[spectre] Networked_Music_Review: Interview: Miya Masaoka

[Turbulence]

>From Helen Thorington's Interview with Miya Masaoka

"Miya Masaoka is a musician, composer and performance artist. She has
created works for koto, laser interfaces, laptop and video and written
scores for ensembles, chamber orchestras and mixed choirs. In her
performance pieces she has investigated the sound and movement of insects,
as well as the physiological responses of plants, the human brain, and her
own body...

Helen: I have been impressed with your work with inter-species interactions.
I wonder if you would tell us how you became interested in this and what
made you think of other species as potential live performers?

cockroaches_legs.jpg Miya: Hmmm. I have always been interested in insects,
the sounds of insects, and the hobby of having crickets as pets, and the way
that social insects communicate and organize their societies in hierarchical
structures. I was also thinking about the idea of the body, race and gender,
and wanted to illustrate the body as a blank canvas upon which societal
constructs are created and assigned. Cockroaches are social, not everyone's
favorite creature, and these from Madagascar make an incredible sound that
sounds generated from a white noise filter. When I heard them, I immediately
wanted to record their sounds and use them in a piece. Then I thought, why
not use the actual bugs in the pieces, and have them create the composition
with their movements? So when the roaches wander around on my body, while
I'm lying on a table, their movements break the laser beams, and their
amplified, pre-recorded sounds are heard in the space..." Continue reading
at Networked_Music_Review: http://tinyurl.com/3393zu

Miya is available for questions (via the comments section) until July 7,
2007.


Jo-Anne Green, Co-Director
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