adriana  sá
trans-disciplinary   music

WINDOWMATTER PROJECT SERIES

AG#1 was a modification of software originally written by John Klima (2007), ironically titled Portuguese Guitar Hero after the popular Guitar Hero video game series. It uses a 3D engine called Torque and an audio library for video game programing, FMOD. 3D software can create a sense of depth, and extend one's sense of spatial presence into a digital world beyond the screen. I wanted to use a video game platform, and simultaneously make it evident that my creative concerns and aesthetics are very distant from gaming. I modified the software without changing the code structure, yet these modifications circumvented design theories embedded at low level in the digital architecture of the game engine.

When AG#1 detects audio, it changes the 3D camera view and places virtual sound emitting objects in the 3D world. Their position in the 3D world affects the spatialisation of related sounds. I parameterised these digital functions, created a new 3D world, new sounds and new mapping strategies. A description of my creative strategies can be found HERE. A related article can be found HERE. Bellow is documentation about the different WINDOWMATTER performance works.

In the WINDOMATTER performances where I played solo, AG#1 operated based on the input from my custom zither, which also inputted a sampler / delay modulator. In this way, the sonic constructions intertwined acoustic sound, digital sound, and electronic sound. I wanted the audience's perceptual motion to be driven by the music, and the image to create a sense of total environment . The image should extend their sense of presence to a digital world beyond the screen. It should become an organic stage scene that reacts upon the sound, modulating perceptual experience with an undulating view over an unchangeable landscape.

Performances:

• St. James Church/ Goldsmiths College, London, UK 2011
  
• Share, NYC, USA, 2010
  
• Off-Limits, In-Sonora Festival, Madrid, Spain, 201
  
• ZDB, Lisboa, Portugal, 2010
  
• Moagem, Festival Y, Fundão, Portugal, 2009

These WINDOWMATTER duos were performed with two different versions of the AG#1 software, which operated based on my zither input and the input of John's Portuguese guitar, or his 'noise-makers'. In each version, the interaction design, audio architecture, digital sounds and audio-visual mappings were very different. Yet the image was similar: the two versions were networked, so that each provided a different visual perspective over the same digital 3D world. I made the 3D world look like a moving painting. In performance, two moving paintings were projected side-to-side, upon us.

Performances:

• Numero Festival, CAM / Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, 2008
  
• Bang Festival, FBA-UL, Lisbon, 2008
  
• 15 years Ernesto de Sousa fellowship awards, Espaço Avenida, Lisbon, 2008
  
• Musicbox, Lisbon, 2008
  
• Creative Fest #1 (view flyer), Bomba Suicida, Lisbon, 2008
  
• Knock on Woods (view flyer), Largo do Século, Lisbon, 2008

DUO WITH FALA MARIAM play pause

Performance:
Teatro S. Luiz, Lisboa, Portugal, 2010

I played my zither with aged strings and ambiguous tuning, which inputted the AG#1 software. Fala Mariam played the trombone, dry. Each of us made a graphic score, and the sonic construction resulted from their combination. The image was projected upon us both.

We performed the piece in different site-specific situations. In each occasion, several perspectives of a same 3D world were projected over semi-transparent surfaces, creating an architectural space of light.       

Adriana Sá, zither, AG#1
John Klima, portuguese guitar, AG1
O.blaat, hacked wii controller
Sei Miguel,  pocket trompet
Manuel Mota,  electric guitar
David Maranha,  violin & dobro
Fala Mariam,  trombone
Cesar Burago,  percussion
André Gonçalves,  analogue modular synth
Toshio Kajiwara, turntables, modular synth, toys

Performances:

• WINDOWMATTER _ inside the time
  Residency at Regueirão dos Anjos, Lisboa, with a final, site-specific performance-installation (July 1st - 21th 2008)
  
• WINDOWMATTER _ outside the shpere
  Site-specific performance-installation at Largo do Seculo/ outdoors and Século Bar/ indoors (July 25st 2008)
  
  see text (in Portuguese)

DEMONSTRATION OF AG#1 OPERATING BASED ON MY ZITHER INPUT: