Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/110922
Sarasota News Leader February 22, 2013 Page 107 ���It���s a very simple oscillator machine, which creates a series of click noises, and the more light that hits this machine, the faster the clicks and the higher the pitch becomes. It���s a lot like a theremin,��� she explained. ���For my thesis in my undergrad, I was creating these instruments and studying and researching how sound and light interact in a musical and compositional context,��� she continued. Wall of Skin operates with three light-activated sensors that are strategically placed on the stage, Gressman said. Obscured by the shadows of her movement, they create the variations in sound. She went on to describe this as ���a very large scale version��� of the work she had been doing at New College. Gressman then revealed more about technical and performative aspects of the piece, which she had performed six times previously. Her movements, for example, are improvisational, though she said that performing the piece so many times has led to her developing certain strategies and ideas that she utilizes at her discretion. Erica Gressman answers a question from an audience member after performing Wall of Skin. Asked why she decided to attend New College, she said there is a ���magic��� to the school, along with ���a sense of freedom and hard work ethic.��� open about its underlying theoretical concepts as well as the outside factors that influenced her when she conceived the piece. On the evening of Feb. 7, she sat down with The Sarasota News Leader to offer more details. There is far more to Wall of Skin than initially meets the eye, Gressman explained that the performative aspect of Wall of Skin has been heavily influGressman explained further. The lines torn enced by her studies at New College, particby the cables in the drywall are not random, ularly in the fields of sound art, experimental for example; in fact, they represent a premusic and kinetic sculpture. In addition, it has determined drawing. Gressman said that, in been impacted by some of the aesthetic asconstructing the sculpture, she sketches the pects of the underground music scene, particlines on the back of the drywall in the way she ularly in Florida, in which she has participated wants it to tear during the performance, then for several years. uses a tool to gouge grooves into which the cables are embedded. ���Those were definitely performative musical acts that I slowly started to incorporate into WITHIN WALL OF SKIN my music and my art,��� Gressman explained. ���I Aside from revealing some of the practical as- saw, as well, a lot of flaws or things that were pects of Wall of Skin, Gressman has been very missing in music and things that were missing