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Thanks for listening

mitsitron [mitsi chaida michelakou]

Thanks for listening is a live coding process, a system created by a body, cables, a borrowed midi device, a microphone, a sound card, Sonic Pi, speakers, memories, desires, discomforts and vulnerability.

The force driving this research are questions such as: How we embody gender by the ways we use our voices. How a gender binary categorises bodies depending on their vocal frequency behaviour. How sound production and instruments when located in cis-hetero spaces potentially amplify biases. And how they can potentially become a healing part of someone.

In this perfomance, I position my body as an extension of sound and sound technology. I create voice through my phonatory system, which gets modulated in controllable and uncontrollable ways. A midi controller which receives data from sonic pi is pitching, stretching and looping the voice that is plugged with, through knobs, faders and buttons. A partial narration, a passive whisper or a shout on having an ανώμαλη, anomalous voice is commented in the beginning of the code and vocalised throughout the performance.


mitsi (they/them) is a cultural worker from greece currently based at rotterdam.

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Work


  
#heyy can you hear me?
#do I reach you?
  #do I wanna reach you?
    #do you want to be reached by me?
      
      #I am so happy that you are here tonight
      #I am so happy that you came here to listen to me
      #Thank you, thank you so much
      
      #I would like to be bigger
      #i don't know what to do with all this energy
      #i was taught to be scared of it
      #I am a small creature
      #Trapped inseid a eh eh ehe eh eh eh... body
      #What do you think?
      #What do you think of me?
      
      #They wanted to put my head into the ground
      #They didn't want us! They don't want us!
      #I can stay in the corner and observe
      #I can stay I can open my ears and listen
      #We have learnt to hide
      #It's hard to not be recognised
      #It's like you don't exist, but you exist hahaha
      #You have a body
      
      #I like to adapt A LOT that's what i do in life
      #I just adapt my voice
      #What ? What ? Whaat? What the fuck is this?
      #STOP STOP STOOOOP
      #What do you do usually? Do you adapt? Do you resist? Do you fight?
      #DO you fly? Do you stay??
      
      #i want to be regulated
      #i want ot be filtered
      #How do you filter what you hear?
      #FILTER MEEEEE
      
      #but did this even happen this way?
      #Did she say this did she love me or i don't know
      #I wanna go in the corner and suck my thumb
      
      #do i need to be stronger?
        #do i need to be oversized?
          #do i need to shrink?
            #do i need to be something more?
              #do i need to be something less?
                #do i need to stand out? maybe
                  #is that ok?
                  
                  #i am sorry, don't leave me
                  #thank you i love you
                  #thank you that you came to listen to me
                  
                  #adding amplitude level
                  with_fx :level do |le|
                    #adding low pass filter
                    with_fx :lpf, mix: 0 do |l|
                      #adding pitch shifter
                      with_fx :pitch_shift, pitch_dis: 0.001 do |p|
                        #adding echo
                        with_fx :echo, pre_mix: 0, decay: 2 do |e|
                          #adding reverb
                          with_fx :reverb, pre_mix: 1, room: 1 do |r|
                            #for latency prevention
                            use_real_time
                            #inserting the microphone to the system
                            live_audio :mic
                            
                            #a live_loop for mapping the midi faders, buttons and knobs with the above effects
                            live_loop :process do
                              #for latency prevention
                              use_real_time
                              #the variables cc and val are syncronised with the midi machine i use
                              cc, val = sync "/midi:5-_zero_mkii_0:1/control_change"
                              #the numbers that cc corresponds with are the different faders, knobs buttons
                              if cc == 23
                                control le, amp: val / 127.0
                              end
                              if cc == 24
                                if cc > 63.5
                                  control p, pitch: (val - 63.5) / 1.7
                                else
                                  control p, pitch: (-val + 63.5) / 6
                                end
                              end
                              if cc == 25
                                control e, pre_mix: val / 127
                              end
                              if cc == 26
                                control e, phase: val * 0.1 + 0.000001
                              end
                              if cc == 73
                                control e, decay: val / 5 + 0.000001
                              end
                              if cc == 75
                                control r, pre_mix: val / 127
                              end
                              if cc == 70
                                control r, room: val / 127
                              end
                              if cc == 20
                                control l, cutoff: val
                              end
                              if cc == 14
                                control l, mix: val /127.0
                              end
                              #create a buffer of 10 seconds
                              if cc == 77
                                with_fx :record, buffer: [:voice,10] do
                                  print "record recording"
                                  use_real_time
                                  live_audio :mic1
                                end
                              end
                              #play the buffer
                              if cc == 95
                                #print "play recording"
                                sample buffer[:voice,10]
                              end
                              #small stretch of the buffer
                              if cc == 7
                                control sample buffer[:voice,10], rate: val * 0.1 + 0.000001
                              end
                              #bigger stretch of the buffer
                              if cc == 10
                                control sample buffer[:voice,10], rate: val + 0.000001
                              end
                              #reverse stretch of the buffer
                              if cc == 22
                                control sample buffer[:voice,10], rate: -val * 0.1 + 0.000001
                              end
                              #create a buffer of 100 seconds
                              if cc == 82
                                with_fx :record, buffer: [:voice2,100] do
                                  print "record recording"
                                  use_real_time
                                  live_audio :mic1
                                end
                              end
                              #play the buffer
                              if cc == 83
                                print "play recording"
                                sample buffer[:voice2,100]
                              end
                              #small stretch of the buffer
                              if cc == 74
                                control sample buffer[:voice2,100], rate: val * 0.1 + 0.000001
                              end
                              #bigger stretch of the buffer
                              if cc == 71
                                control sample buffer[:voice2,100], rate: val + 0.000001
                              end
                              #reverse stretch of the buffer
                              if cc == 85
                                control sample buffer[:voice2,100], rate: -val * 0.1 + 0.000001
                              end
                            end
                          end
                        end
                      end
                    end
                  end
                  
                  #creating a second channel for my voice. 
                  #this one is for the moments that i want the signal created by my vocal chords to be as not altered as possible
                  with_fx :level do |le3|
                    with_fx :pitch_shift, pitch_dis: 0.001 do |p1|
                      live_loop :process2 do
                        use_real_time
                        cc, val = sync "/midi:5-_zero_mkii_0:1/control_change"
                        if cc == 72
                          control le3, amp: val / 127.0
                        end
                        if cc == 92 and val == 0
                          use_real_time
                          live_audio :mic3
                        end
                        if cc == 92 and val == 127
                          kill live_audio :mic3
                        end
                        if cc == 19
                          if cc > 63.5
                            control p1, pitch: (val - 63.5) / 1.7
                          else
                            control p1, pitch: (-val + 63.5) / 6
                          end
                        end
                      end
                    end
                  end
  

Publication

Graduation Show