Fraught – KMRU
Written on March 8th, 2024 by AH
Collaborator during our second research cycle is sound artist KMRU. In October 2023, we had a first working phase in the acoustics lab the Department of Music Acoustics – Wiener Klangstil at mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. In the same week, KMRU also presented his work at AIL (Angewandte Interdisciplinary Lab) - lab of the University of Applied Arts Vienna and gave a live-performance in the Otto Wagner-Postsparkassen hall. These events together gave us the chance to reflect on live-electronic setups in the lab, as well as their live usage on stage.
From this initial meeting, KMRU developed research questions and procedure under the umbrella of the title ‘Fraught’. During the Kilele summit he presented the ongoing project.
Artistic research presentation by KMRU at Kilele Summit Nairobi
Excerpt from Kilele 2024 Program:
KMRU - FRAUGHT
Performance of life often adheres to linear methodologies fixated on reaching specific endpoints. Artistic practices align with these principles, maintaining control over the unfolding of events. Consequently, when faced with an ontological crisis, disruptions occur, events unfold, and tension builds. This upheaval prompts a profound sense of occurrence, leading to a reorientation that highlights the multipositionality of the self, fostering a spirit of unstable curiosity.
Drawing inspiration from the concepts of distortion, fermentation, and chaos, the research delves into various nuances of signal processing through distortion circuits. Distortion introduces a sonic dislocation and unfamiliarity, akin to natural processes like fermentation, where organisms and bacteria transform seemingly mundane foods int complex and esoteric behaviours. Similarly, waveforms exhibit similar behaviour who subjected to nonlinear techniques, often resulting in a spectrum of new harmonics. These creative artifacts born from the distortion process act as conduits, dislocating conventional processes. The project involves a familial reversal, embracing inconveniences, disruptions, and chaos as active components of context- to uncover commonalities in contrasting tones and non-hierarchical noises hence presenting new methodologies for exploring the unheard. Fraught introduces an obfuscation of source materials—sounds, texts, noises, objects altering how we engage with process- context and redefining creation-performance as reframing of meaning embodying a spirit of curiosity.
