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"Reading Poetry" (2014 - )

[series of pieces based on morse code, using various sound/silence principles of interaction for various instruments, or a telegraph key, with and without electronics and video]

Breaks are always, and fatally, reinscribed in an old cloth that must continually, interminably be undone. - Jacques Derida, Positions (1981)

“Reading Poetry” is a series of pieces where selected poems are being read with sound. While sounding material is portraying the performer’s interpretation of the poem, the flow is being invaded by silence. Different poems can be told in different ways. These pieces use morse code as a base to translate durations into rhythm. The translated durations can be those of sound or of silence or of both.



•“Reading Poetry (i)” (2014), for solo performer with violin, tibetan bowls and voice
- about: The piece is based on the poem “This is Just to Say” by William Carlos Williams. The text is translated with morse code into rhythmic patterns, which are then used as a base on which sound is played to tell the poem (with violin, tibetan bowls, voice).
- premiere: June, 5th 2014 at Miry Hall, Gent (Belgium)




•“Fragment#51” (2020), for solo performer with a telegraph key, live video and playback
- about: A telegraph key is used to cut sound during the performance, and introduce the conversation with the silence. The duration of the silence is translated through the morse code into text, and then projected on the screen. In some versions, the calculated silence is the one of the space itself, in others - the silence within the computer. In the former, the goal is to not have a pre-scripted response (displayed text), but that possible words are formed by chance. “Fragment#51” was performed with sounding part entirely for acoustic solo violin (prerecorded), and with calculating silence within the computer with a scripted response.

- premiere: “Fragment#51” was performed during “is the new punk” event, transmedia performance exhibition by Noisbringers, in Gallery Annalix Forever on May 8th 2021 in Geneva (Switzerland).

 

 

•“if not               winter” (August, 2021), fixed audio media
- about: This piece is featured in the album "the abundant house of sappho" and can be heard here.


•“Trapped” (2021), for solo performer with a telegraph key, live video and playback
- premiere: premiered at SMOG (Brussels, Belgium) on October 2nd 2021


•“Still Trapped” (2022), for solo performer with a telegraph key, live video and playback
- about: "Still Trapped" is another piece from the series, where sounding material is portraying my interpretation of the poem, while the flow is being invaded by the Silence.

The former layer is achieved by translating chosen text with morse code to rhythm patters. These patterns are in this piece extended to extremely slow speed, where it becomes difficult follow the pattern, pushing for feeling and understanding the text through this sound material of specific timbres and characters.

The other layer is Silence, the voice of the space. A telegraph key is used to cut sound during the performance, and introduce the voice of silence to the audience. The telegraph key and the body of the performer are just the tools, an instrument, which Silence uses to express themselves. The duration of the silence is translated through the morse code into text, and then projected on the screen. In some versions, the calculated silence is the one of the space itself, in others - the silence within the computer. In the former, the goal is to not have a pre-scripted response (displayed text), but that possible words are formed by chance. “Still Trapped” was performed with sounding poem entirely created from acoustic solo violin (prerecorded) using a fragment of Sappho and with calculating silence within the computer with a scripted response.

- premiere: Create LAb (Huddersfiled, UK) on March 1st 2022

"Even though you are approaching Sappho in translation, that is no reason you should miss the drama of trying to read a papyrus torn in half or riddled with hols or smaller than a postage stamp" - Anne Carson, If Not, Winter (2002)

•“Uninhabitable” (2022), for solo performer with a telegraph key, live video and playback
- premiere: premiered at Inhabiting the Uninhabitable (Brussels, Belgium) on November 18th 2022

 

 

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