Dark Ethnography - for 4 Modified MIDI Flashlights, Cello, and Electronics

"Dark Ethnography" for 4 Modified MIDI Flashlights, Cello, and Electronics. Performed by Ensemble Vortex, 3/12/20 in Geneva, Switzerland

"Dark Ethnography" is written for 4 modified MIDI flashlights, cello, and electronics. It was composed for the Geneva-based Ensemble Vortex, and was premiered in Geneva Switzerland on March 12th, 2020. In the work, 4 performers are equipped with battery powered flashlights that are modified so that they emit MIDI signals in accordance to the device being turned on or off. The flashlights are connected via 1/4 jack cable to a MIDI decoder and computer and are used to trigger and manipulate audio samples over the course of the piece. In addition to these performers a cellist is situated near the back of the stage. They play not only an important symbolic role in the piece but lead the majority of the work through triggering cues and sections via MIDI foot pedal.

The piece expands on the metaphorical approaches to technology, performance, and lighting found in works like Drop and Decoder. Many connections can be made between these works, in particular their preference for clear binary applications of lighting (on or off). The most notable distinction with "Dark Ethnography" is that its lighting sources (flashlights) are mobile, and could be moved and oriented in different ways in performance. Following Drop and Decoder I felt encouraged to explore the symbolic associations of lighted elements more freely, and my initial symbolic associations with flashlights were imbued with noirish imagery of detectives and investigators. Consequently, this influenced the immediate function of the flashlights, as well as the purpose of the flashlight operators. These characters would be employed as a means to "cast light on" or uncover something, and this in turn meant that the object of discovery was to be saturated with noirish themes of cynicism, fatalism, and the macabre.