Touch - Trio (2018) 10’

for three sound/ video installations and three performers

Three sound and video installations with three performers. In one space: three people, water, and the energy of sound waves, all in flow. Is the relationship among three people a solo, or a duo? When hands speak in place of words and touch the water and its shadow, are they in conversation with each other, or talking to themselves?

At its centre is difference within sameness. Everyone has a similar body. But three performers with ten fingers each, doing nothing more complicated than touching, reveal how different their abstract languages are.

Six sections, presented as prototypes — compressed in time and material, not yet fully developed:

1. Solo — one performer and the water. A monologue.

2. Transition — the duo enters, picking up the solo's last material. The solo fades; the duo continues.

3. Duo — dialogue, and conflict.

4. Transition — the soloist cuts into the conversation, easing it.

5. Return to the opening material: touching water.

6. Ending — the basins recall the earlier conversation and release it. The sound source here is the recording of sections 1 and 2, played back in reverse, so both return to their original state.

The trio differs considerably from the quartet. I deliberately removed most of the live processing, partly to keep more natural sound, and partly so that the detail of the playing would not be buried under effects. That decision has costs as well as benefits. It also made clear that presenting detail properly demands another level technically: the correspondence between playing gesture and sonic response, the interaction between water and performer, the interaction among performers, audience position, sound field design, lighting and visual design. There is still far too much to think through and improve.