To appropriate something involves taking possession of it. In the visual arts, the term appropriation often refers to the use of borrowed elements in the creation of new work.
The Dirty Projectors new release Rise Above, due out in September, is a conceptual tribute and not a cover release. The Rise Above tour presents interpreted compositions stimulated by memory of the band Black Flag's influential 1981 album Damaged. Remembering this record from his teenage years, Dave Longstreth's composed Rise Above by accessing his subconscious using a technique called automatic writing that was embraced by the Surrealists. They used it to expand their creative possibilities.
Lucky Dragons AKA Luke Fishbeck is a digital music composer, who applies a distinctive homage to the category of happening and performance art, utilizing digital music, and video installation. Within the realm of digital music composition he has appropriately titled his latest recording Windows. Luke Fishbeck music is created with instruments, voices, and sound discoveries that are transposed digitally. His self awareness has enabled him to be an open receptor to the world around him, guiding his music composition to reflect inference and sound visuals.
It was very fitting to see Lucky Dragons in a museum setting. The focus of his performance is to create a dialogue with the audience that fluctuates between voyeurism and direct participation. He set up a large screen on the side of the stage, and on the floor a laptop connected to audio extensions that lengthen outward into the space. Much like an extension cord or that of an octopus with musical tentacles, these receptors convert sound through touch and movement. The screen displayed portrait images whose lips opened to receive and release animated color, nature patterns that formed connective metaphors, and geometric sequencing like a universal code all synchronized with the music.
Luke is a very tall and striking individual. He started on the floor, sitting on his knees hovering over one of the receptors passing the signals of his body movements to alter the sound frequencies. We watched him personally and physically submit to becoming an integral part of the sound. Experiencing the music through him is the ultimate form of conduction. The set continued and his body contortions became convoluted as he ran microphone wire up, around, under his torso, through his legs, and then up to his mouth. Never looking up at the audience, he unabashedly was consumed in his personal ecstasies. I was a willing voyeur.
Suddenly the interaction with the audience began in a strange and unsettling way. He crawled and undulated forward to various people in the crowd still in his private cocoon rocking and darting blindly forward. Then he connected and unwound the colorful wires that were vibration sensitive and brought various audience members to touch the receptors and collaborate in creating a new music dynamic. The unexpected nature of participation is what informs the music at that point.
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