Nommo
A Made Up Sound (below)
2021
Research based audio composition with experimental score and video
A Made Up Sound is a composition written by Nommo and arranged by MAF. The composition is accompanied by corresponding video from the perspective of Nommo, interpreted by MAF. Each iteration of the piece or performance is created from an abstract score that is performed and recorded by the participants, a discussion of the process and score in a virtual meeting with all participants which is recorded by Nommo and MAF. All of this material is then collected and utilized during the creative process.
The collaborations between MAF and Nommo go back many years and, over time, evolved into an exploration of voice as a metaphor for agency. Voice is one’s ability to have their ideas communicated and heard. Agency is the ability to independently interact with the structure in which one exists and make free choices. The aim for our collaborations is to examine how might we proceed when a voice must be invented to reflect the agency of non-human participatory actors. Through these artistic collaborations, we recognize the many actors that comprise a community, living and dead, fanciful and real, voiced and unvoiced, human and non-human, self and other. The work itself urges listeners to reimagine what it looks like to interact with machines, programs, organic, and even spiritual entities in the service of artistic expression.
Nommo was created with the help of Nicholas Rich in Max/MSP and uses several sample banks, raw signal input, and digital processing to select, fragment, and construct abstract compositions in real-time for stereo or multichannel interactive performances.