OVERVIEW
COHERE | DISPERSE is a project that investigates the relationship between scores and sound. The project invites a musician, performer or artist (or a group of musicians, performers or artists) to interpret a score. The interpretations and readings of the score are recorded, along with the performer’s ideas and thoughts . These recordings and pieces of information are then used to create the next score and this score is then passed on to another performer. The process is repeated – each performance informs the next score and each score informs the next performance.
THE PROJECT IN DETAIL
Each interpretation contains three (or more) parts. First a ‘blind reading’ takes place – the performer opens the score and immediately plays what they first see. Then, the performer is then invited to develop their ideas and create at least one further interpretation. Finally, performers are asked to note down or talk about their ideas after. All of these elements are then transcribed, analysed, transposed, deconstructed, constructed, re-constructed in order to create the next score.
OBJECTIVES
The project doesn’t strive to create finished pieces. Instead, it aims to explore process and using sound information as material to create art and visa versa. The project also aims to consider the relationships between:
- scores and sound
- readings of scores at first sight and sequential interpretations
- Instructions and the interpretation, adaptation and use of instructions
- the performer(s) and the artist
HOW THE PROJECT CAME ABOUT
The COHERE | DISPERSE project was started by me, Rebecca Jones in August 2016. The first score, titled, An Inkling was made with what I had to hand at the time (a role of backing paper and a couple of crayons) and I invited my partner, Luis Verde to interpret the score. The title of the project stems from a short thesis I wrote at University that goes by the same name. Part of the thesis exists online, which you can access here and the other part can be found in the Manchester University Special Collections. The title was a reference to Mel Bochner’s Painting Theory (1970); Bochner’s use of language and his systematic approach of analysing painting and photography has always been fascinating for me and I still find myself fixated by these two terms today. Cohere. Disperse.
ABOUT REBECCA
I am an artist and teacher living in Madrid, Spain. My creative practice revolves around scores, words, music, notation and language. I move through genres and forms; the loss and gain through translation or transposition from one medium to another creates valuable subject matter for me. While transcribing sound and studying sound, I enjoy creating systems in which to organise it. I love collaborating with others and under conditions that are experimental, playful, multidisciplinary and improvisational. For more of what I do, take a look at my website here.
WANT TO GET INVOLVED?
If you’d like to be involved in the project, then do get in touch. Interpretations from all disciplines are welcomed.
Bob me a line on hello [at] rebeccajanejones.com.