Theatrical actions

Not all the physical actions in a performance cause sounds. We occasionally see actions which do not actually cause any changes to sound. In this thesis, I call such actions

13 _{Legibility will be discussed in Chapter 5.}

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‘theatrical actions’.14 _{In instances where it is apparent that there is no technical link}

between an action and sonic results, the theatrical action can be seen as a communication tool between the performer and the audience, or a non-musical artistic expression. The latter has some quality in common with a conductor, who ‘gestures and the music pours forth – just as the conjuror uses elaborately choreographed hand motions to [“]bring forth[”] the image or transformation required’ (Emmerson, 2007, p. 112). Emmerson also refers to ‘the soundless conductor’s closed eyes and ecstatic look’ in the context of ‘expressive body language’ (Emmerson, 2007, p. 113). In the other case, where it ‘seems’ there is a link, at least to the audience, what the actions create is an ‘imaginary relationship’ between the performer and sonic results, which Emmerson states as the opposing concept to an real relationship (Emmerson, 2007, p. 93). The topic of theatrical actions is discussed by Butler as well, along with his observations on ‘passion of the knob’ moments.

Another very important site through which liveness is communicated is the musician’s body. Note, for instance, how Pole interacts with the mixing board during the passage shown in video example 2.6. Near the end of the clip in particular, he seems to put his whole body into the extended turning of a knob. I have seen many such instances in performance; in my field journal I began to call them “passion of the knob” moments. This term evokes the strange incongruity that arises when a musician directs exceptionally intense expressivity toward a small, technical component associated with sound engineering. Passion-of-the-knob moments communicate through intensely exaggerated

14 Butler calls the moments where ‘liveness is communicated through the musician’s body ‘passion-of-the-knob moments’. I did not use this term because it would signify slightly different phenomenon in terms of that the passion-of-the-knob actions could cause changes to sound more or less, through the ‘knob’.

Butler, M. J. 2014. Playing with Something That Runs: Technology, Improvisation, and Composition in DJ and

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gestures; they are performative enactments of “performance” as a culturally situated behavior (Butler, 2014, p. 101).

During Squarepusher’s solo performance on the 24th October 2015, he occasionally raised his arms and sometimes beckoned passionately, seemingly in an attempt to interact with the audience, and the audience made a noise in response. Apart from those moments, the audience generally remained quiet regardless of sonic events. Ironically, to me, his theatrical actions worked to weaken the sense that he was controlling everything live, and to strengthen the presence of a sequencer. From my personal experiences as an audience member, hands-off actions of a performer (so that her/his hands are off from her/his controller), including dancing, generally indicate the likelihood that a sequencer is being used. In Butler’s words, it ‘highlights the recorded nature of the medium at hand: one is dancing, after all, to one’s own tunes’. Another function of dancing is to ‘[reveal] a general level of engagement’ (Butler, 2014, p. 102), which was supposedly Squarepusher’s intention. Butler also points out that ‘As a dancer responding to the sounds that have been created, the performer enacts the role of the audience on the stage’ (Butler, 2014, p. 102). Butler summarises the functions of theatrical actions as follows:

First, such behaviors may communicate a broad sense of “expressivity.” On the part of the performer this communication may be intentional, although it is entirely possible for an action to be perceived as expressive without it having been intended as such. As a whole, performers’ movements run a gamut from the fully deliberate to the unconscious. Although audiences generally regard the gestures they see as meaningful, their interpretations may or may not align with the performer’s intent. […]

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Second, musicians’ performative actions serve additional purposes that might be described as demonstrative or rhetorical. A chief function is proof: the performer’s

movements on stage, and all of the hardware that is manipulated, shows that she is really doing something, that she is actively engaged in music making rather than email checking. At the same time the performer demonstrates agency: he is the author of these sounds, recorded though they may be. A further quality is exertion. This should be familiar enough as a conveyor of authenticity in other contexts, and it works in the same way here: signs of physical exertion tell us that these sounds are produced through the musician’s own labor; they are not easy to come by, but rather require both work and exceptional skill. The musician’s efforts on stage validate the audience’s exertions on the dance floor (Butler, 2014, p. 103).

The digital music performers who take theatrical actions are contextualised within the electronic dance music scene, rather than the academic electronic music community. In the academic context, the audience usually do not expect dramatic movements from the performer. Also, it is natural for the performer to perform offstage, which can be regarded as a tape music concert style, and not much attention is paid to the performer’s physical body. It is not much different to the electronic dance scene context, as long as the performer is visually hidden inside a DJ booth. But when the performer is placed on a stage, non-dancing audiences expect something spectacular to look at, like the way they do with other kinds of popular music concerts. To meet such an expectation, some digital music performers take theatrical actions because there are no dramatic movements happening in digital music performance by virtue of its intrinsic non-bodily nature. Theatrical actions function as additional non-musical artistic expressions in this sense. As we have seen earlier, theatrical actions are also

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taken as a communication tool between the performer and the audience. This is related to the commercial and entertainment aspects of popular music.

With my practice, I do not take theatrical actions because I instead present visually dramatised non-theatrical micro-movements to the audience. Additional theatrical actions would confuse the legibility15 _{of performance, or impair the real}

relationship between the performer and the sonic results. Rather, I designed my visual engine to digitally exaggerate the micro actions to enhance the physical presence of the performer.