on july 2nd, we had a presentation of the full stack of 12 records that make up Principium 2.0.
i'm only posting this now, because the whole performance lasted for eight hours, and i only just finished going through the full length recording to chop out some interesting bits.. quite the chew.
the setup was the following:
- 12x 10" records, each containing a single note drone. the full set equals notes from C to B.
like the rows of the original artwork matrix, they were in 6 pairs of the same color.
- 6x record players, each dedicated to one vinyl colour.
- 6x custom electronics, basically a crude gate based on a magnetic sensor. gates work in 2 modes, either standard gate behaviour (sound when magnet is sensed), or punching silence when a magnet is present. these modes are independent for L and R channels.
- 8x magnets per record player, taking the role of the columns of the original.
underneath the 10" vinyl is a 12" metal base, leaving 1" around the vinyl to place magnets on.
i decided to build myself a random score generator/ conductor in Pd.
basically, with every press of the button, it decided for me in what order and combination the vinyls would have to be played. for every vinyl that reached its end, there would be a random decision to either play that record again, play the other one of the same colour, or leave the turntable empty, introducing silence. that decision would also be applied to the other turntables that were empty at that moment.
the program also gave me the number of magnets that needed to be on every turntable, the mode switch settings and the turntable volumes.
(click pic for closer look at pd program screen, and possibly the loverly youngsters of Mittland Och Leo watching the installation.)
seeing how the vinyls all have different lengths, the overlaps are quite intriguing..
started at three in the afternoon, and ended at eleven at night sharp. with a wonderful instruction from the program to leave all the turntables empty. first time it had done that! that was an insane moment. i love it when technology pretends it's cognitive.
thanks to Alex Dumitran for grabbing this screenshot:
excerpts to be uploaded soon!
all twelve Principium 2.0 boxes that were used in the installation have been sold, so those of you that are interested will have to wait for a possible release of the recorded material.
i guess that would be Principium 2.1..
