Notes about the Scratch performance for the musician.
The performance can last between 40 and 55 minutes. In order to explain how it unfolds image wise, I will use the hypothesis of a 45 minutes performance. Those durations are very approximate and to a large degree it will all depends to how every single performance develops in real time. However, the order of succession of the moments of changes and the nature of the segments that are defined by those changes is very precisely set and can be relied upon.
1- 0 to 5 minutes :
scratching on projector – 1 only. This part is made up of very long black segments that are progressively popiulated by luminous interventions. But essentially the black is dominent and the moment of animation are too isolated to perceive relationships between them.
2- 5 to 12 minutes :
Projector – 2 starts. At this stage the animated intervention made on this projector are of the same character as what was already done on projector – 1, that is luminous intervention separated by long black segments. Starting this projector has two consequences : first, the black segments start to become shorter and the luminous animated moments more frequent. Second and most important, due to the fact that the two loops are of unequal length, the images coming from the two projectors start to interfere and the duration of the black segment start to become variable and unpredictable. Even if the black remains proeminent, there can be overlappings between the animation coming from the two projectors.
During this segment, I will return to projector – 1, but this will not change the general dynamic of what will be visible on the screen except that the progression toward shorter black segments and more develop animation will continue.
3- 12 to 20 minutes :
return to projector – 2 , I wil start to work with sandpaper creating textures. This work goes much faster and will quickly reduce the overall amount of black in the projection. light textures will alternate with more intense moments. this will be a very visible change. This proecess will continue for quite a long time.
- On projector – 1, continuation of the same type of linear animation as before with more and more animated segments that wil become also more complex rytmically and more intense.
- On projector – 2, continuation of the work with textures that will become more intense and intermixed with linear animation resembling to the images of projector – 1.
- The interferences between the two projectors will become more and more frequent, still unpredictable, and the overlap between the two sources of images will create more complex patterns.
- The black segments, being shorter, will lose their proeminence and a feeling of continuity will slowly emerge.
4- 20 to 27 minutes :
Intervention with red ink will start to appear on projector – 2. Those red marks will be on single specific frames and will create flickering effect that will superpose itself above the flickering already present in the black and white animation. Those colour interventions will greatly modify the perception of the flow of images.
5- 27 to 35 minutes :
Interventions with blue ink will start to appear on projector – 2, doubling on on the effect of the red interventions on projector – 2.
6- 25 to 45 minutes (the end)
Red ink interventions on projector – 1, and blue ink interventions on projector – 2. this will not make an obvious change, it will mostly contribute to the general process of complexification of the interferences between the two projectors. At this point in the performance, the black segments will have totally disappeared, there will be a continuous intensity in the flow of images and the interferences between the projectors are going to be at their maximum impact. The performance will have reached a point where it could become a video installation and continue to be projected for a long time at a relatively stable intensity but with a constant renewal of the patterns created by the overlapping of the two projectors.
The difficult thing is how to stop. This can vary a lot depending on the character of the music.
The only requirement for the musician is what follows : at the beginning it has to be made clear to the spectators that we are not looking for direct synchronisation between the film and the music and that in a way we are not playing together. As in the image there are going to be long black segments, in the music there have to be long silent sections, so that the visual and sound elements form a sort of constellation of sound and visual elements scattered in darkness and silence. Since the moment of occurence of the bright animated sections is totally unpredictable, it is pointless anyway to try to synchronize them with sound. It will happen sometime accidentally anyway. Yet, there is an actual possibility of precise synchronisation if it is wanted, that is to start a musical intervention at the very end of the animated segments, the image stops and the sound starts. This is quite effective but it should be done in a measured way, not too much of it. The feeling of a relative independance should dominate the entire beginning of the piece.
The performance should evolve in more and more encounters between the images and the music to reach at the end an intense simultaneity. But this is inevitable and the musician is totally free to modulate the development as he wishes.