Ten Dancing Cubicles by Dan Senn was composed in May, 2026 using identical plastic, kitchen storage containers with black lids performed and edited at Gasworks Studio in Holešovice, Prague, Czechia. They were recorded using 32 bit float technology with the mp3 copies here inferior to the 32bit .wav originals. If you wish to present these publicly, send for the originals at rakutoo at me dot com.

When listening to these using an iOS-like device, at a minimum, use earbuds or headphones.  Even with these helpful devices, much of the 32bit fidelity will be lost. Even so, the spatial and gestural (temporal) aspects of these “audio dances” is present with earbuds. The spatial positioning of events is controlled stochastically. Slight-to-drastic timbral and pitch shifts are manually adjusted at the meta-improv state (read more below). This post live editing is treated performative, an integral part of the work enacted by the performer. It is not possible for a third party to make these creative decisions—fit is another work. While the initial, live improvisation may be considered “real-time”, the edited “improvisation” is considered here as a “meta-performance”. While the real-time performance is optimal, the meta performance is there to detail into clarity the hearing of these found objects which were meant to hold coffee beans or peanuts (blanched). Even if the un-enhanced version is of standalone quality, the meta-performance by the same artist, is of equal importance in many cases. In one case, an edited version of an original work was mixed with the unedited original to create a stunning end product.

To overlook these performance stages is forgivable (forgettable) except that, especially in variance, this considerateness is conceptually interesting. Yes, you could assign these two stages to two artists (this is the norm) and it would be interesting. In this precise context, it is even ego-contentious. But here, in these works, I am working with two sides of the same creative brain, each with its own complete set of skills as I am both an experienced improviser and editor. Similarly, I am a classically trained composer, a sound and visual artist in other fields. My doctoral minor is in ceramics.

Therefore, the last thing I’d want is some super specialist messing with my found-object improvisation made in my improvised Prague isolation booth especially when these precious files need to be uniquely interpreted using advanced software and as if they were part of the initial real-time process. Spontaneity points uniquely at one artist. Not two. Indeed, when I listen to the final meta-performed (edited) product of these works I lose memory the unadorned original. One is “nekked”, the other “painted” and trimmed, a natural extension indelibly linked to the action-based memory of an origins already twisted by experiences with Scrapercussion and Raku pottery.  Thus, the cognitive integrations between this side and that side of the brain, this and that medium, is tightly marbleised to the extent that the future meta-performance (editing) is present the live improvisation.

I have written about spontaneity and its unconscious absence in mirrored artifacts. That mirroring plays a dynamic role on improvisation, both positive and negative. About the usefulness of using purposefully awkward instruments, found objects, to consciously overcome cliche development in experimental music. About how found instruments are by natural opaque and act doubly as a traditional scores… that improvisations derived as such graduate to the meta-editing stage (meta performance with strong cognitive links to the originating real-time improv) by the same artist to produce unique and spontaneous artifacts. Such is germane in the context of this collection.

Performance Ordering: TDC may be performed sequentially, as presented in the middle column, or reordered at random with a brief silence between sections. It is Ok to perform only one, or two, or three of the sections. They may be interspersed between other compositions on a concert. Any combination of these may be used for dance accompaniment or background to nice, mostly silent, meal. Contact the composer at rakutoo (at) icloud dot com for the 32-bit float .wav versions. DS060626

Dan Senn (Prague-Watertown) is an intermedia artist working in music composition and production, kinetic sound sculpture, installation work, experimental and documentary film. He has been a professor of music and art in the United States and Australia and travels internationally as a lecturer, performer, producer and  installation artist. He lives in Prague where he directs the Echofluxx Media Art festivals, and Watertown, Wisconsin, the USA, with his partner-collaborator, Caroline. Dan's work moves freely between expressive extremes and languages and mediums depending on the aesthetic joust at hand. He is cofounder of Roulette Intermedium in New York Cty (Brooklyn), Cascadia Composers of Portland Oregon, and the Echofluxx media festivals in Prague. (read more)

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The most useful routines were the gate processor (threshold, attack and release setting) adjusted in time throughout, often event by event, and then the phaser. Other processors were uniquely set for each improvisation, a default setting, remaining constant throughout except for in a few instances here and there. My established routine was to set global parameters/characteristics for an improv, including the start (base) parameters for the highly programmed modules, and then to move through the entire work while focusing on one module (one level), or on one aspect of a module. I might fine tune the smallest event characteristics using the “release” wheel on the gate processor and then return to the beginning using next, like the “threshold”or “attack” wheel parameter. I did not employ hard and fast rules in this regard—this describes a work tendency.

While micro-editing a work (at the meta-performance stage) I remained “up close” allowing my intuition to dictate shifts. I’d occasionally listen to completed sections but this was mostly to reinstate continuity after a break. I mention this because, after editing the entire work myopically, I was repeatedly surprised how these adjustments disappeared sensibly into the original improvisation with the gratifying exception that they seemed to have a renewed presence. I have edited photos and video ad nauseam in the past where something analogous occurs. 

Studying ceramics in my early 20s with Leonard Stach, I once complained to him that my ideas were often copied by other students and that it got under my skin. In a large common university ceramic studio, student and professors work is made, dried and fired in the same open space. Len’s response to my self-important question was “Don’t worry Dan. They’ll just f*** it up anyways.” He was right and I was over it soon after. Over time, I expanded this advize to include descriptions of my work methods ifor everything forming the philosophy to always work in the open. It may be useful to others. Working side by side with barely recognise great artist, Len Stach thus influenced me profoundly. Working this way with composers like Sal Martirano, even if he had his own home studio where he was building the fabulously innovative Sal-Mar Construction, likewise impacted me. My relationship with these two artists was exquisitely collegial. I toured with SM, his talented partner Dorothy performed my music and was a frequent guest at their home in Urbana. Dorothy’s generous father had been my first music composition teacher. None of these men had professional secrets.