Exhibitions | Pitch Control
Marcus Lyall presents:
Showing: Sat 6th Mar - Sun 18th Apr
"A while ago, I filmed 25 people individually in a recording studio. I played them each note in the classical human vocal range, and asked them to sing it for four seconds. This was surprisingly difficult, even for more experienced singers. Few people could sing in tune, or cover anything like the vocal range I asked for. But the attempts were valiant, and the results were varied and unique.
I then edited these performances into a series of note-long movies. With the programming expertise of artist/code genius Evan Raskob, I developed a custom computer program that allows these movies to be played back in the manner of a vintage Fairlight synthesiser.
The result is a fully-playable instrument that allows this amateur choir to be played like a piano, with three octaves range, twenty notes of polyphony and pressure-sensitivity. The instrument has been field-tested by Chad Lelong, a professional jazz pianist.
Uniquely, it also allows the singers to be seen as they perform. A dynamic visual composition is built up as the instrument is played. Their faces are projected onto a group of identical shapes, to form a ghostly disembodied choir.
I work a lot at visually interpreting existing music. Pitch Control looks at the reverse idea, where musicians adopt their playing style to achieve a pleasing visual composition. During testing, Chad, our pianist test pilot, instinctively altered his playing style to make it ‘look better'. Pitch Control also subtly explores some of the issues surrounding ‘user-generated content', particularly ownership and authorship.
Pich Control was commissioned and seen at The Science Museum’s Dana Centre as part of Takeaway Festival May 19th-30th 2009
Biography:
Marcus Lyall is a director and artist, who has worked extensively with video in live music settings.
He has designed and directed video content for concert tours, working with groups including The Chemical Brothers, U2, The Rolling Stones and Bon Jovi. This work has included animation, live action film and interactive design.
His video installation 'Slow Service' was shown at galleries including the ICA and FACT in the UK, the Seoul Museum of Modern Art and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image.
Marcus is currently developing a number of interactive art projects that explore the relationships between performance, music and the moving image.
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