The (Real) Laptop Music :))
2-channel audiovisual media,
2017 & 2019.
“The (Real) Laptop Music :))” emerged from a question on a laptop as a “musical instrument:” is it used mainly to operate sonic software or as a main source of the sound?
Program note for the performance at the Aural Diversity Conference 2019:
This stereo audiovisual fixed-media piece (2017, extended in 2019) emerged from a question about a laptop for composing activities: Is it used merely to operate software(s) or is it used as a main physical source of sound?
The visual component of this piece is in a form of video samples of a laptop being touched, scratched, tapped, or hit, and the audio includes the sound corresponding to the visual.
The composition includes direct aural source-bonding to the visual cues, while the sound sometimes may evoke acousmatic image.
Projected on ‘a big stereo’, the audio may help project immersive sound to evoke haptic sense resulted from the acoustical energy propagation, while the visual may help evoke sense of haptic imagery.
The piece’s general character is non-melodic, percussive, almost monophony, rhythmical, and occasionally granular and glitch-like. The piece contains extremity of contrasts of timbres, loudness, aural & visual rhythms, especially from the middle to the ending part of the piece, and includes low, mid-low, middle, mid-high, and high frequencies.
The piece is projected on an LCD projector and diffused on a 6.1 system (6 loudspeakers and 1—or more—subwoofer): 3 loudspeakers on the left side (for the left channel) and the other 3 loudspeakers on the right side (for the right channel) to project ‘a big stereo’. It can be streamed into headphones and hearing aids, and audiences are welcome to wear earplugs while staying within/around the diffusion space. The duration of this piece is 9’39”.
composer, director, & editor: Jay Afrisando
videographer: Michael Duffy
Filmed in Minneapolis, MN, US on November 15, 2017.
The composition was initially created in 2017 and extended in 2019.
performance 6
CCRMA Presents Jay Afrisando, CCRMA (Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics), Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, US on 16 March 2023.
performance 5
Sonic Salon Winter 2020, a private residence in Seward, Minneapolis, MN, US on 11 January 2019.
performance 4
In Situ: Festival for Electronic Music and Sound Art 2019, Moon Palace Books, Minneapolis, MN, US on 7 December 2019.
performance 3
Aural Diversity Conference 2019, Attenborough Arts Centre, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK on 30 November 2019.
performance 2
October Meeting Contemporary Music and Musicians 2019, Tembi Rumah Budaya, Yogyakarta, ID on 23 October 2019.
performance 1
International Computer Music Conference/New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival 2019, Fridman Gallery, New York City, NY, US on 20 June 2019.