Blip On: Tristan Perich
New York-based composer and artist Tristan Perich explores sound and image through the interaction of simple digital processes with the physical world. His music often combines traditional acoustic ensembles on stage with arrays of loudspeakers, connected to hand-built 1-bit audio circuits.
Blip: How did you first become aware of the possibility of creating art using vintage hardware or using vintage equipment?
Strangely, while the chips I use in 1-bit music, video, drawings, and sound installations are not vintage, they operate at roughly the same speed as my first computer about twenty years ago. The 8mhz microprocessors don’t give me much to work with, no video out or USB input, no graphics or sound routines, no network connectivity… any input and output has to be explicitly coded, and the code one writes needs to be lean and efficient. This approach to coding makes me think more about the earlier days of programming than the abstracted approaches of today. The conceptual side of working with 1-bit data is inspired by even earlier computer science: the theorems of Alan Turing and Kurt Gödel from around the 40s.
Blip: What kinds of influences do you draw upon to make your work?
I grew up listening to the music of the early minimalists, particularly Glass and Reich. Their approach to pattern, with a focus on process, was deeply inspiring. While it conceptually appealed to my mathematical side, I’ve always been amazed at how profoundly beautiful and moving their extremely simplified music was. I’m starting to believe that being able to abstract patterns ourselves from the world around us is an exciting mental process, like seeing a flock of birds and imagining the patterns that control their motion, and similarly hearing a musical process unfold and divining the rules behind it.
Blip: What type of tools do you use to create your work?
I’ve been programming in Assembly the last couple years, which has affected my approach to code. Assembly is a beautiful language because it is directly related to the functionality of the processor itself. A line of machine code translates directly into an instruction, and when coding Assembly, I begin to think of the microprocessor as a small concrete machine. Removing the layers of compilation that higher-level languages employ, it’s easier to understand how abstract process is realized physically.
Blip: How did it feel to be asked to Play Blip Festival?
I love Blip, and have been involved before both with my 1-bit work and as part of the Loud Objects. When I began working with 1-bit sound, I was surrounded by the chiptunes scene, going to a bunch of shows at the Tank at its original West 42nd St Space (also its best). The incredible positive energy of the scene was inspiring, and it was great to be surrounded by people working with a similar sound palette. This time I’m presenting some of my more formally composed work with acoustic instruments and 1-bit electronics, and am really excited to weave that into Blip’s normal lineup of fist-pumping chiptunes.
Tristan Perich is performing Friday 5/20 at 8:40
