About
Piece for Smartphone Orchestra is a work of sound art. It is of indeterminate duration and can be performed by any number of players. Should be regarded as a dynamic sonic structure which is framed by a text score. The resulting sound is a potential game on beat tones and otoacoustic emission effects. Piece for Smartphone Orchestra is a manifestation of a complex systems view of the artwork.
Players use the smartphone to play a monophonic musical instrument. This consists of three buttons and a horizontal bar. A tone starts to play when a button is pressed. It stops when the button is pressed again.
The horizontal bar depicts the deviation from the center frequency of a playing tone. Deviation is reflected on the position of a small moving rectangle inside the bar. When the moving rectangle lies on the midpoint of the bar, deviation is zero.
The instrument is in neutral position, when the screen faces upwards and frequency deviation is zero. In this position the screen defines a horizontal plane. Let y'y be the line of the horizontal plane that passes through the center of the screen and points to the center of the horizontal bar. The player can rotate the device around the y'y axis. Rotation angles can take values from 0 degrees, in neutral position, to ± 180 degrees. This rotation sets the amplitude of the selected tone. At neutral position no sound should be heard, even if a tone button is pressed.
Define the axis z'z as the line that is perpendicular to the horizontal plane and intersects y'y at the center of the screen. Rotating the device around the z'z axis affects the frequency of a playing tone. Rotation angles from 0 to ± 180 degrees deviate the frequency of a selected tone from 0 to ± 100 cents, respectively.
The instrument should be thought of as having a very fragile nature. This should be reflected on the gestures of the player: all rotations and movements must be slow-paced. Furthermore, a tone always starts and stops with the screen facing upwards.
Tassos Tsesmetzis