Work in Progress: Iteration 01
Work in Progress is Pacer’s debut arts project, being an interactive audio art installation hosted at The Evelyn Hotel (351 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy VIC 3065) on Wednesday May 17th from 4-7pm. The installation utilises a nearly entirely generative musical composition in Ableton Live as its main feature, meaning the music a viewer hears will be unique to that specific moment as the piece continues on in a randomised fashion. Additionally, a controller in the centre of the space (which viewers are encouraged/directed to interact with) allows a viewer to adjust aspects of the composition according to taste or curiosity, including sound selection, effects and timing.
The concept for the installation and composition stems from a personal interest in shared context and lived experience, which the artist was especially intrigued by on account of his upbringing in regional Tasmania and subsequent move to Melbourne/Naarm, as well as his experiences as a queer man. The installation and composition express this by creating an environment in which viewers can share moments of unique context created by the ever-changing composition, bringing their own experiences and the taste formed by it to the alterations they make to the composition as other viewers can engage with this personal expression.
The work is inspired by a wide range of artworks that precede it, musical and otherwise. John Cage’s indeterminate music works were a significant inspiration - as music that lacked fixed rules for composition and performance - de-centring the will of the composer and therefore granting greater control to the performer. Similarly, cultural theorist Umberto Eco’s essay on “the open work” was drawn from in creating this project, where Eco described “unfinished” artworks that required the involvement of a viewer or performer to complete them and reflected the discontinuity of the natural world.
Both of these inspirations (and others) helped structure a project in where the artist has composed what can happen instead of what will happen, and needs the viewer to act as a performer to complete it. The title, Work in Progress, was chosen in reference to the concept of “the open work”. The subtitle, Iteration 01 is not part of the full project title, but rather indicates that this is the installation’s debut, as the artist will continue developing and exhibiting this concept further.