BIO –
Pamela Z is a composer/performer and media artist who works primarily with voice, live electronic processing, sampled sound, and video. A pioneer of live digital looping techniques, she processes her voice in real time to create dense, complex sonic layers. Her solo works combine experimental extended vocal techniques, operatic bel canto, found objects, text, digital processing, and wireless MIDI controllers that allow her to manipulate sound with physical gestures. In addition to her solo work, she has been commissioned to compose scores for dance, theatre, film, and chamber ensembles including Kronos Quartet, Eighth Blackbird, the Bang on a Can All Stars, Ethel, and San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. Her interdisciplinary performance works have been presented at venues including The Kitchen (NY), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (SF), REDCAT (LA), and MCA (Chicago), and her installations have been presented at such exhibition spaces as the Whitney (NY), the Diözesanmuseum (Cologne), and the Krannert (IL). Pamela Z has toured extensively throughout the US, Europe, and Japan. She’s a recipient of numerous awards including the Rome Prize, United States Artists, a Robert Rauschenberg Foundation residency, the Guggenheim, the Doris Duke Artist Impact Award, Herb Alpert Award, an Ars Electronica honorable mention, and the NEA Japan/US Friendship Commission Fellowship. She holds a music degree from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
NOTES –
- Gestural voice looping and manipulation, using operatic tones to layer sound
- Combining singing, spoken word, ambience and musique concrete sounds
- Considers instrument to be combination of voice and electronics
- Would use large general theme to formulate vignettes, then use electronic methods to fuse them together, acting as a glue
- ‘Baggage Allowance‘ – performance/sound installation revolving around idea of being a foreigner in a different country – mixture of spoken word, staccato and drawn out vocals, live performance, props – very organic yet abstract presentation method
- Baggage Allowance also an interactive exhibition featuring suitcases with people sleeping inside them, draws that triggered samples when opened and other random objects about the theme – I like the interactivity because it makes the audience feel more involved in the piece
- Works composing with string quartets
THOUGHTS –
In all honesty I didn’t take much from this talk, besides the open minded and seemingly limitless approach that Pamela brings to her art. I found the technical side of her practice very interesting especially when she explained how her process and subsequent artistic direction has changed alongside the technological advances she has experienced over her career. Pamela spoke about her early work and how it was more boxed in to a strictly musical space, whereas now her practice is one of the most expansive I’ve seen from a guest lecturer, including installation, composing for string quartets, live performance art, multi channel, video, spoken word and interactive exhibitions.
When I say I didn’t take much from the talk I guess I mean more that I didn’t feel as though I connected with Pamela or her vision that much, but I still appreciated the skill, forward-thinking and openness to explore any possible avenue. This is a mindset that I have been trying to get myself into more and more and I feel I have expanded my practice this year especially, but sometimes I still feel as though I shut certain areas of sound practice out because I don’t understand them, whilst a more open mindset could lead me down paths that I find unlock an undiscovered side of my creativity. Only time will really tell but for now I am happy with my practice, however this talk has made me consider how being a sponge to other people’s ideas, influences and visions can benefit me both in the work I make and the future of my life within sound.