Burning the Sound (2007: Rudolfo Quintas) is a visually amplified sound art performance about the nature of rituals and the relation they establish with the state of power and control. It is used the fire from a regular fire lighter and matches to subvert patterns of rhythm, “exorcising” the sound as a spiritual strategy.
The performer gesture in relation to its instrument, not only shows the performer emotional state, but it brings the instrument to live and makes it to exist. Is from the flame that a sound is shaped. This intensifies the synesthesic quality of the sound being perceived as burned by the flame. Since later 2007, Quintas, has been creating and developing the performance, which aims to push the ritualistic primitivism, gesture and body to technological mediated computer sound performances.

(1) I talk about “visually amplification” because the generated image is not the main medium or the motivation for the performance but it works as dialog component and a visually amplification of the flame impulse. It is a visual metaphor that amplifies the flame generated by the minimal act from the fire lighter and matches. A flame burns because there is oxygen to be burned on the air. If our perception could visualize this event, for sure our comprehension about this event would change radically. Thus, the visual dimension on the performance aims to express this phenomena expanding it trough a plastic and artistic vision. This establishes a relation with the sound intensifying the performed gesture expressiveness.

(2) It was aimed to research and explore a performative act, starting for a primitive point. This means that the idea of “performance” was attended as a couple of symbolic actions without pre-established ideas on composition from dance, music, image or movement. This way how to develop a ritual, whose actions manifested a spiritual transcendence act under the cyclic exploration of sound, able to dramaturgically guide the production of meaning in a sound composition.

Rudolfo Quintas and Collaborators 2000-2008
Rudolfo Quintas SwapArticle 2008