Gama XV: Piece for Two Speaker Dresses
for flute, violin, electronic live processing, two vocals and two speaker dresses
Density 2036: part iv (2016)
Pauchi Sasaki: Gama XV: Piece for Two Speaker Dresses (2016)
Gama XV: Piece for Two Speaker Dresses explores the relationship between air as sound source; body as a medium of sound’s amplification; and space as the container of the element’s interaction. This composition features a new creation: Speaker Dress No.2 (SD2), which is inspired by Claire Chase’s personal interpretation of the flute.
As performers, we unconsciously develop a body language around our instruments. Our bodies “dance” while playing, searching for pathways to fuse sound’s emission with our gesture and physicality. In this sense, my intention is to provide Claire with a new experience of sound embodiment. In the first half of the piece, the body is able to become the instrument itself by wearing the SD, evidencing at the same time the movement’s lexicon of the performers. The second half of the composition integrates performers’ traditional instrumentation.
While in SD1, a usually soundless skin becomes the sound source for the dress; in SD2, respiration and unintelligible vocal sounds shapes the sonic palette. I wanted to visually integrate air into the design of SD2, since Claire’s breathing performance is the inspiration of the sculpture. This visual manifestation was achieved by the design of an accessory: a mask with several tubing connected to a purse that emanates negative ions, becoming an emulation of an artificial “lung system”. Another functional aspect of the mask is to isolate the headset’s reception of the sound amplified by the dress, avoiding any chance of feedback during the live processing.
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Described by The Wire as an artist "unafraid of working within different disciplines and stylistic constraints" (2015), Pauchi Sasaki's interdisciplinary approach integrates musical composition with the design of multimedia performances and the application of new technologies. Her work focuses on the development of real-time interactive music and self-designed instruments such as the Speaker Dress, a wearable sound sculpture created from 100 speakers. This branch of her work seeks the embodiment of electronic music performance, integrating electronic sounds with corporeal expressivity.
Pauchi’s work has been presented at international venues and festivals including the Tokyo Experimental Festival, Venice Biennale, Carnegie Hall, Cannes Film Festival, Walt Disney Hall, MET, The Kitchen, Art Basel Miami week, Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival, and John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and has received commissions by Rolex, ACO/Carnegie Hall, Silkroad Ensemble, Pan American Games, Stiftung Kunst & Musik für Dresden, HELLERAU European Center for Arts, Emilia Romagna Teatro Fondazione from Italy, Vanderbilt University, and Americas Society.
She has received the Ibermúsicas/CMMAS grant for sound composition with new technologies (México), the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative award selected by composer Philip Glass, Goethe-Institut artist residency, Civitella Ranieri Fellowship, Columbia University’s fellowship at the Institute for Ideas and Imagination in Paris, and the Hermitage Fellowship. "Pauchi Sasaki's effective scores" (Variety 2015) are featured in more than 30 feature and short films, having received four "Best Original Score" awards from international festivals including Cine Ceara in Brazil and Cinema Latino Americano di Trieste in Italy.
She is now working on her first opera, ARTEMIS, a multi-platform opera inspired by NASA’s Artemis program, a space mission that will bring the first woman to the Moon’s surface in 2024, 55 years after the first Moon landing. The project involves the construction of the Speaker Dress No. 3.