bitsmoke: Casey Farina
An animated graphic score for a quartet of indeterminate instrumentation.

Performed by:
Third Coast Percussion Quartet
thirdcoastpercussion.com
David Skidmore
Peter Martin
Robert Dillon
Owen Clayton Condon

Presented By: Matthew McDermott
May 11th, 2007
Chicago City Arts Gallery
chicagocityarts.com

The only instructions for the performers in addition to the animated graphic score are:

White = Sound
Black = Silence

bitsmoke is an experiment in the limits of graphic notation. Graphic notation has allowed composers to convey abstract concepts through gesture, behavior, and representation as an invented symbolic language. In the spirit of John Cage, Morton Feldman, Earl Brown, and Vinko Globokar, the animated graphic representation implemented in bitsmoke attempts a dynamic new notational system presented as a moving image.

Each performer interprets one quadrant of the animated score. Holding to somewhat traditional notation concepts, the score was generated without color. The sound and image are designed as a collaborative form of sound generation and musical communication.