Psionic

Music Video

Peer-Reviewed Outcomes/Dissemination:

Distribution via World Wide Web

Video:

Key Creative Team:

Composer | Christopher Jette

Oboe | Courtney Miller

About:

Commissioned by composer Christopher Jette, Technical Director of the Max Lab and Lecturer at CCRMA, Stanford University and oboist Courtney Miller, Assistant Professor of Oboe, The University of Iowa to create a music video for oboe, Muse EEG headband and interactive electronics.

Psionic is an exploration of timbral space with sound material drawn from recordings of Florida swamps. These recordings are translated into notation and serve as the building blocks for the oboe part. In addition to oboe, the performer is fitted with an EEG headband, which is used to control various aspects in the electronic accompaniment. The performer exhibits both direct and indirect control over the electronics. The work brings together sounds controlled by brain activity, sounds evoking memories stored in the brain and the sonic synthesis of the neural activity in an attempt to blend mental facets into a sonic utterance. The animation was created by Angus Forbes and processes prints of sound on paper. Generated by the composer and Terry Conrad, speakers are used to agitate a printing vessel and the floating ink is used to produce prints. Forbes processes these images to provide an additional layer of counterpoint to the sonic material.

For the music video, I set up Courtney to play in a greenscreen studio. We decided to shoot her in the studio so that we could composite her into different backgrounds, all of which were based on the original artwork created by Christopher Jette. I was basically a one-person video crew in production and post-production. In post-production, I edited the piece, synced the mixed version of the song to the final edit, layered in the original animation that was created for the live version of the piece, created custom transitions and titles, and created additional special effects.

Tech Specs:

Greenscreen video shoot with Canon 5D. Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects.