Bodycoder - Voice :: November 22, 2007; 7.45 pm :: Watermans, 40 High Street, Brentford, London.

This unique solo-show is a multi-media revelation of the human voice and its unimaginable intensity. Ten years research into human body movement, multi-sensory perception environments and digital processing has brought about this exceptional show performed by Julie Wilson-Bokowiec. Bodycoder - Voice is part of an ongoing experiment in connecting body movements with sound, intertwining the sensual with the sonic. The experiments render the voice multidimensional and examine how the natural movement vocabulary of the body can become an expressive medium and create and manipulate sound.

Only the energy, breath and raw fractured tonalities of the voice are employed to populate and animate the sound scape of Hand-to-Mouth. Mouth / Larynx and the hands of the performer engage in intimate dialogue in an act of sonic puppetry and ventriloquism.

Bodycoder - Voice features the Bodycoder System © the first generation of which was developed by company formally know as Electronic Dance Theatre in 1995/6. The primary expression functionality of the Bodycoder System is Kinaesonic. In terms of interactive technology the term Kinaesonic refers to the one-to-one, mapping of sonic effects to bodily movements. There are no pre-recorded soundfiles used in the live pieces of this program and no sound manipulations external to the performer’s control.

The program includes The Suicided Voice created in residency at the Banff Centre Canada, and Etch created in residency at the Confederation Centre for the Arts PEI Nova Scotia.

HAND-TO-MOUTH (for performer/vocalist, the Bodycoder System & live MSP) - Only the energy, breath and raw fractured tonalities of the voice are employed to populate and animate the soundscape of Hand-to-Mouth. Mouth/Larynx and the hands of the performer engage in intimate dialogue in an act of sonic puppetry and ventriloquism. This dexterous piece of sound manipulation is an overture to the full embodiment of sound manipulation in the following pieces.

AMERA (Tape: Electro-acoustic music)

THE SUICIDED VOICE (for performer/vocalist, the Bodycoder System, live MSP, video streaming & computer graphics). In this piece the acoustic voice of the performer is “suicided” and given up to digital processing and physical re-embodiment. Dialogues are created between acoustic and digital voices. Gender specific registers are willfully subverted and fractured. Extended vocal techniques make available unusual acoustic resonances that generate rich processing textures and spiral into new acoustic and physical trajectories that traverse culturally specific boundaries crossing from the human into the virtual, from the real into the mythical. In The Suicided Voice the voice, transformed and re-embodied within the interactive medium, becomes a fluid originality that is defined only by its own transmutations.

CHIMERA (Tape: Electro-acoustic music)

ETCH (for performer/vocalist, the Bodycoder System, live MSP, & computer graphics) - In ETCH extended vocal techniques, Yakut, open throat, overtone and Bell Canto singing are coupled with live interactive sound processing and manipulation. ETCH calls forth forna – building soundscapes of glitch infestations, howler tones, clustering sonic-amphibians, and swirling flocks of synthetic granular flyers. The visual content for this piece is created in a variety of 2D and 3D packages. In ETCH video content is manipulated on the screen by the performer using the same interactive protocols that govern sound manipulation. Visual content is mapped to the physical gestures of the performer and its live manipulation forms a significant part of the piece. As the performer conjures extraordinary voices out of the digital realm, so she weaves a multi-layered visual environment. In ETCH sound, image, and gesture combine to form a powerful ‘linguistic intent’. Etch was created in residency at the Confederation Centre for the Arts on Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia.

TECHNICAL & AESTHETICS

BODYCODER - VOICE features the Bodycoder System© the first generation of which was developed by the artists in 1995/6. The Bodycoder interface is a flexible sensor array worn on the body of a performer that sends data generated by movement to an MSP environment via radio. Movement data can be mapped in a variety of different ways to the live processing and manipulation of sound. All processed sound is derived from the live and acoustic voice of the performer. The Bodycoder also provides the performer with real-time access to processing parameters and patches within the MSP environment as well as control over the sensitivity of sensors. In this way all vocalisations, decision making, navigation of the MSP environment and qualities of expressivity are selected, initiated and manipulated by the performer. The primary expression functionality of the Bodycoder System is Kinaesonic. The term Kinaesonic is derived from the compound of two words: Kinaesthetic meaning the movement principles of the body and Sonic meaning sound. In terms of interactive technology the term Kinaesonic refers to the one-to-one, mapping of sonic effects to bodily movements. In our practice this is usually executed in real-time. There are no pre-recorded soundfiles used in the live pieces of this program and no sound manipulations external to the performer’s control.