A device exploring the relationship between movement and music
Project: High Performance
Tutor: Sue Robertson
The High Performance studio focusses on creating adapting spaces for the honing and testing of performing bodies. An interest in the connection between bodies and material boundaries prompts the exploration of a device for training the body to perform. With focus on guitarist Andre Segovia, and specifically his performance of Asturias Leyenda, the programme will develop spaces which might facilitate the training of others striving to achieve similar mastery.
Tutor: Sue Robertson
The High Performance studio focusses on creating adapting spaces for the honing and testing of performing bodies. An interest in the connection between bodies and material boundaries prompts the exploration of a device for training the body to perform. With focus on guitarist Andre Segovia, and specifically his performance of Asturias Leyenda, the programme will develop spaces which might facilitate the training of others striving to achieve similar mastery.
The device acts as a tool that trains a user practicing Isaaq Albeniz’s Asturias Leyenda. It acts on strengthening the tendons in the right hand, muscles in the lower arm. This will improve overall strength, and finger independence. It also explores the relationship between rhythm and space, creating a visual element which when recorded would help the user master the complex arpeggios and patterns that reoccur throughout the piece, much like those observed in the early stages of site work at The Preston Site.
The finger sleeves are placed on the hands, with wires attached to weights. These are set so that the hand must be in the correct rest position for the guitarist when they lie flat on the base. As the guitarist emulates the movements of Asturias, the weights move up and down in response. This is then recorded by a camera using a macro lens, which takes 1:1 magnification images of the change in height of the weights. The camera would be operated to take an image in sync with the time signature of Asturias, thus the change in height over time and the fluidity of this change may signify the accomplishment with which the piece is being performed. A graphical notation will be developed from the images which will translate the musical rhythm into a visual one.
Images showing the finger sleeves attached to the device. The articulated joints permit full movement in the hand.
The below images show the second element to the device to which the wires attach. The lead fishing weights below respond to the movement in the hand creating a measurable notation of movement of the right hand.
Short stop frame animation showing the measurement of rhythm in relation to the performance of music.
