The Ouija Board
A new form of group musical instrument. Based on the real-time video analysis of the shadows cast by the hands of the performers, it reframes many of the conventions of traditional, tactile instrumental control.
It allows the relationship between sound material from loudspeakers (location recordings, processed live sound, synthesised sounds) and the embodied act of performance to be investigated more deeply. This occurs both in a formal research processes and during performance, where the Ouija board acts as a bridge between acousmatic and traditional instrumental/vocal techniques.
The tactile quality of traditional acoustic instruments is in contrast to this remote, shadowy form of engagement. It is a negative instrument, between two worlds, casting a human shadow on the acousmatic curtain.