Seriously, Grace Leslie (composer, flutist, researcher) and I are making music with origami this quarter. More to come soon!
In this composition, we explore the freedom and limitations of a live electronic music performance using the paper folding art origami for inspiration and as a source of noisy acoustic sounds. We have noticed a similarity between computer music and origami in that both are flexible media that gain complexity by processing and combining simple materials and parts, thus we consider origami a good metaphor for the possibilities of computer music. The process of paper folding will be captured in the musical form and structure as well as the spatialization patterns used. The sounds produced by the paper folding are captured using microphones and processed using Max/MSP, and the interaction between the performers determines the structuring of sound and silence. The inherent fragility of working with paper allows us to reflect on the possibilities of electronic music production outside of the machine dependency paradigm.