YI KING
Sound exploration of the Yi King Art
by JF Blanquet, Carl Y, Nicolas Montgermont and RYBN
This is a serie of experimentations on using the numerous relationships of the Yi King to constraint an improvised music session and a way to answer a question asked to the Yi king in sound. Each consultation defines a number of rules for the sound setup and a specific time development canvas.
- 17/09/2016 | Nummer Sieben - Mulhouse
- 25/02/2016 | Palais de Tokyo - Paris
- 04/07/2015 | Waggons - Stuttgart
- 03/07/2015 | Plattfon - Basel
- 02/07/2015 | Klubi - Zurich
- 20/06/2015 | Ateliers Douvres - Bruxelles
- 15/01/2015 | Atelier Uchronies - Malakoff
- 21/06/2014 | Atelier Uchronies - Malakoff
- 06/07/2013 | Mikro TV - St Nazaire le Desert
Private session of 6 hours at Nummer Sieben, Mulhouse. 9th session with 9 consultations. Second use of the new rules. Sound is played on a quadriphonic sound system where the musicians plays on the 2 speakers next to him. Session is streamed, online chatroom.
Rules:
- Someone in the audience is chosen randomly
- This person consults the yiking by throwing 3 coins 6 times
- The resulting hexagram sets the constraints of the answering sequence:
- The number of the hexagram indicates the time of the answer in minutes (1 to 64)
- Each operator is associated to a trigram
- The trigram divides the sequence in three parts of same duration
- The actual line of the trigram indicates the playing mode for this operator:
- - - yin : don't play
- --- yang : play
- -X- changing yin : process sound from others
- -o- changing yang: play and process sound from others
- The sequence starts one minute after the consultation
Setup:
- JF : microphone, cassette player + dictaphone + delay/disto/equa pedals, books, mixer.
- CY : OP-1, looper, Kaosspads, microphone, triangle, harmonica, mixer, turntable.
- N : digital pseudosinusoidal generator, additive synthesizer, analog synthesizer, chained waveshappers, reverb pedal, microphone, mixer
- K : constant negative pressure generator, second and third chaotic order generators, distortion & feedback, magnetosphere ionization glow
- hosting by Ben
- photos by miss xmx
Public session of 6 hours in Palais de Tokyo, Paris, within the installation of Sara Favriau. An experimental variation of the rules have been implemented. The score is displayed on various TV screens, disseminated in the room.
Rules:
- Someone in the audience is chosen randomly
- This person consults the yiking by throwing 3 coins 6 times
- The resulting hexagram sets the constraints of the answering sequence:
- The number of the hexagram indicates the time of the answer in minutes (1 to 64)
- Each operator is associated to a trigram
- The trigram divides the sequence in three parts of same duration
- The actual line of the trigram indicates the playing mode for this operator:
- - - yin : don't play
- --- yang : play
- -X- changing yin : process sound from others
- -o- changing yang: play and process sound from others
- The sequence starts one minute after the consultation
Setup:
- JF : microphone, cassette player + dictaphone + delay/disto/equa pedals, books, mixer.
- CY : OP-1, serge lama song, looper, Kaosspads, microphone, triangle, harmonica, mixer
- N : digital pseudosinusoidal generator, additive synthesizer, analog synthesizer, chained saturators, microphone, mixer
- K : constant negative pressure generator, radio frequencies (SW/MW/LW), distortion & feedback, magnetosphere ionization glow
- javascript code for computing the score
- multiple analog TVs
- mrybn at the recording
- marie b. organizing the consultation
- photos by wb
Public session in Waggons - Stuttgart. An experimental variation of the rules have been implemented. The musicians are interrogating the Yi King, throw the coins, and the music is driven by the resulting score. Score is decided by the follwing sets of rules.
Rules:
- Each musician interrogates the Yi King, and is associated to an hexagram.
- The four selected hexagrams composes the score. Each lines of the hexagrams gives indication to the performer on how to play a part.
- All musicians sends and receives the audio from all others musicians.
- Solid line means playing, broken lines means to not perform.
- changing broken lines means to not perform audio but process the incoming audio signals, changing solid lines means to play and process incoming audio signals.
- The time is set by adding the decimal value of each lines of the same row from all hexagrams.
Setup:
- JF : microphone, cassette player + dictaphone + delay/disto/equa pedals, books, mixer.
- CY : Kaosspad, microphone, triangle, harmonica, mixer
- N : homemade pseudosinusoidal generator, additive synthesizer, chained saturators, microphone, mixer
- K : infectuous sound generator (yersinia pestis), constant negative pressure generator, radio frequencies (SW/MW/LW), distortion & feedback, magnetosphere ionization glow.
- pd patch for the drawing, ...
Public session in Platfon Basel. An experimental variation of the rules have been implemented. The musicians are interrogating the Yi King, throw the coins, and the music is driven by the resulting score. Score is decided by the follwing sets of rules.
Rules:
- Each musician interrogates the Yi King, and is associated to an hexagram.
- The four selected hexagrams composes the score. Each lines of the hexagrams gives indication to the performer on how to play a part.
- All musicians sends and receives the audio from all others musicians.
- Solid line means playing, broken lines means to not perform.
- changing broken lines means to not perform audio but process the incoming audio signals, changing solid lines means to play and process incoming audio signals.
- The time is set by adding the decimal value of each lines of the same row from all hexagrams.
Setup:
- JF : microphone, cassette player + dictaphone + delay/disto/equa pedals, books, mixer.
- CY : Kaosspad, microphone, triangle, harmonica, mixer
- N : homemade pseudosinusoidal generator, additive synthesizer, chained saturators, microphone, mixer
- K : infectuous sound generator (yersinia pestis), constant negative pressure generator, radio frequencies (SW/MW/LW), distortion & feedback, magnetosphere ionization glow.
- pd patch for the drawing, ...
Public session in Klubi, Zurich. Five hours of sound with a small audience of 20 persons. Volunteering people in the audience can interrogate the Yi King with a question. The resulting sequence is played according to the rules.
Rules:
- The number of the first hexagram determines the length of the sequence in minutes: between 1 and 64.
- Each player is associated to a different trigram of the two hexagrams.
- This trigram determines the sound input from the other players he has to use: continuous line means sound, cutted line means no sound.
- The sequence is divided in three equal times. This trigram also determines when he plays. Starting from the bottom, a continuous line means playing, cutted line means not playing.
Setup:
- JF : microphone, cassette player + dictaphone + delay/disto/equa pedals, books, mixer.
- CY : Kaospad, microphone, triangle, harmonica, mixer
- N : homemade pseudosinusoidal generator, additive synthesizer, analog synthesizer, chained saturators, microphone, mixer
- K : embedded epidemic noise, infectuous sound generator (yersinia pestis), constant negative pressure generator, voltage controlled substractive synthesis, magnetosphere ionization glow, feedback.
- consultation process : someone from the audience ask a question and throw coins.
- pd patch for the drawing, ...
Public session in Ateliers Douvres, Bruxelles. Ten hours of sound with an audience of ~30 persons. All volunteering people in the audience put their name in a hat. An innocent hand draw a name from the hat. The choosen person interrogate the Yi King and the resulting sequence is played according to the rules.
Rules:
- The number of the first hexagram determines the length of the sequence in minutes: between 1 and 64.
- Each player is associated to a different trigram of the two hexagrams.
- This trigram determines the sound input from the other players he has to use: continuous line means sound, cutted line means no sound.
- The sequence is divided in three equal times. This trigram also determines when he plays. Starting from the bottom, a continuous line means playing, cutted line means not playing.
Setup:
- JF : microphone, cassette player + dictaphone + delay/disto/equa pedals, books, mixer.
- CY : Kaospad, microphone, triangle, harmonica, mixer
- N : homemade pseudosinusoidal generator, additive synthesizer, analog synthesizer, chained saturators, microphone, mixer
- K : embedded epidemic noise, infectuous sound generator (yersinia pestis), constant negative pressure generator, voltage controlled substractive synthesis, magnetosphere ionization glow, feedback.
- consultation process : someone from the audience ask a question and throw coins.
- pd patch for the drawing, ...
Public session in Malakoff. Six hours of sound with a small audience of ~15 persons. All volunteering people in the audience put their name in a hat. An innocent hand draw a name from the hat. That person makes a consultation of the yi king and the resulting sequence is played according to the rules.
Rules:
- The number of the first hexagram determines the length of the sequence in minutes: between 1 and 64.
- Each player is associated to a different trigram of the two hexagrams.
- This trigram determines the sound input from the other players he has to use: continuous line means sound, cutted line means no sound.
- The sequence is divided in three equal times. This trigram also determines when he plays. Starting from the bottom, a continuous line means playing, cutted line means not playing.
Setup:
- JF : microphone, cassette player + dictaphone + delay/disto/equa pedals, books, mixer.
- CY : Kaospad, microphone, triangle, harmonica, mixer
- N : homemade pseudosinusoidal generator, additive synthesizer, chained saturators, microphone, mixer
- K : embedded epidemic noise, infectuous sound generator (yersinia pestis), constant negative pressure generator, voltage controlled substractive synthesis, magnetosphere ionization glow, feedback.
- consultation process : someone from the audience ask a question and throw coins.
- pd patch for the drawing, ...
Private session in Malakoff. Two nights of searching ways to interpret the yi-king into constraints for the sound. Trying a new constraint on sound connections between musicians and developping rules for deciding when someone plays. Development of a software to compute all this easily.
Rules:
- The number of the first hexagram determines the length of the sequence in minutes: between 1 and 64.
- Each player is associated to a different trigram of the two hexagrams.
- This trigram determines the sound input from the other players he has to use: continuous line means sound, cutted line means no sound.
- The sequence is divided in three equal times. This trigram also determines when he plays. Starting from the bottom, a continuous line means playing, cutted line means not playing.
Setup:
- JF : microphone, cassette player + dictaphone + delay/disto/equa pedals, books, mixer.
- CY : Kaospad, microphone, triangle, harmonica, mixer
- N : homemade pseudosinusoidal generator, additive synthesizer, chained saturators, microphone, mixer
- K : embedded epidemic noise, infectuous sound generator (yersinia pestis), constant negative pressure generator, voltage controlled substractive synthesis, magnetosphere ionization glow, feedback.
- consultation process : computer
- VS 1680, Fireface 400, pd patch for the drawing, ...
Inside the mikroTV setup, a free/pirate temporary TV station. First tests on the usage of the yi king for constraining improvised music.
Rules:
- The number of the hexagram determines the length of the sequence in minutes: between 1 and 64.
- The upper trigram determines who play and who doesn't. A continuous line means playing, cutted line means not playing. The person reading the yi king text is always playing.
Setup:
- JF : microphone, cassette player + dictaphone + delay/disto/equa pedals, books, mixer.
- CY : Kaospad, microphone, triangle, harmonica, mixer
- N : homemade pseudosinusoidal generator, additive synthesizer, chained saturators, mixer
- K : embedded epidemic noise, infectuous sound generation (yersinia pestis), constant negative pressure generator, electromagnetic field logarithmic detection, cathodic ray tube feedback.
- consultation process : coins
- camera: b01, c.beau and unknown woman
- rec: y.chabanaud