Title: "Undermined" Live at Diapason (excerpt)
Category: Performance
Year: 2007
synopsis: "Undermined" is a live improvisation for Electric Oud, Function Generator and a variety of video sources piped into a cheap, rather obsolete video security system. Using manipulated 'found' images of IED (Improvised Explosive Device) paraphernalia, this piece is a requiem for those who have been killed in Iraq by roadside bombs and car bombs. It is also a meditation on a terrible irony: the world's most expensive military being literally undermined by a very inexpensive and pernicious weapon. The performance lasts about 30 minutes. The intensity builds throughout into a crescendo finish. Due to violent imagery and audible profanity, the conclusion of the performance allows the audience to empathize with those who face death every day in Iraq.

Production Notes:
The oud was chosen to be the leading sonic element for this performance because of its Middle Eastern origin. It is used to provide human element in the form of improvised passages (free-time melodic phrases). For accompaniment, a Function Generator is used to create dense, sustained drones. Its sound is manipulated with computer-based multi-effects. At times, the frequency of the Function Generator is controlled by the continuously fluctuating voltage of a video signal. The visual material consists of prerecorded and live elements. There are two video projections visible to the audience. One video projection shows several live microlens cameras from which can be seen views of the performer and the devices used in the performance. The other video projection shows many different images associated with IEDs. The images have been carefully processed using analog & digital techniques. The order in which the video clips are shown is indeterminant due to the programming of the DVDs (on which the videos are stored).