InstALlations
Cerca
This work will be released in April 2024
CERCA is a Sound Installation that intended to bring the New England Conservatory community together around a common purpose: MUSIC MAKING. CERCA hopes that as a community we are capable of creating a space where music, outside of style or genre, can be a tool to find new creative ways to communicate and to express ourselves.
HOW: CERCA is inviting 250+ people to form a circle around Jordan Hall’s third floor hallway, which encircles the entire building. Each member of the circle will freely pick and sustain a single sound that will grow to become a 250 (or more) voices chord that will resonate through the whole building.
WHY:
1. CERCA BELIEVES IN THE POWER OF MUSIC TO CREATE NEW WAYS TO COMMUNICATE AND TO EXPRESS OUR BELIEFS AND OUR DIFFERENCES.
2. CERCA IS AWARE THAT IN A COMMUNITY, THE NUMBER OF DIFFERENT OPINIONS ABOUT THE ROLE OF ART IN THIS WORLD IS PROBABLY EQUAL AS THE NUMBER OF MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNITY. THIS INSTALLATION INTENDS TO REPRESENT THAT.
3. CERCA BELIEVES IN ITS POWER AS A COLLECTIVE FORCE AND THE POWER OF ITS VOICES.
4. CERCA TRUSTS THAT AS A COMMUNITY WE ARE CAPABLE OF LISTENING AND RESPECT EACH OTHER.
5. CERCA UNDERSTANDS THAT AS ARTISTS WE NEED TO LEARN CREATIVE/NEW TOOLS TO BE ABLE TO COMMUNICATE WITH THE WORLD.
6. CERCA INTENDS FOR THIS INSTALLATION TO BE THE BEGINNING OF A CONVERSATION/DISCUSSION ABOUT WHAT WE CAN DO AS A COMMUNITY WITH OUR ART.
7. CERCA IS AWARE THAT IN 150 YEARS THE NEC COMMUNITY HAS RARELY DONE ACTS LIKE THIS ONE. WE WANT TO CHANGE THAT.
“WHAT BETTER TIME THAN HERE? WHAT BETTER PLACE THAN NOW”
More information about this project can be found in the description box on YouTube.
Scivias
This work will be released in April 2024
Scivias is a one-day sound installation that explores concepts of community, free will, and social interaction, inspired by the work of Hildegard von Bingen, 12th c. writer, composer and mystic.
The installation includes a structure that is a creative interpretation of Hildegard’s room at her monastery. The installation is meant to be a “pause button” for our daily race, a safe environment where we can experience the feeling of being part of something bigger than ourselves, and a portal for connecting to what is beyond.
What to expect:
The room is yours alone for as long as you want to inhabit it. Inside the structure, you will find 5 human-like objects that respond to your touch with different lights and sounds. You can create your own improvisation by interacting with the objects in whatever way moves you. Throughout the day, at the start of each hour, there will be group “happenings” and you are invited to join and bring your voice to the room!.
More information about this project can be found in the description box on YouTube.
battles
A collection of pieces exploring the struggles of contemporary society.
Battle of the working man
This work will be released in April 2024
Is an eight-hour sound installation composed by a set of improvised music on the dilemma of humans being replaced by machines during the standard eight-hour work day. This battle includes a humanoid machine that will randomly select sounds and video from a variety of excerpts composed, collected, or improvised by Mantilla. Some of these sounds include excerpts from environmental noise and electronic sounds among others. The audience is invited to participate by playing the electric guitar with the humanoid machine’s robotic arms.
Instructions for the audience:
Each Robotic arm has a control box.
The control box has five levers that allow the Robotic Arm move up and down, left to right and an off/on switch to control the searchlight.
Carefully guide the gripper of the Robotic Arm to play the guitar
Battle with the performer.
Some of the questions that this battle intends to raise are: -For how long can an improviser/performer hold a battle with a machine in the highest level of intensity? -Are technology and machines going to take over music and art? -Is this piece about time? -Is this piece about labor? Is it worth a battle?
More information about this project can be found in the description box on YouTube.
Battle of the lonely man
This work will be released in April 2024
Is a collection of sound poems, improvisations, and short compositions reflecting on mourning, depression, and suicidal behavior after returning from war.
According to a 2017 study on Major Depressive Episodes from the National Institution of Mental Health (NIMH), some form of depression has affected an estimated 350 million people around the world. Depression is considered the most prevalent mind-brain illness and it is the leading cause of disability for ages 14 to 44.
This battle includes a solo-amplified voice and a 24-voice “noise” mixed choir. The Solo voice uses as material 60 different letters compiled from people that have struggled (or lost the battle) with depression. These letters present the complexity and paradoxes of this illness and the repercussions for the sufferers and the people around them. By translating the text in to a form of sound poems, the soloist will battle with words/sounds for the course of the performance.
The Choir has no previous knowledge of the musical material and is invited to react and improvise from a set of rules giving by the composer. The members of the audience are invited to experience the performance sitting on the stage or the balcony, as well as standing next to the performers.
This battle is framed and contextualized by Samuel Beckett’s axioms “every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness” and “words are all we have”.
More information about this project can be found in the description box on YouTube.