Chironomy

Description:

Chironomy was an audio and video streaming project conceived by Miya Masaoka, performed as part of the Wiencouver performance series. Wiencouver (an imaginary place invented by Hank Bull) is a series of exchanges, visits, and events that have taken place between Vancouver and Vienna since 1979.

Interactivity, improvisation, gestural communication, and text were explored within the context of network culture, desire, expectation and alienation. The artists exploited disembodied sound sources, unpredictable visual and rhythmic time delays, unintended synchronicity, and other artifacts of streaming.

The work was performed by Miya Masaoka (koto, laptop, LaserKoto, video), François Houle (clarinet, laptop, electronics) and Giorgio Magnanensi (electronics) in the Grand Luxe Hall, and Klaus Filip (tube, lloopp software) and Burkhard Stangl (guitars, electronics) in Vienna via Kuntsradio. 

Youth from the Sarah McLachlan School of Music were recruited to perform a choreography of hand gestures that was recorded into a compilation and projected behind the live musicians in the Grand Luxe Hall. 

Chironomy was programmed as part of a multi-day celebration of Art’s Birthday.

Video documentation available upon request.