Nicolas Collins
Nicolas Collins es uno de los pioneros en la experimentación con electrónica y sonido a nivel mundial, es profesor regular de la escuela de Arte de Chicago y a lo largo de su carrera a realizado talleres y presentación por todo el mundo. Fue alumno de Alvin Lucier y ha trabajado con David Tudor y John Zorn.
Vivió la década del 90 en Europa donde se desempeñó como Director Artístico del Stichting STEIM (Amsterdam) y el DAAD composer-in-residence en Berlin. Desde 1997 es el editor principal del Leonardo Music Journal, y desde 1999 es profesor en el Departamento de Sonido del Instituto de Arte de Chicago. Su libro Handmade Electronic Music - The Art of Hardware Hacking, es un libro fundamental en la investigación con electrónica artesanal que ha influenciado a nivel mundial las nuevas generaciones de músicos electrónicos.
Nicolas presentará en Tsonami un concierto de música con tecnología electrónica en desuso, con dos piezas que utilizarán músicos invitados y músicos de la comunidad local.
Además realizará un taller de dos días dedicado al Hardware Hacking, este taller esta orientado a cualquier persona que tenga la curiosidad de investigar y experimentar de manera practica con electrónica básica. Tendrá una duración de dos días, en el primero se realizaran experiencias básicas de electrónica y sonido, como la construcción de osciladores victorianos, radio Craklebox, mini amplificadores, micrófonos de contacto y sensores electromagnéticos, para terminar con la construcción de un oscilador basado en un circuito integrado. El taller no requiere conocimientos previos de electrónica y el valor incluye materiales, no obstante cada alumno deberá llevar herramientas generales como cautín, alicates y destornilladores.
Para inscripciones al taller comunicarse al correo artesonoro@tsonami.cl
Detalle del concierto que presentará en Tsonami 2011
Pea Soup II (1973/2003) (15’)
I composed Pea Soup while a student in college. A self-stabilizing network of circuitry (originally three Countryman Phase Shifters) nudges the pitch of audio feedback to a different resonant frequency every time the feedback starts to build. The familiar shriek is replaced with unstable patterns of hollow tones, a site-specific raga reflecting the acoustical personality of the room. These architectural melodies can be influenced by moving in the space, making other sounds, or even by letting in a draft of cold air. The piece existed both as an installation, responding to visitors, and in a concert version, in which people performed activities intended to influence the feedback.
In the late 1990s I tried to replicate the now unavailable Countrymen, and by 2002 developed a fair emulation (with extensions) in software. Thirty years on I’m touring the piece again, and re-positioning what was a typical task-oriented work of strict Minimalism with a freer occasion for “improvising with architecture.”
The Talking Cure (2002) (15-20’)
For years I’ve used spoken texts in my music. The voice lends its own sonic qualities, and triggers other sounds to generate extensions of the melody and rhythm of natural speech. Narrative content provides form: the hypnotic, often soporific seduction of a good story became central to life and music while I was raising my small children. I scavenged and collaged texts, but the words were always fixed before I went on stage. Since the rest of my performance activities incorporate considerable ad hoc decision-making, I recently decided to develop a strategy for “improvised talking.”
In The Talking Cure a computer follows the inflection of the voice and generates a piano accompaniment; it also records specific speech sounds, which are played back later to overlay a vaguely instrumental solo line. I prepare nothing: I hold forth and the computer does the rest, making music off my cuff. The title derives from an early euphemism for Freudian psychoanalysis. Freud advised the patient to “utter without obstruction the thoughts and ideas rising to his mind,” which is pretty much the advice I follow on stage.
Salvage (Guiyu Blues) (2008) (9’)
In Salvage, seven performers attempt to re-animate deceased and discarded electronic circuitry: cell phones, computer motherboards, fax machines, sound mixers, musical keyboards, etc. Six of the players use test probes to make connections between a simple circuit of my design and the electronic corpse; feedback between my circuit and the components on the dead board produce complex patterns of oscillation, that are always changing in response to the slightest movement of the probes. The seventh performer “conducts” the performance by periodically signaling the players to try to freeze the current sound texture by holding their probes as still as possible.
In Memoriam Michel Waisvisz (2008) (6’)
For flame-controlled oscillators.
