 By
Sergio Messina
from the web album A
Million Random Digits
recorded at Giardino d'Inferno, Milan, in 2003
As you probably guessed by now, I'm a fan of Jorge Luis Borges
and I also like to weave imaginary things in what I do. Such is
the case with the Norml Dv8s. I created this duo (and its repertoire)
as part of a big project I was cooking for Kunstradio.
A very big project, that grew so immense I couldn't do it anymore,
but it left some traces elsewhere, such as in this
digital poem or in this band. The Norml Dv8s owe their name
to an amazing 1950 Rand Corporation book, entitled A
Million Random Digits and 100.000 normal deviates. The book
is exactly what the title says: 1.100.000 numbers, in neat rows
of five (download
Pdf). I've always been fascinated by this object (I have a
weak spot for non linear books such as the Phone book or the Bible).
This is why this band's first project was an hommage to it: I
put up a little
free website on Tripod and built an
html version of the million random digits - a digital sculpture
to celebrate this fantastic publication. Then I created two pieces
of noise music for the band (downloadable from the website), and
finally I made a remix of one of those using my own name - the
track presented here.
There's another thing I really like: working with limited choices,
or with the wrong software tool. This music was created using one
sample (slowed way down) and a stereo editor, no overdubbing or
effects. The various layers are added using the mix function of
the software, that adds the clipboard content to the sound file.
This way you cannot go back and redo things, but can only proceed
forward, as the only possible way to make changes is the undo function,
that works in linear steps: to undo change 1 from change 3 you have
to undo change 2 as well. Silencing and stretching were also involved
in the process. |
