Automatic Means of Human Labour for 2 musicians and modified machinery

(2023)

By means of different kinds of modified machines the musicians become a metaphor for the massive production of automatised processes. Repetitive tasks and seemingly futile actions generate intricate rhythms and mechanical patterns in which automatisation and absurdity reflect upon the conditions of human labour and its inevitable obsolescence.

The music dives into the capacities of the human body as a means of controlling sound by reiterative mechanical movements and its constant interaction with motorised equipment. The two performers manipulate a collection of musically modified ordinary machines; from power tools to sexual toys and electro-domestics, turning them progressively into prosthetic extensions of their own bodies.

Musicians become machine operators and machines become musical instruments in a work that develops at the intersection between sound composition and physical performance, where sonic complexity emerges out of the multiplication of simple machines that create new imaginary instruments, attempting to match the precision, speed and physical resistance of a complex motorised automatic system.

Co-production: iii (Instrument Inventors Initiative) and Nemø Ensemble (BE)

Finantial Support: Fondspodiumkunst, Creative Industries Fund NL, Creative Europe program of the European Union, FONCA Mexico

Duration: 50 minutes