Experiments for Microphones
Performances to Camera, 2005/6 (see below for durations)
Still from Video, Testing Microphone
Experiments for Microphones is a series of five short Performances to Camera. Testing Microphone -52s, is a futile attempt to count to ten to test the microphone which is set too high to reach, resulting in the voice waving between being acoustic and amplified. In Spinning Hum -2m55, I recorded my voice making a continuous hum on an old portable tape recorder, which is then played back and spun round, waved side to side and and pushed to and from the microphone layering them to create a composition of doppler patterns. In Exercise Video -5m16, I placed a microphone down my throat whilst I repeat an exercise until I’m to tired to continue. From Walk to Run -2m21, humming whilst walking, I allow the movement and pace of my walk to determine the Idiosyncrasies and pitch of my voice and finally Metal and Bucket 1m27, where the microphone is placed at the far end of the space away from the camera, I walk from the microphone towards the camera picking up pieces of metal & putting them into a bucket, the nearer I get to the camera the quieter the sound gets.
Still from Video, Spinning Hum
Chris Byrne writes in Situations Observed, Captured at National Review of Live Art ‘From Walk To Run’ by Bob Levene is reminiscent of the performance videos of Vito Acconci. The aesthetic of the stripped down studio or gallery space, bare walls; process-based repetitive actions which push the performer’s bodily limits. Levene applies a certain humour, the scenarios constructing pathos and absurdity in equal measure: she is too short too reach the microphone as she tries to speak into it, and attempts to extend a vocal note ad absurdum, beyond the point of endurance.
Edited extracts from Experiments for Microphone Series