Bodytok Quintet: The Human Instrument Archive by Phil Dadson for SCAPE 7

For this project artist/musician Phil Dadson used interactive software design by James Charlton, new media artist and senior lecturer in Creative Technologies at AUT University, Auckland. Presented in partnership with the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū.

The human body is the first instrument.

From childhood onwards we explore our physical capabilities, including our potential for making sounds. Every one of us has the potential to create sounds as unique to us as fingerprints or facial features.

Bodytok Quintet was a sound-world filled with invention, humour and surprise. The installation alluded to a universal, non-verbal body-music, an instantly understood sonic expression. It also presented the human body as a site from which all communication and music stems.

The word ‘bodytok’ is derived from a Melanesian pidgin term, ‘toktok’, meaning ‘to have a conversation’. This exhibition created a conversation between on-screen performers and viewers, aided by an interactive element. In its passive state, the video imagery on screen ticked over at one frame per second, presenting the performers as framed portraits. When viewers approached, the ‘bodytok’ began – a performance delivered directly to each viewer.

Phil Dadson Bodytok Quintet: The Human Instrument Archive 2013. Image courtesy of the artist and SCAPE Public Art.