Kyle Pasciutti Design

In a nutshell, the idea is to create live audio whenever an actor touches anything. The bigger picture is to run contact mics from a variety of positions on stage to a computer setup, convert the audio to midi information, run that through a synthesizer program such as Reason, and play the outcome back in real-time. Thus far the rig has only been applied to a one-pickup setup, though both my original concept & future plans for the rig involve a multi-pickup scenario.

More than anything, this was (and is) one big experiment. While the technology involved as well as the development process itself are both quite interesting, from the very beginning the target of this project was the interaction that the performer can have with their surroundings as well as the sound quality that can be manipulated to create specific moods, feelings, & atmospheres. Something so integrated into the performance space that the audience melds into the experience rather than something to point at and go, "Lookie what I did!" Instead of having an actor wait for sound cues, free things up so they can explore new facets of their performance without having to stop and think about it. Change what the world of the play sounds like.

The idea for this project came about while working on a theoretical design concept for Kia Corthron's piece Safe Box from Urban Zulu Mambo. The concept that I was given to explore was that of the 'womb'. How could I use sound to create a conceptual 'womb' in the world of the play? My answer was to create this touch-based audio feedback system. Much the same way as every movement within or outside a womb causes noise, so would the actor interacting on stage with my rig. The idea fit perfectly, but to the best of the knowledge of myself, my professor, and the online Theatre-Sound list which I requested help from, nothing quite like this had been developed before. Where the original assignment had been to produce a fully complete sound design for the show, I was then given permission to throw aside the design, take this concept as far as I could, and told, "If you finish, that would be excellent, but I'm more interested in the process and seeing how far you can get with this. Shoot for a minimum of proof-of-concept."

For the demo video for this project, I wanted to see what would happen if I put the rig in the hands of a skilled actor and simply said, "Go!" It acts as both a demonstration video, and an experiment in the theatrical creative process. I was able to enlist the help of friend, actor, & movement specialist Troy Mercier. Until the actual demo, Troy was kept in the dark about what I was asking of him other than that it involved movement and sound. I wanted to witness the discovery process and see the learning curve taken from introduction to understanding. Before he began, I did read him this brief statement so he would have vague ideas of what was going on:

"In a nutshell, the idea here is to create live audio whenever you, the actor touches anything. I would like the art in this to be the interaction between the performer and their surroundings. What can happen when the actor is in charge of the sound rather than someone back stage calling cues? Please do not feel the need to begin to create performance, or music, or even pattern. However, if what you see naturally takes you in that direction, feel free to follow it. Please finish when you feel that you are finished. Longer or shorter doesn't really matter as long as we are still seeing process. And I would just like to say that this is more of a how far can we get sort of thing, rather than end-product sort of thing. Things will inevitably be rough. Just keep going with it, play, and have fun."

The test rig came out about a million times better than I ever expected it to. I saw it do things I had thought would take a professional programmer writing custom software tailored to a space to produce. I still have questions as to what might happen in a larger scale concerning feedback, mic isolation, & latency but for the time being, proof of concept was fully achieved!!!

Recognition: Developed under the guidance of Robert Kaplowitz for his Sound Design for Theater class at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Theater Department. Very special thanks to the Theatre-Sound List Google Group especially Jeremy Lee.