Originally published on ledhack.org/dont-push-the-red-button

On Saturday, Feb 5th at 6pm @ Área: Lugar de Proyectos, Eduardo F. Rosario (Sound Artist and Electronic Musician) will debut his latest piece “Lo vasto como copia”.

Eduardo has shown a steady evolution, starting with his early days (around 2010) of Circuit Bending effects pedals and cheap toys, and hacking/preparing guitars to produce powerful and destructive sound performances, he blasted on to Puerto Rico’s noise scene. But after years of live performances, he’s now focused on installation work and (perhaps unwittingly) exploring audience interactivity.

I asked him what the cause for this shift was and his response was something that I knew all too well… “There is not much there”, referring to the possibility of making a living as an experimental musician in Puerto Rico. Although there where a few outlets for live electronic performers, such as $5 shows we organized ourselves and the occasional accompaniment to contemporary dance, there didn’t seem to be a feasible way to make a living doing that. The demand was just not there.

the Art gallery

this changes everything

The search for new spaces points to the art gallery, and that means the method of delivery must also change. For Eduardo, that means transitioning from live performance to installation and automation. The concept of time is totally different. In this setting, the audience engages the work on their own terms. Instead of having only one chance, a window of opportunity, to experience Eduardo’s sound art, people can stay as long as they feel like then come back to it later.

The change in time sets of a chain reaction. Since circuit bending is also very time sensitive. Circuit bent toys have a very limited life span, sometimes just hours. To address this, Eduardo has delved into the realm of building his own circuits.

He started by building modifications to his circuit bent toys to improve their stability, and using Arduino to create sequences, but soon had the realization that this could be overkill…

“because I don’t need an Arduino for everything”.

And into the rabbit hole he went. Building oscillators for sequencers lead to finding new sounds, which replaced the toys altogether. He then built mixers, began focusing on sculpture and incorporating elements for interaction with the audience, such as video capture. His sound installation “Obsolescencia Post/Programada” for the Lexus Grant for Emerging Artists was driven by audience interaction via video camera. This clearly marked a separation from his old ways, the audience was now the performer.

With every iteration, you can see Eduardo’s work evolving, now seeking less obvious and indirect ways to capture the audience to feed the system.

All of this, complemented by Eduardo’s graphical counterpoint, which has explored architecture and circuit diagrams, can be seen at Área tonight.