THRUMS is a a ritual powerdrone project, a collaboration between textile artist Alyssa Semczyszyn, and audiovisualist Wayne Mercier. Detailed CV here.
Hand spun and dyed small mill reeled silk blended with ramie (a nettle relative) for warp; second-hand cashmere for weft. Weft dyed with foraged fungus (Phaeolus Schweinitzii) woven in an 8-shaft snakeskin crackle pattern. Weaving draft drives effects processing and sequencing of a maximally generic 8-bar blues loop. Weaving draft also determines pattern and pacing of live percussion.
Audioreactive, generative visuals coded in Jitter, modulated by timbral analysis and using algorithmic color selection drawn from a sample image of the woven work.
Hand prepared and dyed, Canadian Arcott fleece mixed mohair (all sourced from Gabriola Island) spun on a Canadian Production Spinning Wheel.
The wheel plucks a monotonic banjo. Effects chain is modulated by timbral analysis of voice. Gestural recognition/control implemented with Google MediaPipe in Max.
Locally sourced Shropshire fleece hand dyed with foraged Phaeolus Schweinizii spun on a century old Canadian Production Wheel prepared for use with monotonic plucked drone instrument. DSP in Max/MSP/Jitter using Austin Franklin’s PnP.Maxtools https://austinfranklinmusic.com/softw… to manipulate fx chains with live vocals.
live a/v performance with laptop assemblage, prepared spinning wheel, monotonic plucked drone Instrument, locally sourced undyed grey Icelandic wool.
live improvisation with prepared spinning wheel, plucked drone, laptop assemblage, hand dyed Coriedale roving.
live electronic improvisation using procedurally generated video driven wavetable synthesis, 4 shaft Bronson Spot pattern.
performance starts at 0:28:00 …
THRUMS 0:28:00 – 0:47:00 … Scott Riesterer 0:47:00 – 1:17:00 …
THRUMS 1:17:00 – 1:43:50 … Scott Riesterer 1:43:50 – 2:12:26 … THRUMS 2:12:26 – 2:31:26
On March 20, 2022 at 12:00 PST/20:00 GMT we brought a 4 shaft counterbalance loom to a gallery space built in a converted one-room schoolhouse.
On our tiny island in the Salish Sea we will made a rite of transfiguration and entanglement.
Guest artist Scott Reisterer transformed the weaving through his modular apparatus, and the THRVMS loom powered throb engine moved sonified video and audio signals over a central pulse.
For wool-carders the straight way and the winding way are one and the same.
Heraclitus
THRUMS experiments: