'Testing The Line' by Ian Gibson

'Testing the Line' (2008)
Composed by Ian Gibson
Performed in Scarborough, United Kingdom, April 9th 2008.


This piece is a humorous reflection upon user reactions to the "Call Waiting" installation. The vocal samples are distorted having been recorded through a telephone mouthpiece. Users are encouraged to respond to an artificial voice and record their comments. Although humorous, the piece exposes elements of vulnerability and isolation. Ian Gibson, the composer, used a combination of sound processing tools to transform the vocal samples. The speech is often unintelligible due to the source and nature of the recording, or might just possess certain sections of intelligibility. This is exploited to produce voice pitch and timing-based cues which hint and suggest the feelings being experienced by the human operator (even though the individual words might not be distinguishable).

Category:

Music

Tags:

• electronica
• electronic
• music
• experimental
• scarborough
• theatre
• performance