Thadeus Frazier-Reed: Routes, Program 4, Pump On … Go, and skinTones: routes is a community web sound art piece in which visitors download software for recording / creating sound. The software, which can run on any Apple computer, records sound into a buffer that loops continuously, recording new sounds on top of the old sounds. The user should run this software on a laptop and record as they go, giving an aural picture of their day. Visitors to the website can listen to up to thirty recordings. Each visit or page refresh will choose a random set of thirty recordings from the list.

Program 4, Pump On … Go, for cello and computer user, takes the form of a computer game. It consists of a computer terminal for the “accompanist” with a second, duplicate screen that the cellist views to keep track of the pitches already played. The cellist improvises a series of small phrases throughout the piece. As the cello plays, the computer analyzes the incoming pitches and displays the equivalent color in a box at the top of the screen. It is the job of the computer user to watch how the colors change and, for each phrase, choose one of the colors that is displayed. The user then chooses that color from the spectrum in the center of the screen by clicking the corresponding box. This will in turn activate a band-pass filter with a center frequency equal to the color chosen. The computer user should try to accurately match the color but discrepancies between the pitch played and the color chosen are inevitable and are intrinsic to the piece. View full score. Listen:

The recording featured in the piece is a field recording of the main fountain at California Plaza at 350 S. Grand Avenue in Los Angeles, California.

Finally, skinTones is part of SKIN! at Armory Northwest, presented by Newtown Arts. The opening is on October 12 from 6 - 10 pm. skinTones uses digital photographs of peoples’ skin, displayed on an LCD monitor, to control multiple audio oscillators. The frequencies of the oscillators are directly affected by the “tone” of the skin colors through photoresistors mounted in front of the monitor.

More about Thadeus Frazier-Reed.