Valentina / rehearsal letter

24th Jan 2021 24th Jan 2021 19:30 20:00

»rehearsal letter« by Tom Richards & Frances Scott, 2021

20:35

»Valentina«, short film by Frances Scott, 16 mm, 2020

20:30

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  • Floating Sound Nation

    PH

    Floating Sound Nation is the project of Filipino musician Apex Chuidian, who builds intense ambient soundscapes using unexpected sound palettes.

  • Taeyoon Choi

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    Taeyoon Choi is an artist and educator based in Seoul and New York. He explores the poetics of science, technology, society, and human relations.

    • Image courtesy the artists

    »rehearsal letter« is a recorded studio session for transmediale x CTM 2021, produced as part of the development of a soundtrack for artist Frances Scott’s forthcoming work »Wendy«; a film fan-letter to composer and musician Wendy Carlos. In 2016, musician and instrument designer Tom Richards built the Mini Oramics machine, based on an original 1976 design by composer and inventor Daphne Oram. It is a musical interface that allows the composer to draw graphic scores on overhead projector rolls, which are then read directly by the machine, creating »drawn sound synthesis«. Here, this drawn-sound is used as a method to re-interpret pages from Carlos’ original scores from »Timesteps« and »Theme Tune for A Clockwork Orange (Beethovania)« (1971).

    »Valentina« is a prelude to »Wendy,« a speculative portrait of, and film fan-letter to, composer and musician Wendy Carlos – self-described as »The Original Synth.« In »Valentina,« an unedited 100ft reel of hand-processed 16mm film, shot in rehearsal, is used as a silent score for a reading. Performer and dancer Valentina Formenti recalls part of a transcribed interview with Carlos, later edited for publication in Playboy in 1979. Whilst the magazine interview was seen as the first public announcement of Carlos’ gender transition, these absent passages, excluded from the final edit, include her connected interests in cartography, physics, mathematics’ transformations, astronomy, and her practice in solar eclipse photography. Valentina’s multiple voices are translated through Vocoder, and collaged with musician Tom Richards’ performance on Daphne Oram’s unrealised Mini-Oramics, to suggest a coming into being through sonic synthesis.

    Credits

    »rehearsal letter« is commissioned by transmediale and CTM
    Music: Tom Richards
    Camera and Edit: Phil Coy and Frances Scott
    Filmed and Recorded at TACO!, Thamesmead, SE London

    »Valentina« is commissioned by TACO! with support from Arts Council England
    Camera, Edit: Frances Scott
    Sound Design, Vocoder: Chu-Li Shewring
    Music: Tom Richards
    Valentina: Valentina Formenti
    Transcription: Will Brady
    Film processing: Bea Haut
    Telecine: Steve Oakes, Images4Life. 
    Filmed on location at Charlton House, South London. 
    Thanks: Phil Coy, Valentina Formenti, Mat Jenner, Music Division, New York Public Library, Raghnild Olsen and Greenwich Dance Agency, Tom Richards, Chu-Li Shewring, and Dave Tompkins