ELECTROACOUSTIC
Unboxing Helena
:: ABOUT THE WORK ::
A few words about Unboxing Helena:
Boxing Helena, a movie directed by Jennifer Lynch, was stuck in my memory for many years, bothering, gaining new meanings, losing its “bizarre aura” and getting stronger as a emotional and creative provocation.
I thought about rebuilding Helena, un-boxing her, being aware that the fractures would never be erased and the reconnected fragments would never be considered as an untouched whole. However, these glued shards could be re-signified, could gain potential and become something cohesive, with integrity, even though resulting from many fragments united in an uncomfortable way.
I’ve prepared every key of a piano: the lower strings were prepared with screw and nuts, bolts, rubber, wood, shakers. The mid-low strings were prepared with tape, marbles and chains. In mid-high strings I used an E-Bow with a guitar slide or with a plastic sphere to produce contrasting vibration. The highest strings were prepared with different kinds of dampers: felt, cloth, paper, rubber, foam.
After preparing the piano I played it and recorded several sound samples that generated the concrete material for the composition of this piece, manipulated and organized via Max-MSP and Logic X.
This piece is dedicated to Helena, my mother.
Boxing Helena, a movie directed by Jennifer Lynch, was stuck in my memory for many years, bothering, gaining new meanings, losing its “bizarre aura” and getting stronger as a emotional and creative provocation.
I thought about rebuilding Helena, un-boxing her, being aware that the fractures would never be erased and the reconnected fragments would never be considered as an untouched whole. However, these glued shards could be re-signified, could gain potential and become something cohesive, with integrity, even though resulting from many fragments united in an uncomfortable way.
I’ve prepared every key of a piano: the lower strings were prepared with screw and nuts, bolts, rubber, wood, shakers. The mid-low strings were prepared with tape, marbles and chains. In mid-high strings I used an E-Bow with a guitar slide or with a plastic sphere to produce contrasting vibration. The highest strings were prepared with different kinds of dampers: felt, cloth, paper, rubber, foam.
After preparing the piano I played it and recorded several sound samples that generated the concrete material for the composition of this piece, manipulated and organized via Max-MSP and Logic X.
This piece is dedicated to Helena, my mother.
:: AUDIO FILE ::