Soundtracks - Kochi

During a site visit to Aspinwall I came upon a series of small rooms off to the side of the large property. They were situated in a cool small section of Aspinwall that had views of the water, a constant breeze and very recent occupants. As I looked through the rooms I noticed small musical motifs, a whistle on a string, a small statue of Krishna playing an invisible flute, a decaying notebook with a drumkit on the cover. They looked like the old servants’ quarters and suggested the possibility of creating a series of distinct personal spaces. I later found out from the caretaker that they were the rooms he and his family had previously lived in for seven years, and were equipped with running water, working electricity and a small grey cat which visited regularly. In a way the rooms chose, me and my work has evolved to fit these rooms.Over the next two weeks I worked with the space and the various materials and sounds collected  onsite at Aspinwall to create a series of experiments using the praxis of music/ sound and installation.These include a touch based multi-user instrument which contains a series of smallsuspended and floor based objects which when touched release the hidden sounds of Cochin life, (this room necessitates the removal of footwear as bare feet are needed to earth participants). Another room houses a spice speaker sound system which uses the frequencies of sub bass to generate specific clouds of mixed spice. Previous incarnations have generated the spice base for Indonesian Beef Rendang, this one will be based on a local masala which includes fenugreek, turmeric, ginger and cinnamon. Housed near these two spaces will be a workspace for making perfomance instruments from gleaned materials and a video room highlighting documentation of previous projects, including a robotic percussion workshop with young Buddhist monks in Northern Thailand conducted in July 2012. Video documentation of work presented in Kochi will also be presented including the creation of a Motor Rickshaw equipped with a series of interactive robotic drum modules.