Abstract

     This paper describes a series of street performances which result in an unusual exchange between performer, audience, and environment. In these performances, we capture the sounds from the immediate environment, process them with our laptop-based performance system, and transmit this re-created sound back to the audience through various subtle means. Audiences are encouraged to listen to the soundscape to deduce the relationship between the original and the performed result. The experience of these concerts serves to underscore the urban soundscape and induce heightened awareness. Here we present the theory behind these performances and their relationship to our other field-recording-based work, as well as observations from numerous performances given in several cities over the past year.

Biography

     Scott Smallwood is a sound artist, composer, percussionist, and improviser whose work combines field recording, free improvisation, experimental composition, and electronica. He has presented his work nationally and internationally in such festivals and conferences as ICMC in Hong Kong, the Sound Practice conference in the UK, and the Boston Cyberarts Festival at Mobius. He has released recording projects with the improvising electro-acoustic trio Nyquist, as well as his own compositions, on his own label Wavelet Records, and has recently released a CD of soundscape pieces entitled "Desert Winds" on Pauline Oliveros' Deep Listening Label. Smallwood teaches computer music at the iEAR Studios at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he also serves as the Technical Director.

     Stephan Moore is a sound artist, composer, and improvising musician whose recent projects include multi-channel sound installations, recordings for the Televaw and Wavelet labels, composition for chamber ensemble with interactive electronics, and improvisitory performances with a wide range of musicians, video artists, and dancers. His work has been presented in numerous venues both nationally and internationally, including festivals and conferences such as SEAMUS (Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States), the MAXIS Experimental Sound Festival in the UK, the Mixology Festival at New York City's Roulette, and the Seoul International Computer Music Festival in South Korea. Moore teaches computer music at the iEAR Studios at Simon's Rock College and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Evidence is a duo composed of the laptop musicians, sound artists and field recordists Stephan Moore and Scott Smallwood. They seek to bring the world of sonic evidence to the foreground and weave it into textures and pulses of electronic goodness