ISSUE Project Room : an open and versatile environment in which established and emerging artists conduct, exhibit and perform new and site-specific work
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andrewcsmith on 01/04/2010 at 08:30AM
Viva la Resistance
As Phill Stearns put it, he only does this concert about three times a year. Heaving a sigh of relief, “This is the last time this year I’m doing it.”
It’s easy to see why he avoids performing this set very often–sometimes it’s difficult to see why he does it at all. He prepares for his performance quite a bit: building the electronic circuits that cycle amplified feedback through his mixer, tuning the filters so that they only allow particular parts of the sonic spectrum through. The noise created is incomparable and organic, while the lights flash on and off, creating shadows on the back wall.
He says he only actually practices for less than a half hour, just to get the system tuned up, before he turns it off until the performance. Before the performance, he attaches electrodes to six different places on each arm, wiring himself through the transformers so that each time he touches the metallic controllers his body becomes a human resister, controlling the pitch, spectrum, and volume of the sound. The trouble is that when he makes sound, the current using him as conduit causes him physical pain. Watching him hold pitches, seeing him writhe just a bit, his performance is far more visceral than if he had been a cool knob-twiddler.
