Event overview
How to dream a Rasa Machine II: making music in the microtones that shimmer between us 25/03/2024, SIML Space, Goldsmiths University
We have been dreaming up a ‘rasa machine’, a modular, distributed instrument made of water, gels and liquids, crystals, membranes, conductive yarn, reclaimed copper, handcrafted electronics. It is played in real-time through electronic, acoustic, embodied, and latent interactions, following the compositional principles of classical Indian raga music. The Rasa Machine is an immersive 'installation as instrument' that invites co-creation and freeform acoustic experimentation with vibration, electricity, and other ambient entities.
In Indian aesthetics (and cuisine) rasa is taste, colour, flavour, scent, beauty, ecstasy … a theory of spiritual and sensuous pleasure that comes from immersion. In rasa theory, the composition of a work of art, attuned to a more-than-human dimension, can invoke an oceanic experience beyond the boundaries of the subject, without the need for ‘high-tech’ computational gadgetry: “immersion can also be theorized and experienced as an embodied, psycho-physical state that transpires interstitially between any audience, any artist and any art that is primarily premised on gestural dimensions of communication, and regardless of interactivity.”[1]
In October 2023, we held the first live composing session with guest musicians from Rajasthan, India, Drupad (sarod) and Neeraj (tabla) Mistry, at Colet House, London. After Dominique attended a series of masterclasses with seminal composer and raga guru, La Monte Young and Young’s disciple Jung Hee Choi, the collaborating artists have continued to develop and fine tune the Rasa Machine’s compositional structures and sounds. On Monday 25/03 we invite you to the second activation of the Rasa Machine, at SIML Space, Goldsmiths University of London. The event begins with a ‘warm up' for entering the field of rasa through a listening meditation, followed by an improvised raga composition, and then a Q&A. The event is part of a 3-day programme of sound events presented by the Centre for Sound, Technology & Culture (CSTC).
The Rasa Machine is a development of The Crochet Resistance Suit, a critical making project and techno-hacking experiment >>
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The dreamers of the Rasa Machine are Dominique Savitri Bonarjee (lead artist), Pietro Bardini (sound, coding, composition), Rodolfo Acosta Castro (electronics design and research), Kobakant Collective (wearable technology). The project is mentored by Atau Tanaka and supported by Arts Council England.
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The event will be followed by a drinks reception. All welcome!
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[1] Natalie Loveless, How to Make Art at the End of the World: A Manifesto for Research-Creation (Duke University Press, 2019).
[1] Royona Mitra, ‘Decolonizing Immersion: Translation, Spectatorship, Rasa Theory and Contemporary British Dance’, Performance Research 21, no. 5 (2 September 2016): 89–100.
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 25 Mar 2024 | 6:45pm - 9:00pm |
Accessibility
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