SHIRO SCHWARZ

µTon.AV is an audiovisual project created by Pammela Rojas & Rafael Marfil. The project has two sides, the production of pieces in an studio environment and the improvised performances.

For the studio pieces, Pammela experiments with macro photography and a mixture of organic and synthetic elements. She makes use of diverse techniques, but her main tools are her camera, QuartzComposer and Adobe After Effects. For the performances, she prepares an array of visual elements to create a journey inside a three dimensional model of the human body. She brings all of these elements to life by using filters, playing with the lighting, translation and by adding or removing these elements in real-time. But what makes her performance really special, is the interaction between those elements and the music. This is made possible by creating synchronized sequences of movement and manipulation for them, all in synchrony with the music.

The musical side of the performances is what is known as microtonal music. This music makes use of more than the usual twelve semitones, that means that there are more notes in each octave than there normally are. This allows never heard before sonorities to be created. Rafael Marfil uses his own microtonal tunings, that together with a one hundred percent original sound design make this performances a new sonic experience. He performs by creating digital loops with a microtonal keyboard and playing them with synthesizers. All the music, even the sounds themselves, are improvised. For the studio pieces he follows the same philosophy with a concrete, instead of an improvisational approach to composition.