Kirk Pearson
Oberlin College
Project
The 21st Century Orchestra: An Odyssey of Invented Instruments
Paraguay, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, South Korea, Japan
Instrument inventors can be found all over the world — in abandoned silos in Switzerland, on circus rigs in South Korea. My Watson year is a search for the wild and wonderful tinkerers working to expand our instrumental lexicon. For one to two months per country I will plunge into several instrument-inventing communities and explore the context for their production. I’ll research robots that play instruments in ways humans cannot, live with a community that turns gardens into synthesizers, and scout my way though forgotten buildings that are now home to unforgettable sonic installations. I will work closely with inventors in each community, collaborate and compose original works for their unique invented instruments.