Rozhovory o zvuku 07-Michal Cáb
Michal Cáb (*1980) se ve své tvorbě pohybuje mezi zvukem a obrazem, nenápadným aktivismem a přirozenou pokorou, invenčními spolupracemi i soustředěným osamělým během. Hraje, učí a pracuje s otevřeným softvérem (PD), kódem a zpětnou vazbou. Během svých audiovizuálních performancí klade stejný důraz na hluk i ticho a radikálně interpretuje jejich estetickou kvalitu.
Ve třináctidílném cyklu audio-rozhovorů, které vznikaly během podzimu 2013, hovoří Johana Švarcová s výtvarnými umělci, kteří ve své tvorbě různým způsobem využívají „nevizuální prvek“ – zvuk. Pro některé z oslovených umělců je právě práce se zvukem, sound art, vývoj nástrojů (hardware i software), radio art nebo zvuková instalace hlavní oblastí zájmu. Jiní naopak nakládají se zvukem nebo zvukovou stopou (například u videa) funkčně a po svém.
- Interviews on Sound00:00:07.981
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- Michal Cáb00:00:09.904
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- I will tell it like a fairy tale.00:00:26.663
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- In fact, it is a fairy tale00:00:29.431
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- about how I started to make what I´m dealing with now00:00:30.902
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- and recently I´ve been feeling a bit bored by it.00:00:32.979
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- About 2003 I made a normal computer music00:00:37.240
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- with normal means available to anybody00:00:43.581
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- who decides to create computer music.00:00:48.737
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- You use a software providing you with certain possibilities.00:00:52.838
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- Normally, there are sequences00:00:57.372
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- where you can enter notes in a certain time.00:00:59.337
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- For a short time you can be satisfied with this environment,00:01:04.474
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- after a while, you can start feeling some limitations.00:01:10.547
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- Sequencer determines that you work with time that is measurable.00:01:17.736
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- However, time needn´t be a measurable unit,00:01:28.525
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- it can be a qualitative unit.00:01:32.652
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- Never mind. There were lot of moments when00:01:40.858
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- I started feeling really limited by the means I had.00:01:44.461
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- I had to reconcile with that feeling or stop making this kind of music00:01:51.718
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- or I could look for another way how to proceed.00:01:58.776
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- For me, the way turned up at that moment00:02:08.940
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- when I decided to create my own instruments.00:02:12.695
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- Suddendly, I can explore sonic space that the applications00:02:15.833
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- were not able to provide at that time,00:02:25.821
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- for instance, a space of microtonal or quarter tonal music.00:02:28.004
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- When I speak about it, I always mention it, it is a bit stupid,00:02:37.408
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- I always say that it is an attempt to return to the experience of proximity00:02:41.651
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- in a relationship to a music instrument.00:02:49.140
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- When we play the instruments, we touch the material,00:02:53.157
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- when you stand behind a synthesizer... you may know it,00:02:56.839
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- when you touch a potentiometer, you may feel fine,00:03:01.702
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- but a man should ask what is behind,00:03:05.087
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- speaking about the potentiometer00:03:14.063
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- there is the filter that is actually very interesting00:03:15.484
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- because a man can observe it from the point of view of cybernetics.00:03:21.318
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- It is a kind of a unit that has inputs and outputs00:03:25.991
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- that counts with a feedback.00:03:28.826
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- When I started to get into software instrument creation,00:03:30.819
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- the first instrument I worked with was a programming language PURE DATA,00:03:36.850
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- on the other hand, there are many of them,00:03:42.526
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- any programming language can serve to this purpose.00:03:45.088
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- In case of PURE DATA, it associates paradigm of programming of the MUNK00:03:51.923
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- modular synthesizers, so it can be easier to somebody who know this type.00:04:00.524
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- At the end, it doesn´t matter, because it is just an instrument,00:04:06.330
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- helping a man to discover questions, or00:04:10.917
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- a man starts to ask many questions thanks to that.00:04:17.394
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- I didn´t know where to go, I didn´t have any expectations.00:04:23.036
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- I remember when I started to prepare something in PURE DATA that I wanted00:04:26.634
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- to build a FM synthesizer that would sound well.00:04:30.707
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- I couldn´t create it.00:04:34.049
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- Suddendly, I started to study sound,00:04:36.882
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- sound spectrum, amplitude modulation synthesis.00:04:46.179
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- For a long time, I wasn´t able to work with it,00:04:53.006
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- so thanks to that I got to use to like a pure sound of sinus, saw or square.00:04:59.466
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- I often make concerts with somebody who makes visuals,00:05:36.742
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- we often share a similar attitude to the course of concerts.00:05:39.993
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- It is a kind of improvization. I like to work with Petr Gonda.00:05:47.709
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- I like an intuitive jam session.00:05:56.431
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- There are some compositions where I also apply a visual element,00:06:02.867
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- but I think that each element has its own place,00:06:09.362
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- we don´t force them to correspond to each other.00:06:11.893
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- If some meaning should be communicated,00:06:15.892
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- it can be communicated either via the image or the sound.00:06:20.621
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- I think I work more with an auditive element than with a visual.00:06:26.140
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- It is a kind of a non-verbal communication00:06:32.083
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- where you try to reach some new or unusual quality.00:06:34.182
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- This can be reached in a jam session, but it is not a condition,00:06:40.182
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- as well as in an interview.00:06:45.410
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- We don´t practise so often, we met three times before the concert,00:06:47.810
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- during the concert we try to remember those functioning moments00:06:55.620
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- and we try to repeat them,00:07:03.759
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- which is often not successful.00:07:05.744
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- During our rehearsals we also try get rid of our stereotypes,00:07:08.821
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- and we intend to program a new piece of the code.00:07:21.379
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- When I could express critically on the production,00:07:31.402
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- where the meaning of the production is.00:07:36.336
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- I would be irritated if the production is simply about this.00:07:40.040
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- Recently, I have thought about the choice of the instrument,00:07:45.714
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- and I realized that the choice of the instrument is the gesture.00:07:51.116
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- Kim Cascone said that in postdigital aesthetics00:07:54.118
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- the instrument is the message not the medium.00:07:59.006
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- Theoretically, it would be sufficient to display the instrument,00:08:01.601
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- so anybody can start to play it.00:08:04.291
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- In the anthropological sense,00:08:08.675
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- it can mean a naive return to the proximity in the relation to the instrument.00:08:10.931
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- Or it can mean a kind of policy, however, this is not my way of thinking.00:08:26.036
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- It could mean that we wouldn´t use instruments and technologies you foist on us00:08:32.927
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- because we are autonomous creatures who are able to create the instruments,00:08:37.434
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- it is not about instruments for music creation,00:08:44.266
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- however, for organizational and economic processes.00:08:47.812
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- I think that a man is a creature that cannot define himself.00:08:52.721
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- Although, I tried to make it several times.00:08:55.963
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- I think, in my archive, there are more works on sound than on image.00:08:59.402
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- Algorhytmical compositions give me space00:09:09.452
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- for a greater interpretation freedom or to find more meanings.00:09:14.208
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- I can´t read the image so freely.00:09:25.413
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- Usually, I see some shapes and meanings behind the image.00:09:29.052