In ‘Negotiating Dialogues,’ Music Speaks and Art Listens … and Responds – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth
Negotiating Dialogues is a modern chamber music work with no text, but a lot to say. Originally planned as part of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s SOLUNA Festival 2020, Carmen Menza’s haunting piece will premiere on September 18 in the Boedeker Building (Cedars Union) in Dallas.
This five-movement chamber music piece contains cello, viola, clarinet and vibraphone with interludes of spoken poetry. The music starts a conversation by triggering elaborate projections powered by software algorithms. If the clarinet plays a swing, the projection reacts and continues the dialogue. The projections surround the audience on screens and create an immersive environment.
“When the musicians play their part, the dialogue with the images behind them is on the screens,” said Menza.
Shawn Samuell
Music introduces the conversation in Negotiating Dialogues.
The piece examines the influence of technology on daily life.
“The inspiration for Negotiating Dialogues was how our dialogue is changing in light of the changing technological advances in communication and what future societal impact these technologies could have on our world,” said Menza.
Negotiating Dialogues reflects the growing adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), from the sophistication of digital assistants like Siri and Alexa to the development of self-driving cars.
“AI creates a lot of good, but there is still bias because someone has to write this code and take in certain sets of data to create this code and programs. I think there are ethical issues and fairness that we need to think about, ”said Menza.
Shawn Samuell
The Negotiating Dialogues creative team from left to right: Eric Farrar, Carmen Menza, Mark Menza and Joel Olivas.
To develop her concept, Menza, whose work was shown at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, SOLUNA Festival, Dallas AURORA Biennial, Carneal Simmons Contemporary Art, Dallas International Film Festival, Dallas VideoFest and KERA, put together a creative team. She composed the music with her husband Mark Menza, a film and television composer, and he also acts as the project’s music producer.
Joel Olivas is the VFX artist, animator and presenter of the project. Eric Farrar, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies and Associate Professor of Animation at the School of Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication (ATEC) at UTDallas, will provide technical assistance and will play the vibraphone. Musicians of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra play the cello, viola and clarinet.
As the music begins the dialogue, the creative process began with composing the original score. “The music tells how we want to deal with the visuals,” said Menza.
The instrumentation focuses on one of Menza’s favorite instruments.
“I absolutely love the cello,” said Menza. “It should always be a cello, so it was just a matter of finding two other instruments that I thought would be a good mix.”
There is a fifth instrument for this chamber ensemble: a computer. While the musicians play the first movement, the music is recorded. In an interlude, Mark Menza will capture excerpts from the first movement and change them digitally. The musicians hear these digital variations of what they played in the first movement while playing the second movement. This computer generation of themes will continue throughout the piece.
“It’s kind of live DJing on the fly,” said Menza. “I see it as a theme and variations in a whole new light.”
Shawn Samuell
Mark Menza composed the music with his wife and created digital variations on the computer during the performance.
As an interdisciplinary artist, Menza likes to model rooms, use the architecture of a room for projections and create an immersive experience.
“For me, immersive art should get you out of the real world for a while,” Meza said. “You are being drawn into the story.”
For Negotiating Dialogues, Menza uses 12 to 14 foot screens to envelop the audience in the projections. The audience will walk across the room and turn around to see different aspects of the dialogue as the visuals swirl around the room. “I want to touch all of the senses when someone comes to one of my immersive installations. I want them to feel in the room and be able to look around completely, ”said Menza.
Shawn Samuell
Visuals respond to music and are projected onto screens surrounding the audience, creating an immersive experience.
The constantly evolving world of technology fascinates Menza and inspires future projects. She is interested in robotics, lidar technology, NFTs and the metaverse.
“My love is music and technology and visuals, so I can do anything I can to push those boundaries further and look at different types of technology and light-based work,” said Menza. “I want to visualize data.”
This digital piece is not intended to be seen on a computer screen.
“You really have to be there in person to experience it,” said Menza. “I hope that the premiere of Negotiating Dialogues will be a time to celebrate life and look forward to the good in the future.”
Learn more: https://www.dallassymphony.org/productions/carmen-menza-negotiating-dialogues/
[ad_1]