Bennett Hogg Resistant Violin

Bennett Hogg's (b.1961) work as an electroacoustic composer and improviser has led to the development of his 'Resistant Violin'. Initially developed during his 2008 residency at STEIM, Hogg sought to find ways to interfaces his primary instrument for improvisation (the violin) with electronics/digital technology. In order to problematise the notion that technology somehow makes things easier, the Resistant Violin does the opposite - restricting and negating the existing possibilities of the violin, making free movement of the bow across the instrument almost impossible. Various sensors are connected to the violin at different points. Per Hogg: “The struggle against the tension in the elastic, and against the restricted positioning of bow and violin to one another thus generates voltages from the sensors that are then converted through a junXion board, through the programme junXion, and relayed on into MAX/MSP and LiSa. This data is then used to control various of the processing and playback parameters of whatever sonic material the instrument is able to produce.”