Center for New Music [55 Taylor St SF]
Judy Dunaway will present a performance version of “Balloon Tapestry with the Sound of Its Own Making” featuring herself, Kattt Atchley, Brenda Hutchinson, Cheryl Leonard, Brent Miller and more TBA. Judy will also perform solo free improvisations on amplified latex “tenor” and “twister” balloons.These balloon instruments function like an instrument string. Imagine a violin string spread out into an orb. The balloon orb has an overtone series like a string. The balloon can be stimulated with the hands in the same “stick and slip” fashion as a bow on a violin. The latex, however, is so sensitive and bouncy that when the note sounds, it breaks into a mutating harmonic series. The latex stretches and contracts many times within the milliseconds it takes to make the simple squeak, thus the harmonic series is always changing. When this sound is slowed through time-stretching one can hear how a pitch in the harmonic series can waiver as much as a whole step before it goes to the next harmonic. The balloon is amplified with a small microphone attached to the surface.  More...