Week 1: Gravity, Gluts, Pennies, Pillows and Ray, a 5-week on MattFlix retrospective screening of some of my video works. This week features Soundgaze from 1999.
Soundgaze was one of the most complex in a series of sound works I developed and performed at music venues, festivals, galleries and independent spaces in the 90s.
In the performance I use two veterinary weighing scales interfaced with a laptop running the multimedia programme Director. Using the weight of objects to produce sound, individual items placed on the scales triggered up to 300 samples, creating a real-time soundtrack to my performance. Sheets of paper placed on the scales activated sounds of writing, tearing and scrunching. The changing weight of a glass being filled with water triggered samples of liquid in differing states: boiling, dripping or gushing. A pile of old shoes sang a song. A bee buzzed before hiding inside a teapot, its hum muted by the lid.
