There’s a great interest in the voice right now—throughout the culture—in the arts, in music and philosophy. It’s all about extending one’s own corporeality. My sound art springs from my concept of the voice, which is my primordial instrument. I relate to the world through my voice; it’s a physical experience. Some projects may not even express the voice in the end, but getting there is always a physical process. For example, at an ecology residency at Guapamacataro, a partner and I designed robots with Arduinos and sensors–which I discovered at CalArts—and I composed a four-note melody, which he transcribed into code. The Arduinos were encoded with that, and then information was gathered through the sensors, which was mixed with data from the environment.
Something unique about CalArts is that it prepares you to perform other people’s music; repertoire; but on top of performance practice, you’re also specializing and developing as an artist with your own creative process. What I do ranges from Baroque to contemporary music, however, it’s all community-based, project-oriented work with other artists. I also teach classes here at CalArts, which I love.
