De La Warr Pavilion (ALTERNATIVE PROPOSAL – 2010/11)
This proposal is intended to mark the final part of the John Cage exhibition, Every Day is a Good Day, April-June 2011. It is site-specific to the Pavilion and is intended to utilize the large rooftop area and Top Floor Foyer – linking outdoors to inside. CONDUCTOR comprises a series of six inter-related sculptures, designed to change individually over time. The piece will be exposed to the elements to generate a set of prints which will be added to daily in a grid covering the walls of the foyer.
CONDUCTOR features a group of sculptures derived from ‘sunshine recorders’ (meteorological devices used throughout the world to measure local sunshine and cloud activity each day) set out in an arc to resemble a small choir or musical ensemble. On the walls of the exhibition space is a grid of red and gold paper prints which become, over time, musical scores. Conceptually, the piece links the sun and sky to the fabric of the building and uses the unpredictability and chance rhythms caused by cloud cover to affect the visual and audible rhythms produced on the prints – a solar-powered celestial manifestation of Cage’s ideas to do with chance and the I-Ching, and of particular relevance to the overall exhibition title — Every Day is a Good Day.
All of these prints will be scanned and transposed into music using Logic Pro software, to be played back in a concert in the Auditorium on the final day of the John Cage show.
The title CONDUCTOR links together the idea of an ensemble being led (in this case, by the sun) to Cage’s musical historical importance and also the physical power of heat and conductivity. The dynamic chance activity happening each day as the sun hits and burns into the prints will be translated into continually changing patterns of music, experienced as follows:
PHASE 1
Each sculpture has a red and gold grid positioned beneath its lens, taken from the collection on the gallery wall at the end of each day, ready for day-break the following day. As the sun rises, it gradually burns into each print, producing a series of lines, punctuated by non-burned sections caused by cloud-cover. The prints are removed at the end of each day, scanned to be used later in conjunction with the audio-visual software, and then repositioned back to the wall of the exhibition space.
PHASE 2
Over the period of one month, the scanned arcs are used in conjunction with Logic Pro audio software to produce a series of interlaced loops of sound, with pitch, duration and rhythmic structure dictated by the shape and length of each arc line. These loops are arranged and layered to produce one integrated piece of music.PHASE 3
An audio-playback event is held in the De La Warr Main Auditorium, using a sound system and computer, with the group of sculptures set on stage, lit by individual spots. The sound system is controlled by an opto-electronic volume switch, so that the ambient light in the auditorium controls the volume of the music. The concert will start and end in darkness, with the lights and sound gradually fading up, then fading out, to mimic a one-day period from dawn to dusk.
Charlie Hooker – 2010
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