Seventh Discussion @ Poppa Rollo's 10-12-05 @ 10:00pm

Topic of discussion - compositional ideas
(new piece ideas, new genres, new venue . . . )

Products of discussion:

Things to incorporate in pieces -

lighting
- real-time reaction with performers
- lasers
- keyboard controls lights as it would control sound

different types of staging and stages
- theaters in-the-round
- opposite of theaters in-the-round (performers on the outside with the audience in the middle)
- moving stages (stages that rotate with sound or pan to move performers and sound across a space)
- FYI - MCC has a complete theater in-the-round created by two rooms connected when a movable wall is opened

laptops as instruments
- all instrumentation in a piece is a form of a computer (the performer mixes and creates electronic sound just as any other instrumentalist would create sound with his or her traditional instrument)

whips
- philosophically a very interesting instrument considering it creates a sonic boom by its looped end accelerates to a speed past that of sound

smoke
- mess with sound waves (~like doppler effect)

audience
- in what ways can the audience be involved (actively participate) in the composition?

humor
- success of humor in music is dependant upon it being a short and light touch (it is when people try to reiterate a joke after it is already said that it is taken as juvenile or "lowly")

If we owned our own space, these are things we would want to keep in mind -

- black lights
- track speakers (like track lights, we could position them anywhere along the tracks)
- record video of performances or practices in space and put clips on the internet to promote