demon lap
dancing club and curated by Ron Athey and Vaginal Davis for the Fierce!
Festival. In 2004 Lee performed at the ICA with the International Necronautical Society (INS) in Calling All Agents.
2004 also saw
Lee produce a second collaboration with Ernst Fischer and Helen Spackman; Iconostasis, a multi-media performance for
Act 02 at the 291 Gallery, London; Porca
Miseria, commissioned by Duckie for Gay Shame at the Coronet. Later that
year he performed a live art intervention for Insight Arts Trust at the Royal
Opera House, Covent Garden.
In May 2005
Lee co-produced the London performances of Ron Athey’s experimental opera The Judas Cradle, at 291 Gallery, part
of a national tour commissioned by Fierce! and funded by The Arts Council of
England. Most recently Lee was commissioned to create a new work ‘The Mark of
Cain’ for Club Underworld in Athens.