Miser is the ritual electronics unit founded by John Hudnall and Drew Girard, existing as improvisatory live performance, souinstallationnd art, and recorded output. In practice, Miser serves as a reality disassembly tool, using sound forms to create ritual space and perceptual portals, inspired by organic, technological, and imagined sources.
Artist Location: Whittier, CA
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PARTICIPATION
Installation:
Dymaxion Corp.: Geologic Outreach
Dymaxion Corp. presents Geological Outreach.
Dymaxion Corp uses their test equipment arrays to bring forth some CONCRETE examples of geologic sound; foundational rock music. This team was tasked to answer the hard questions, such as:
Is there a beat below our feet?
What tectonic tempo is it played at?
What songs do stones sing each to each?
Soes a rock jam or prefer the classics?
Dymaxion Corp. will present their findings showcasing several test equipment rigs which will each display and sonify “music” made by, for, or with rocks.
Dymaxion Final Assembly
Durational installation performance for 2 technicians working at 2 workstations which face each other in the center of the space. The technicians refer to an infographic board with work instructions to be carried out over the duration of the performance. Tools and workpieces used by the technicians are sound creating devices, each connected to its own amplifying unit, positioned in the space and color-coded for clarity.
Work instructions are represented by distinct glyphs, easily readible from 2 meters, each denoting an action and its inverse, or other modification to the the timbral quality of the indicated tool. The performance begins when the one or both technicians are ready to begin work and ends when the time has elapsed to the end of the time period marked by the work instructions.
Dymaxion Resource Translation Unit
The viewer is invited to inspect the last remaining desk from the Dymaxion Resource Translation Unit, which appears to be a normal office desk and chair, complete with office supplies and communication devices, but which does not behave in a normal fashion. By handling the various objects and elements of the Unit, office work is translated into sound via an array of sensors, microphones and a connected sound reinforcement setup.
Second Shift Shovelers
Proposed work as accepted for soundpedro 2021:
The Gleaners
“The Gleaners” is a mapping of the cast-off sounds of a specific site, collected and manifested by two performers with matching setups: amplified wheelbarrows with additional sound modulation/amplification electronics with backpack-mounted loudspeakers. By navigating the space, accruing detritus which added to the wheelbarrow cargo and further adds to the sounding of the site. The performers may travel together or split off to perform remote mapping of the site by this method, or may cross over and move the other’s wheelbarrow while still amplifying their own.
Virtual Breakout During the Outbreak June 6th Livestream
Virtual BreakOut During the OutBreak Videos [VBODOBV] IV
Stimulus Progression of Automatic Behavior
the idea that one should create a composition entirely of unintended sounds captured in the moment is at once completely absurd, but simultaneously ingrained in our current interconnected (remotely now), mirrored in the ubiquitous process of Google’s Streetview public-good surveillance program and its ilk
we set out with essential portal opening tools and a frame of mind
opening the mind and opening the void are one and the same, the eye sees itself in this moment
the crossroads is a conduit which permits two ways of life to not only intersect but allow one to venture astray and explore circular paths not readily apparent, and is why performing a ritual at the crossroads is the traditional way of opening a portal to the void
John Cage said that 0’00” should be read as either time or distance; treating time as distance clarifies the composition as only a GPS route and allows an event to stand alone as ritual
there is a beginning, middle, end
window/portal/void
we’ve unintentionally captured it with intent
senseless
composition
silence
intentional
absence
unintentional
farce
creating
ultimate
abstraction
Proposed work as accepted for soundpedro 2020:
Roadside Attraction
Roadside Attraction consists of an array of 4 parabolic microphones, mounted in an emplacement, facing a zone of sound sources. The zone is a field populated with objects which have potential to or are creating sounds. This ecosystem of sound generators contains some mechanically self-playing, some wirelessly or wired signal transmitting, and some waiting for a performer. The sounds emanating from these objects in the field are captured by the 4 parabolic microphones, which are mounted on swivels to facilitate focusing sound and collecting the signal generated by distinct sound generators. These captured sounds are routed through a mixer and PA sound system, with additional modulation, filtering, and treatment from Miser, resulting in a mix which the parabolic microphone operators as well as any passing visitors may audition. Finally, the zone itself may be entered and explored at will by visitors, allowing inspection of the sound generators directly, as well as performance of any of those objects which only create sound when played.
Vertices & Vortices
Long-form experimental sound installation performance for 2 persons featuring a custom audio generation and spatialization system. The intent is to create an ecstatic and inescapable zone of sustained and slowly evolving drones and various other unrecognizable sounds, in order to envelop the listener and facilitate introspection or appreciation of the unknown.