Notation #12 (for voice) 144 x 100 cm
Notation #13 (for movement) 144 x 100 cm
Videostill- Johannes Schuchardt
Videostill- Rainer Killius
Konsumverein Braunschweig, DE
TO A RI E
2016
audiovisual composition for installation
Baritone and dancer
112 min.
With the collaboration of Rainer Killius and Johannes Schuchardt
To explore pre-linguistic thought processes and in the role of movement
as pre-lingual means of communication and related questions, the artist
has chosen a quasi-scientific, systematic approach developing complex
math-based notations and collaborating with professional dancers and
singers. Inspired by mathematical, scientific, and democratic systems
Simón Medina in her work minimises her own subjectiveness and freedom of
decision-making. Instead, the artist has developed a serial method
combining and interconnecting different‘democratic’ structures, which
are the basis on which she bases her notations, compositions, and
choreographies: Twelve-tone technique is a means of ensuring that all 12
notes of the chromatic scale are sounded as often as one another and to
not favour any one note in a piece of music; Goldbach numbers appear
as an irregular sequence of numbers, and are equal with regard to their
characteristic of being the sum of two primes. The outcome of combining
two such systems, however, is unpredictable, as is the outcome of
further complicating the work by introducing systems from other
scientific disciplines such as the anatomical or phonetic chart.
In Simón Medina’s notations the smallest unit, one square centimetre
represents a number. The basis for Notation #12 (for voice) is a grid of
37 by 37 unites (the first 12 prime numbers are contained between 2 and
37). The score then is multiplied three times by mirroring it both on a
vertical and on a horizontal axis, and then again mirroring the
mirrored score so that the overall amount of units of the four quadrants
adds upto 5476 units. The second score, Notation #13 (for mo-vement),
is based on a grid of four times 42 units (the number 42 was chosen as
the next higher even number following 41; the first 13 prime numbers are
contained between 2 and 41). Mirrored and duplicated the four quadrants
– original, reverse, inverse, and reverse-inverse – form the score,
which adds up to overall 7056 units. In both notations, all of the
contained prime and Goldbach numbers are highlighted in green or blue respectively.
While Notation #12 (for voice) reads horizontally from left to right, Notation #13 (for movement) reads
vertically from top to bottom. As a means to interpret the notations
and help the singer and dancer translate them into sound and movement,
Simón Medina has produced another, secondary set of notations using the
International Phonetic Alphabet chart to translate Notation #12(for voice) into different vowel sounds at different pitches. Developing an interpretation aid for Notation #13(for movement)
Simón Medina has worked with a chart of the human body enumerating
different muscles from head to toe. Handing over both sets of notations
to two professionals, the dancer Johannes Schuchardt, and the singer
Rainer Killius, Simón Medina’s project is complemented by their
individual interpretations. Taking the form of an installation, it is
important for Simón Medina to in her project spatially separate sound
and visual image; more specifically to separate the notations and
recorded sound from the documenting video image.
As a result notations, sound -, and video recording aretreated as equal
parts highlighting the importance of interpretation as a creative act
and allowing for the beholder to claim their own analytical position.
Mareike Spendel
