Picture (2015)

In early 2010 the Alloy Orchestra was commissioned an original score for percussion ensemble, based on a musical setting drawn on a 3-foot long sheet of squared notebook paper. Its operating principle was a fixed tempo - 60 beats per minute - to be strictly followed by the musicians throughout the piece. Within this grid, the performers were given complete freedom to determine the timbre, the volume and the sequence of themes to be chosen for their work. Two artists - a drummer and a draughtsman - listened to the recording of the music without any knowledge of the instructions provided for its creation. Unbeknownst to each other, both were given the task of playing along with their respective instruments: one with a drum in front of a camera, the other with pen, brushes, ink and colored pigments on 35mm film strips. Neither of them was given time to prepare or rehearse beforehand. The footage was assembled and edited in strict adherence to the criteria adopted for the music. The Alloy Orchestra was then asked to accompany the film with their own score, thus confronting the band with the challenge of interpreting the responses of the drummer and the draughtsman to the recorded piece. This coexistence of extreme discipline and total improvisation is at the core of the project-a generative process where a self-imposed rule is refracted in a potentially infinite set of variations, like in a hall of mirrors.