ATTEMPTING TO ARTICULATE SOME GUIDELINES FOR SAND DUNE SINE WAVES

THE LANGUAGE:

• The cuneiform script of Arabic languages: linear flow, curvaceous like supple bodies or sinuous/sensuous sand dunes: earth + wind dancing, sharp pointed tips & accents: hot & fast like fire.

• Discrepancy between the spoken & the written: oral vs material traditions, different qualities of memory - to know how to speak but not how to write, different voices reading-in to the meaning of words: ___'s voice enunciating the language with accent vs the "inner voice" of one's own reading mind - not the same as the material-meat voice based in sound but understood through a similar system.

• To the extent that every language is capable of (& even necessarily succumbs to) a specific articulation of reality, what is the inherent meaning evoked with spoken Arabic? Donna Haraway: "It matters what matters we use to think other matters with; it matters what stories we tell to tell other stories with; it matters what knots knot knots, what thoughts think thoughts, what ties tie ties. It matters what stories make worlds, what worlds make stories." *What speaks-through Arabic more than what is spoken-in Arabic: the content of the langauge articulating itself more than using Arabaic to speak what could be said in any other language.

THE SOUND:

• How to construct an instrument of textures, of the landscape, of the body? A playing process akin to writing, to write sound - more than a metaphor?

• Specific Ideas:

  • Ceremonial Hand Forms: Contact mics at the core of constructed objects, part sculpture part instrument: crafted pieces built around the piezo disc, embedded within different materials like handmade hand-oriented hand-played shakers, and aestheticized = disc coated in rubber put into a thick membrane of oil, a balloon of tea, a bag of sand, another disc sewn into a soft pliable membrane filled with rice, lentils, herbs. Instrument is played by shaking, swirling, massaging, rubbing: a sensuous technique. Another variation is in the form of an enclosed feedback circuit, so that manipulating the instrument with one's hands modulates the signal continuously passing through, either clearly tonal (in flux) or dissonant distorted.

  • Shifting Sand Oud: Piezo transducers vibrating through suspended flat materials (thin metal, pliable wood, stretched fabric treated with waxes and/or other natural materials), with granulated materials spread on top. The instrument is played with a hotly amplified electric guitar running through a modified speaker, prepared with cork and glued to the suspended plane of metal. No natural guitar sound is heard, only the resonance through the metal. The guitar is tuned to modalities of traditional Arabic makam.

  • Secret Weather Cabinets: medium to large sized sound proof boxes filled with beans, sand, goat hair, and small but powerful condenser microphones to capture the events occurring inside, creating the impression of a small private space even when amplified in large rooms. The instrument is played by inserting one's hands into holes just big enough to seal around the arms, so they are played "blind" without the visual engagement of either the performer or the audience involved.

  • Melodic & Dissonant Weather Walls: large sheets of suspended metal "gongs" with numerous contact mics attached at harmonic intervals. The instrument is played with a large heavily padded ceremonial club, either rubbed or struck, akin to a human-scaled Tibetian singing bowl, and a specially designed clamp that cuts a sharp line across the sheet of metal allowing it to be tuned (or detuned). Two gongs of different sizes are suspended together so that the vibration of one creates harmonic dissonance with the frequencies of the other, evoking the sound of distant thunder storms in large open spaces.

  • Auto-sympathetic Pseudo-Santur: an architectural scaled interpretation of the traditional Arabic hammered dulcimer, consisting of long wires suspended taut across the room, positioned in such a way that the sympathetic vibration of one instigates dissonance in a nearby string. A master string is connected to the cone of a speaker through which the vocalist is speaking/singing so that the voice vibrates the string, becoming more or less audible at certain predetermined frequencies and causing a shimmering chain reaction through a chordal nest of notes when the primary notes are lingered upon. The longer the strings, the more nuanced and sensitive the instrument will become.

  • Breathing Cup: a small face cup resembling a dust mask (but only covering the nose) fitted with a small contact mic, subtly amplifying the breathing sounds of the performers. Perhaps connected to variously sized aeolian harps, played automatically through the air of breath, either directly or via sensors or vibratory amplification.

CONTENT / TECHNIQUE:

• Texture is more of a plane than a line or a point, which seems in contradiction to the defining characteristic of Arabic musical sensibilities: defined by melodies and percussive accentuation. Texture evokes the landscape, the feeling, and the spirit, more content-less than content-filled. How does one sing in an unfamiliar language? How does one play upon alien instruments?

• Towards a technique of non-form, of formlessness, of the void, of the becoming Other. To evoke a spell is to allow for the possibility of what is not altogether present, to make the invisible visible. To speak and play like fire: hot & dry, leaving room for creation in the wake of destruction. An emphasis on movement, endlessly shifting, large concentric spirals of walking in the desert without a sense of direction - although never lost, always obscure.

• What is the difference (in sound, affect, pronunciation) between a statement and a question when speaking Arabic? Inflection, rising or falling, tonal qualities of the language.... could help determine the tonal limitations of the instruments? Speaking in questions, more questions than answers, the true void is never finished and knows no boundaries through endless inquiry, eternal return.