Operator

Description:

Operator was a site-specific multimedia performance with video projection and audio that was the culmination of Instant Places’ research and production while in residence at Western Front. 

Operator is an operatic work that transforms recordings of dramatic cellphone conversations with plot points from classic operas to become the libretto for an improvised opera score.

Performed in the Grand Luxe Hall, the artists used their own voices and alternated playing a grand piano fitted with a Disklavier computer playback system, and operating an audio system fed by computers running MAX.

The rhythms of live vocal sounds produced by the artists became the rhythms of acoustic piano notes. Notes physically played on the piano became control messages that transformed recorded vocal passages. These transformations were temporal (re-orderings in time), spatial (distributions in audio space), and textural (zooming into breath sounds and consonants).

The video projections were previously recorded on-site and projected with post-processing effects. 

Video documentation available upon request.