Physical Music

On Performance: Drawing on his training as an architect and a jazz musician, Christopher Janney focuses on creating an architecture that is more spontaneous, while creating music which is more physical, more visual. Janney’s performance work gives structure and form to both sound and movement. Performers define space through their choreography—creating suggestive sonic environments for expression.

2005 Visual Music Project, Avalon
The ‘Visual Music Project-Avalon’ is one of Janney’s experiments in “physical music.” While the concept of visual music is not new, technology is now available to create a “poly-visual” instrument- the ability for more than one insrument to create images simultaneously in real time. In this way, the musicians interact both harmonically and visually as they play.

Headliners at the Avalon/Boston, 1-13-06
Christoper Janney – Visual Synthesizer
Stan Strickland – Sax/EWI
Wes Wirth – Electric Bass
Eli Wilke – DJ

2005 Visual Music Project, African Float
The ‘Visual Music Project-African Float is another of Janney’s experiments in “physical music.”

“African Float was a composed for –
Visual Synthesizer: Christoper Janney
EWI (electronic wind instrument) Stan Strickland
Electic Bass with pitch-to-midi-converter- Wes Wirth
Electronic Drums- Joe Galeota

Using traditional African symbols (“Adinkra Symbols”) as the visual information mixed with environmental sounds- crickets, birds, cows- the piece is a unique exploration in presenting visual information together with musical concepts about African impressions.

1989 Hopscotch
Performances: Boston Children’s Museum, Boston, MA (Hopscotch)
Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC (Hopscoth: Stamp Stomp)

Hopscotch is a water fountain for children of all ages. It is composed of eight pressure-sensitive pads laid out in a ”hopscotch” formation, approximately one foot apart. These pads are wired to a computer, synthesizer, and a series of solenoid-activated water mist jets.

As people jump from square to square, they activate the jets and sound. At times the phenomena follow exactly the pattern “played” by participants, at other times the piece creates preprogrammed patterns. In addition, there is a riddle which when solved by stepping on the pads in a particular pattern, causes Hopscotch to respond with a dance of its own.

1986 Flying Heartbeats
Performances: Anchorage, Alaska

This piece, created in collaboration with Otto Piene, is similar in spirit to Janney’s Heartbeat. In this work, a dancer wearing the Heartbeat transmitter is lifted into the sky, harnessed to a sculptural arrangement of balloons. The act of flight triggers a soundtrack of varying heartbeats projected out over the crowd below.

Project credits:
Otto Piene, Bill Fitzgibbons, Amy Spencer

Project sponsors:
Transkinetics, Inc. BOSE Corporation

1983 Heartbeat
Performances: Institute for Contemporary Art, Boston, MA: Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, Washington DC;
Joyce Theater, New York, NY; Lincoln Center, New York, NY; Mohave Desert, California, City Center, New York, NY

While a Research Fellow at MIT’s The Center for Advanced Visual Studies in 1981, Janney began researching heartbeat monitor systems, talking extensively with David Pettijohn, then a Research Fellow in MIT’s Psychology Department. Together they modified Pettijohn’s wireless telemetry system, and equipped it with a custom audio filter, isolating the sound of the heart’s electrical impulses to the brain and its surrounding muscles.

In 1982, Janney was introduced to choreographer/dancer Sara Rudner, whose fluid polyrhythmic movements he was familiar with from her work with Twyla Tharp Dance. Together, they developed the first performance, utilizing the customized heart monitor, with the focus on exploring the heart as both a machine for pumping blood and the “seat of the soul.” The result of their collaboration—Heartbeat—was first performed in 1983 at The Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston and was chosen as the “Best in Boston” in dance for that year.

Since that time, Janney has choreographed the piece with poets, musicians (including saxophonist Stan Strickland), singers and dancers—including Mikhail Baryshnikov, whose world tour of the piece included a performance at New York’s Lincoln Center in 199x.

Heartbeat is now “scored” using a bio-engineering device developed by Philips Medical, Inc. Placed on a performer’s chest and amplified through the use of custom filters and a sound system designed by Janney, this machine provides an unusual percussion track. Layered over this “track” is live vocal music based on jazz scat and Indian tabla rhythms.

Project credits:
Sara Rudner; StanStrickland; Mikhail Baryshnikov

Project sponsors:
Transkinetics, Inc. BOSE Corporation; Philips Medical, Inc.

1983 Sonic Dream
Performances: Institute for Contemporary Art, Boston, MA: Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, Washington DC;
Joyce Theater, New York, NY; Lincoln Center, New York, NY; Mohave Desert, California, City Center, New York, NY

This seminal work, which led to Janney’s later piece, Heartbeat, experimented with a performers capacity to generate sound, and considered the human body as an instrument. “I hooked up a video camera to my interactive electronics, so a dancer could use his whole body to generate a sound score—like ‘dancing to your own dancing.’”

Project credits:
Tom Kruzinzki, Jesse Sayre, Berred Ouellettte/Project Manager

Project sponsors:
Oberheim Electronics, Rockwell International-AIM Division, Center for AdvancedVisual Studies, MIT

1983 Percussion Discussion
Performances: Institute for Contemporary Art, Boston, MA: Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, Washington DC;
Joyce Theater, New York, NY; Lincoln Center, New York, NY; Mohave Desert, California, City Center, New York, NY

The concept of this early piece is simple—Percussion Discussion consists of a duet between a traditional percussion set and set of “talking drums.”

Project credits:
Samm Bennett, Syd Smart, Jerry Leake/Percussion, Berred Ouellette/Project Manager

Project sponsors:
Roland Music, Votrax Corporation, American Speaker Company, Center for AdvancedVisual Studies, MIT

1978 Soundstair
Performances: (partial list) Spanish Steps, Rome, Italy; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Stads Schouwberg, Eindhoven, Holland; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Soundstair is an interactive sound environment that “plugs into” an existing architectural stairway. It is composed of photo-electric sensors, placed one per step, that are wired to a computer, sound sampler, amplifier and speakers. As individuals traverse the stairs, they activate a series of melodic and natural sounds. The sounds can be scaled to change pitch according to ascending or descending movement. For example, ascending the stair might trigger a bamboo flute and springtime garden sounds, like birds and a light breeze. When an individual stops in the middle, the sound “disappears”, fading away. If they continue climbing, the sound returns. Another individual using the stairs an hour later might hear an entirely different set of sounds. In Soundstair, sound is used to “color” the space, creating a “responsive architecture” that reacts to people moving through it. In this way, sound changes the quality of the space without changing any of its physical form.
There are currently 4 permanent Soundstair installations in the US: The Boston Museum of Science (Soundstair: SciMuse), The Science Museum of Minnesota (Soundstair: Minnesota), The Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS (SteppinReach) and Techworld Plaza in Washington, DC (Sonic Pass/dc).

Project credits:
Robert Dezmelyk/Oberheim interface; Mark Wong/MIDI Programmer; Martha Armstrong Grey; Trent Arterberry, Michael Jullich.

Project sponsors:
Center for Advanced Visual Studies, MIT; Oberheim Electronics; Rockwell International/Allen-Bradley Photoswitch; Apple Computer, BOSE Corporation.