Re: What would loopers do without power? / Kinetics

[Rev Fever <revfever@ubergadget.com>]

What about "kinetic" looping? Envision a set up that had a giant  
"squirrel cage" that the looper artist got into and ran inside of to  
generate the action of a series of wheels, pulleys, gears, etc that  
ended up striking strumming, whatever, a series of items what would  
respond to making sounds. Of course, this set up would be limited to  
one loop,
or maybe it could further be developed to where the looper artist  
could leave the "cage", and go make some adjustments, or  
substitutions to the sound making items and get back into the "cage"  
and do his / her next "set". It could also be set up where a road  
crew of "technicians" were standing close by to somehow quickly  
switch out the sound making components, or to make some kinds of  
"adjustments" or whatever, as the "live" performance was occurring.   
Or even better, visualize a whole "orchestra" of these
set ups with looper artists in each "cage" and have "cyclic"  
compositions a la Philip Glass, Steve Reich, etc, actually written  
out and conducted for something with a title like
"Squirrel Cage Symphony". And, what a SIGHT that would be to see!

Oh wait. I forgot. The human brain runs on a series of electrical  
impulses so I guess it is all not "electricity free" after all. Darn!  
I thought I  HAD the answer!
Oh well. back to the drawing board...

-Rev. Fever

PS- But regardless of the "failure" above, another version, and one  
that would likely be even easier to construct would be a set up that  
did not have the "cage",
but was powered by a human ( or,even a chimpanzee! ) on a bicycle. I  
could also envision a whole "orchestra" of those as well.
Excuse me now, I have to go drink some more green tea...

On Jul 23, 2008, at 8:37 AM, Dan Ash wrote:

> It occurred to me that a 'player piano' approach would be pretty  
> simple, and that a 'looped' accompaniment could be prepared this  
> way...
>
> In my case, I enjoy the improv process (danger and happy accidents  
> being the key) so I might not want to have to pre-program the other  
> instrument unless some sort of 'randomizer' could be applied.   
> Given the caveat that electricity is un-invented, I might just  
> answer 'I wouldn't loop any more'.
>
> Dan Ash
> White Plains, NY
>
>>
>> Subject:
>> Re: What would loopers do without power?
>> From:
>> "Krispen Hartung" <khartung@cableone.net>
>> Date:
>> Tue, 22 Jul 2008 22:30:38 -0600
>>
>> To:
>> Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
>>
>>
>> You are exactly right, Travis. Not to get to sci-fi, but in the  
>> extreme sense my question assumed some electro-magnetic phenomenon  
>> that prevented any generation of electricity  - though I know that  
>> is very unlikely - but hey, think of The Day the Earth Stood Still  
>> on steroids! :)   Kris
>>  ----- Original Message -----
>>
>>  It seems that the question "What would loopers do without power?"  
>> is often being interpreted as "What would loopers do if the power  
>> company could no longer provide electricity?", hence all the  
>> answers of "I would find a way to generate electricity myself and  
>> continue looping!!"
>>
>> To me that doesn't seem to be really "doing without power".
>>
>> TH
>>
>> On Mon, Jul 21, 2008 at 6:56 AM, Krispen Hartung  
>> <khartung@cableone.net <mailto:khartung@cableone.net>> wrote:
>>
>>     So, let's say hypothetically a major catastrophe occurred in the
>>     next 2-3 decades, and power became non-existent (unlikely) or
>>     highly scarce. For example, suppose we all had to rely on solar
>>     panels and wind power, and powering an amp and looper was a
>>     complete luxury and out of the question.
>>
>>     What would you do?
>>
>