On Wednesday 27th October I did a performance at Birmingham City University as part of my studies in Digital Arts in Performance. For this performance I wanted to look at the environment and conditions you need in order for errors to occur and to observe them. In order to observe an error you need a very rigid system and regularity. When there’s something that breaks this pattern you know it’s an error.
In this performance each person was given a Stylophone Beatbox, a pair of headphones that played a metronome and sheet music to read from. I acted as a performer and conductor, although my only instructions were when to begin and end, to read the sheet from left to right and play to repeatedly.
The errors in this system occurred due to our individual interpretations of the instructions given to us and lack of understanding of the instrument. An instrument can take years to master and, although the level learning curve is claimed to be quite low, the Stylophone is still a difficult instrument to master, as demonstrated.
You can find each of these scores on UploadDownloadPerform.net
Song for Stylophone Beatbox – Song by Victor Smith for Rolf Harris
Song for Stylophone Beatbox – Hate Me Now
Song for Stylophone Beatbox – Amen Break