Matthew D. Gantt – Iterations

double cassette out now, released 10/20/16

Iterations is a study of media production in the age of digital plasticity. Containing three interrelated works, Iterations hopes to explore methodologies for the creation of new media artifacts that function as both infinitely reproducible objects and procedurally unique content. Utilizing the production of a cassette album as a conceptual frame, the works contained within Iterations navigate the different manifestations of recorded media as the confluence of event, artifact and documentation. Each recorded work is intended to carry a unique trace of the enactment of a theoretically infinite process, while additionally positing an environment in which form and content are flattened, as each object produced accrues meaning in relationship to its mode of production, documentation and dissemination.

TRACE 1_2 – Two cassette-length snapshots of a semi- generative process: The previous recordings from Etudes are analyzed in real time and routed as control voltage through a series of randomized systems constructed with Eurorack synthesizer. These systems serve to trace the contours of the previous piece, offering a procedural abstraction of physical gesture. This process has been repeated in full for each version of Iterations, resulting in a unique realization of the piece inscribed on every tape. For playback, both sides containing Trace should be activated simultaneously on two tape decks with stereo sound, yielding a four-channel listening environment.ETUDES – Three selected archival recordings of guitar improvisation, subsequently transcribed and arranged. These serve as a portrait of the composer as musician before falling off the conceptual deep end, and function as source material for the following tape sides.

ASSEMBLAGE – A recording of the second movement of an open instrumentation piece. A functional, miniaturized study score is included in the physical liner notes. Each cassette copy of Iterations contains an individual rendition of the piece, created as the result of an open call for realizations.