With the approaches used here, each movement offers an opportunity for limited pitched materials. I would like to tune them to a different chord in each movement, as in Erik Satie’s Trois Gymnopedies: #1, #2, #3.

Scratch-HitTheDeck

Bombs, machine guns, and running predators. Hopefully you get a sense of the variety of sounds possible and the opportunities for rhythmic and melodic (in the machine guns) structure if we want to pursue it. Materials used: whistling, pounding, flicking cards (processed), finger tapping.

Scratch-WoodenDeck

Steps out onto a wooden deck, with a breeze, ice in a cool drink clinking like wind chimes, then steps off the deck into the grass and away. Materials used: empty glass, glass with water and ice, and erm…hair (it’s all I had to do the job at the time).

Scratch-DeckedOut

Zipping up a fancy dress, setting off a jazzy beat (rubbing fabric), ending by unzipping, followed by a wolf whistle. Materials used: zipper, fabric.

Scratch-DeckOfCards

Frantic alternation through marking time, frenetic shuffling, and freezing on card “zips” or “gasps,” ending by spraying the deck all over. Materials used: deck of cards.

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Here are descriptions of the existing performances we can do. The personnel, roles, and equipment can be adapted to the skillsets and equipment in your class (although you may want a small budget to help make the most of the performance).

Nguhhhhhhhh — a Zombie Folktale. A tale of a tragic accident told from the zombies’ perspective incorporating a composer, musicians, roving camera operators, graphic artists, and live lo-fi audio and video processing.

Checkers. An epic game of checkers controls the evolution of a poem and a musical composition, incorporating a poet, composer, musicians, reciters, checker players, and woodworking or other form of fabrication.

SOCCERMOM. We evoke a campy horror film narrative through the innocuous daily activities of a boy, dad, and mom, including a soccer player, musicians, cooking supplies, woodworking tools, video artists, and a concealed Wiimote.

Research Embodied. Explore the sights and sounds of consuming information in a life of research until we discover what it means to have “enough” research.  Incorporate musicians, actors/dancers (non-speaking), lo-fi electronics work building electrified books and QWERTY keyboard, jazz and 80′s pop grooves, and a webcam for live video processing and a virtual carillon bell you play with your face.

Bukvik was selected as the winner of the Electric Monster Laptop Ensemble Commission Award curated by Hsiao-Lan Wang at Montana State University. The TAMU Laptet served as part of the jury panel for this competition, along with BLOrk, the laptop ensemble at the University of Colorado in Bolder.

Acoustically, we highlight how the Great Hall amplifies presence in the space.  The reverberation preserves instants in time, mirroring the function of a library.  Visually, we merge the view of the archives with a glimpse of their contents.  Functionally, we scripted and made music form the activities of participants in the Great Hall and scholars in the stacks.  Conceptually, we call attention to the union and separation of the public and scholars and the challenges of moderated access to information.

Read the press release here.