STRUCTURED IMPROVISATION WITH EMS

Both obstructing and extending human capabilities during improvisation, control is interrupted by electrical impulses which force the performers’ muscles to move involuntarily. A MIDI controlled electric muscle stimulation device sends electrical impulses to the performers’ muscles via electrodes attached to the skin, forcing the muscles to contract and move involuntarily, at varying velocities. Expanding the potential of the human body beyond conscious control, the use of electric muscle stimulation in this context enables experimentation with complex rhythmic structures and fast movements that the musician would be unable to execute of their own volition. Overriding the messages the central nervous system sends to the muscles to control action achieves a primary aim of mid twentieth century experimentalism - to remove ones self from the activities of the sounds that one makes. Imposed structure, rather than chance, creates a kind of ‘non-intention’ in the performers that Cage and others aimed to attain using chance operations and other methods.