one year past

I have used this year to clarify the content of my project in different ways. It has been done by the development and collaboration with the composers and video artists as well as using the concerts as an arena of evaluation of the project. The exploring of the sonic potential of the electric violin when it is combined with electronics has been the main topic. The concerts have been both of formal and experimental character. I have used the concerts with Fat Battery to experiment and fulfill ideas that need to be explored in my project. The solo performances have been of a more formal character.
I have realized that use of extended playing-techniques works very well when it is manipulated through the computer. This work is documented in several presentations and concerts.

I have also worked on extending the instrument with the use of the real-time interactive sound processing soundprogammes Max/Msp and Ableton live. This work has made it possible to perform and improvise more freely with the computer than before. Apart from the sensorbow my  research has during this year also been to get further knowledge about other possible controllers usable for a violinist. Together with Alexander R Jensenius (New interfaces for musical expression) I will continue this reserarch.This work has also included midi to control different parameters in the live electronics. It has been very stabile and to most extent flexible.

Photo:Fat Battery summershool at USF,Bergen July 14-17 on photo Knut Vaage and Victoria Johnson

In this processes it has been clearer what my research questions is, and what II will have to fullfill artisticly to come to a conclusion in 2010. I would formulate some of the question which has emerged during this year as follows: What kind of new soundscape will emerge when electric violin is combined with interactive sound -programs? What is a digital space compared to a natural space? What happens with the musical score when it transforms from a linear to a modular one? What happens with the musical time and space? How has my role as the performer changed in the process of working with the composers when improvisation is involved in the new repertoire for electric violin? What is the language of improvisation of this new soundscape?
How does it work when visual art (video) is used as a starting-point for improvisation?
Does music and video have a common language?
Where can this art-form be performed in a concert-hall/ as a concert-installation/ in an Art galley?
How do I work with spatialization of the sound and how can I control this in my own improvisations?
What kind of controllers is stage worthy for a violinist?