Interspatiality

"Interspatiality": I met Michael Pestel in 1997.  He became one of my main Pittsburgh-based collaborators until he moved away about 8 yrs later.  This was out 1st ollaboration, "Interspatiality".  It was part of the "Wats: On? - The Jill Watson Festival of the Arts" in the Great Hall in the Center for the Fine Arts at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, us@ on Wednesday, March 12th, 1997.  Jill Watson was an architect & a teacher at CMU who died in a plane crash.  She was noted for having coined the word “Interspatiality” about which she is credited as having said “The identity of a space is constructed from a reading of the other spaces represented within it.” This festival was created in her honor.  Michael Pestel conceived of creating a musical performance for Wats: On? that combined the idea of Interspatiality & a reference to a house that Watson had redesigned sometimes known as the Kentucky “X” House (it’s on a street named Kentucky in Pittsburgh).  Michael procured the floor plans to this house - 1 of the most distinctive aspects of which was the dividing of the rectangular interior by an “X”.  In order to use the design as a score, I proposed that the players be arranged in an “X” pattern & that they each be assigned a vocabulary of sounds corresponding to sounds that might occur in the house near their corresponding position on the “X” - a different vocabulary for each of the 4 floors of the house.  My preference was to have an outline of the house be taped on the floor of the Great Hall with the “X” taped in its correct floor-plan position with the players situated on it somewhat like appliances.  The idea was to then have a group of people wander thru this “X” house “simulation” & turn the players on & off by proximity - as if they were lights or TVs or whatever..  Instead of this latter, Michael chose to be the conductor by starting & stopping the players with a cue from various flutes.  The Bass Flute cued the basement sounds, the Alto Flute cued the 1st floor sounds, the Concert Flute cued the 2nd floor sounds, & the Piccolo cued the attic sounds.  The players were: Michael Johnsen: contrabass clarinet, saw(s), soprano sax, miscellaneous; Hyla Willis: violin, miscellaneous; Rachel Matthews: fog horn, violin, bowed cymbal, household appliances; Anne Wolf: sewing machine, cereal; tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE: DX27S synthesizer, Mirage sampler; Kevin Shea: percussion, tapes; Brandy Auld: percussion (such as ripping cardboard boxes); Mark Tierney: tenor & alto saxes; Greg Pierce: bugle, banjo, washing machine tub, miscellaneous.  These “X” players were flanked by “the percussion section”: 2 people on each of the long sides of the “X” playing small amplified chalk-boards by writing on them.  These were students from Michael Pestel’s “Sound Art” class: Ettanifer Pratt, Audra Deemer, Laura Steinmaus, & Antoinette Ford.  On 1 side were 2 guys scratching away at drafting tables.  1 of them was named John Ferry & the other’s name is unknown to me. - February 18, 2010 notes from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE