Shard Speakers: Beyond Hexagons

Anastasia Clarke

Music Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract:

If crystal bowls could speak, what would they say? Beyond Hexagons is a performance using the shard-speakers, a musical instrument and playback system created from the shards of broken crystal singing bowls with affixed transducers and resonators. Tracing their lifespans from quartz mines to factories and from scientific laboratories and sound studios, the bowls transmit their origin stories of purpose, function, and pleasure through a unique and alien sonic language that makes heavy use of improvisation, whimsy, and custom software instruments. The result is a sonic exploration of the paradoxes contained in these materials — strength and fragility, acuity and intuition, secrecy and frankness.

Citation:

Anastasia Clarke. 2023. Shard Speakers: Beyond Hexagons. Music Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.11194722

BibTeX Entry:

  @article{nime23-music-1285,
 abstract = {If crystal bowls could speak, what would they say? Beyond Hexagons is a performance using the shard-speakers, a musical instrument and playback system created from the shards of broken crystal singing bowls with affixed transducers and resonators. Tracing their lifespans from quartz mines to factories and from scientific laboratories and sound studios, the bowls transmit their origin stories of purpose, function, and pleasure through a unique and alien sonic language that makes heavy use of improvisation, whimsy, and custom software instruments. The result is a sonic exploration of the paradoxes contained in these materials — strength and fragility, acuity and intuition, secrecy and frankness.},
 address = {Mexico City, Mexico},
 articleno = {1285},
 author = {Anastasia Clarke},
 booktitle = {Music Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.11194722},
 editor = {Rob Hamilton},
 month = {May},
 note = {Live Concert 3, Thursday June 1, Centro de Cultura Digital},
 title = {Shard Speakers: Beyond Hexagons},
 url = {https://www.nime.org/proceedings/2023/nime2023_music_1285.pdf},
 urlsuppl1 = {https://www.nime.org/proceedings/2023/nime23_concert_3.pdf},
 year = {2023}
}