This presentation will explore how our duo, Imaginary Instruments, fosters the enmeshment of agency and materiality. We co-compose works existing between composition and improvisation that navigate sound using disparate instruments (14th -century portative organ and modular synth). The agency of each player, each instrument, and each sound glides in and out of focus,
foregrounding the materiality of relations between them.

A series of questions frame our curiosity around imagined and experienced sound — how can
our mode of listening as players translate into live performance? How do embodied gestures
relate to the spaces we inhabit and how do these gestures change within these spaces? How can cultivated modes of attention enliven and trigger performative elements? In what ways can we distribute agency, and what is agency for listener or performer in a live context? In addition to considering these questions, we will discuss and demonstrate our process for creating tuning
systems that emphasize psychoacoustic phenomena such as beating between closely tuned
Frequencies.

Formed in Victoria BC in 2019, Imaginary Instruments is the duo of composer/sound artist
Mitch Renaud and historical keyboard specialist Katelyn Clark. They share a fascination with the
materiality of sound and of tuning interactions between instruments and in their work, feedback
systems of a modular synth combine with early instruments (portative organ/harpsichord) to
draw out unexpected sound. They co-compose pieces for live and recorded settings, drawing
from historical systems of temperament, deep listening practices, and the sonic imaginary. Their
current project, tuning relations, is a series of semi-fixed works built on an evolving 16-note
temperament, generously funded by the Canada Council for the Arts. Their forthcoming album
ouroboros will be released early 2023.

Don’t miss these other Imaginary Instruments events:

Thursday October 13, 2022
Concert Presentation
5:00 to 6:00 pm
Augustana Campus, University of Alberta, Camrose AB

Friday October 14, 2022
Guest Lecture
2:00 to 3:30pm
Room 11-428 Allard Hall, MacEwan University, Edmonton AB

Saturday October 15, 2022
Concert Presentation
2:00 to 3:00pm
Betty Andrews Recital Hall, MacEwan University, Edmonton AB

• lectures
• upcoming