Join us this Friday, July 25 from 6 – 8pm for the closing of hiccup by Tess Oldfield and the premiere of Duo for Pitch Pipes, a performance by Oldfield and composer Liam Merchant.
The composition for Duo for Pitch Pipes began as an exploration of the pitch pipes’ potential and limitations. Focusing on how people engage with and play pitch pipes as instruments, the performance serves as a contrast to hiccup, in which these objects are activated digitally.
Duo for Pitch Pipes emerges as a series of sonic gestures shaped by play and constraint – sounds that speak to the physicality of the instrument. When performed, the composition reveals a contrast between the organic textures of the body and the mechanical qualities of the digital, all with distinct and complementary sonic layers.
Duo for Pitch Pipes is approximately five minutes in length and will be performed twice, once at 6:30pm and again at 7:30pm.
About the Artists
Tess Oldfield (b.1992) is a sonic/spatial transformer/synthesizer/composer. They are currently exploring computational composition by designing digital extensions for acoustic instruments. Oldfield’s work examines the cultural contexts of singing and the interaction between industrial and biological systems, investigating how technology both augments and amplifies the body. Their work spans various mediums, such as sound, video, performance, and installation. Building digital extensions for found instruments extends their voicing abilities as a performer, transforming tools into elaborate transducers and digital/analog prosthetics.
Oldfield holds an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in Digital + Media and has exhibited their work throughout the US, including Yale University Sculpture Gallery, the New Bedford Art Museum, and CyberArtsBoston. They have participated in residencies at ACRE Projects and Bemis Center as the Sound Art and Experimental Music Resident. They are a Critic/Lecturer at the Rhode Island School of Design in Experimental Foundation Studies and Digital + Media/Computation, Technology & Culture. They live and work between Chicago, IL and Providence, RI.
Liam Marchant is a composer and musician from Idaho, living in Chicago.His instrumental works examine a transformative continuum of motion as a metaphor for sound production. The question Liam hopes to answer: how does sound transform us? Liam seeks multiplicity in melodic stillness and uses the stories he's lived as templates for the path and form of composition.