Silence, I2!

The other night, I watched the film "In the Bedroom." I found it to be surprisingly suspenseful, and I think this was in large part due to the use of silence, or perhaps the lack of background music. This got me to thinking about silence in performance, and silence in life. What do we hear when we allow for silence? Why are so many people afraid of silence? We've all met them...people who will say anything to avoid the natural lulls in conversation, or the less natural "uncomfortable silences" that we have all experienced.

And what about silence in performance? Why are so many singers (and other musicians?) afraid to allow silence to enter into a performance? Afraid to observe the fermata over the rest? What are we afraid of communicating in silence?

For sure, silence must be very powerful. If so many of us are afraid of it, it must be a big, scary, empty space wherein we are completely vulnerable. Or, is it perhaps not empty at all, but rather full of all kinds of things we are afraid of? Or, is it simply that it is full of SOMEthing, and we are afraid of what that might be?

But what, then, about the audience? Are they afraid of it? I think, in contrast, that audiences crave it. Not because they don't want to hear music, or text, or whatever, but rather that the audience craves the anticipation that silence creates. Think of the silence in the theatre in that beautiful moment where the lights are dimmed but the curtain hasn't yet risen...the silence of watchful anticipation. What is so scary about silence if it is viewed through the eyes of the audience? It ceases to be scary and uncomfortable, and becomes exciting and compelling. It pulls the audience in; it makes them want more.

I have been thinking of this in light of our performance, and so did a search for I2 projects on the web involving silence. I had very little luck.

However, the I2Voyager and I had an interesting conversation the other day about silence, and he pointed out that John Cage was very interested in silence-seeking it out, trying to experience it and discovering that, in fact, it was a physical impossibility. Even in a so-called "sound prood chamber, he was able to hear his own heart.

So I thought a bit more about Cage, and went hunting for I2 projects that might involve him. In a sense, the combination of Cage's ideas and the experimentation of this project and projects like this seems natural.

Here is a bit of what I found:

http://greatdance.com/danceblog/archives/podcasts/

This is an interesting idea using "chance" and technology and performance. The audience members, through the use of iPods, heard different different music while viewing the same dance. The score for the dance was randomly shuffled on each iPod, so that the experience was random and different for each audience member. From the article, a review:

Apollinaire Scherr wrote in Newsday before opening of eyeSpace:

Up until "eyeSpace," audience members at least were listening to the same music, whatever they each made of it. Now, they may be watching the same dance, "but they're having a private experience with the sound," Rouse explains. "What happens when you ask people to have both a shared and a private experience at the same time? I don't think that's exactly happened before. The question is, what is a theatrical experience?"

Another I2 project that involves John Cage can be read about here:

http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:1jWvfvDBwpAJ:www.quintet-net.org/info/Quintet-net.icmc2003.pdf+Internet2+john+cage&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=11&gl=us&client=safari

This project is probably best described from the abstract:

Quintet.net is an interactive Internet performance environment enabling up to five performers to play music in real-time over the Internet under the control of a “conductor.” The environment consists of four components: a server, a client, a conductor and a listener. The players interact over the Internet by sending musical (control) streams to the server. In addition, the conductor can log in and control the musical outcome by changing settings remotely, either manually (improvisation) or by executing a score (composition). Quintet.net has additional video and graphical properties, which allow for better interaction and control on a symbolical level: The performers see the music they produce on screen in “space” notation. The conductor, acting as video DJ, can mix films or live video streams to create a truly medial Gesamtkunstwerk. Several compositions have been specifically written for Quintet.net or used it as an integral component...

Only certain kinds of music lend themselves to this kind of performance, according to the article, including some of John Cage's music, which has been arranged for Quintet.net.

Several other musical I2 collaborations have occurred using John Cage's music and ideas; I have only provided two examples here.

I think the idea of silence, however, and what it means in performance and interpretation of performance is important and very relavent to our project. Just like embarking upon a project like ours requires a certain fearlessness, and entrusting chance in the creative process requires a certain trust, so the embracing of silence in our art and in our lives certainly requires both.

Shh...