Tuning System No. 1

performance with custom instrument, nylon strings, hardware, tape measure, drill, hammer, mirror
Performed by Charlie Best and Emma Percy
2016

As a gesture of bodily and psychic convergence, we measure each other’s bodies and then translate the measurements as dimensions for the strings of a simple instrument. Each corresponding body measurement is then tuned by ear to the same note (for example, the diameter of Erin’s neck is tuned to vibrate at the pitch of Colleen’s, the length of Colleen’s right arm to the pitch of Erin’s). The artifact that is left behind is an instrument that is not meant to be played, but to be tuned. Performing and maintaining the tuning is painstaking. Our bodies, identities, and the strings shift and desynchronize over time.