CYBER SINGING

A digital music voice that comes from the musician itself.

Introducing the concept Cyber Singing

"(...) each orchestra member must download an MP3 file that the composer has created, they all press their own phones and it’s played back on the stage as we continue to play other things. So, he’s introducing a communications device into the orchestra, showing this way that technology combines with what we do. He calls it ‘cyber singing’. It’s fascinating. (...)"
Leonard Slatkin, conductor



Catalan TV (TV3) about mixing real instruments and technology (in Catalan):








MIXING REAL INSTRUMENTS AND TECHNOLOGY

"A digital music voice that comes from the musician itself."

In accordance with philosophical thoughts concerning the intersection between body and technology in the new technological society, I am searching for a way to incorporate this idea into the artistic musical universe, not just in a figurative way (as seen in the works of the 20th century, with electro-acoustic music) but also an intrinsic form coming from the musician itself as a cyborg that he already is.

Outside the concert hall, musicians today have a number of modern electronic devices such as metronomes, tuners, keyboards, computers, camcorders, iPods, MP3 players or mobile phones. Even some of the latest generation of phones, called smartphones, incorporate multiple functionalities in a single device.

These electronic devices open up to the composer new possibilities for interaction on a more complex technical level that had been impossible to do until now, since it was, in the past, only a philosophical level, a vision, a premonition.
We already know the old electronic possibilities of classic musical works of the 20th century, with the use of other media such as audio playback tape, CD, or even applying computers.
These procedures require a technician that follow on cue the drama of the work, so, for the player, this electro-universe is something apart, because he is not participating actively during the interpretation. Until now, however, that was the only option, which is considered an act indicative of what human society would become, a future in the past that has already become present.

Cyber Singing defines this new possibility of interaction, attaining genuine communication itself. The audio file prepared by the composer himself is played by the musician from his electronic device, a device commonly used for other purposes. This places his device within a new context, creating a direct communication between the composer and the musician, linking the social world to the world of artistic communication.
This breaks the technology barrier that existed until now, with the musician becoming a true performer, not only at the instrumental level, but also at the electronic level.
Cyber Singing is thus an interpretative technique that describes the philosophy of the cyborg. As philosopher Donna Haraway said in her "Cyborg Manifesto" (1985) - as did many other philosophers who have written on the subject - implemented technology (either physically or figuratively) is a communication between two languages. These are the chemical language of our body and, moreover, a mathematical, technological language, developed by ourselves: a language that creates another to be described, discovered for itself and incorporated into the organic universe.
So we are already cyborgs: "cybernetic organisms, compounds of hybrid techno-organic embodiment and textuality. The cyborg is text, machine, body and metaphor, all theorized and engaged in practice in terms of communications”.

This extends the possibilities of the orchestra to infinite levels, requiring neither a technician nor a complex amplification system in the room .

The idea not only refers to the device-musician electronic interaction, but also to all those options in the future, in case the devices would somehow would be implemented in our bodies. Any use it could provide in terms of musical performance will be considered Cyber Singing.

A true cyborg.
We are already cyborgs in the everyday world.

Ferran Cruixent, 2009