Publications
Chapter | Transforming Performance with HASGS: Research-led Artistic Practice with an Augmented Instrument
Henrique Portovedo, an integrated researcher at INET-md and coordinator of its research group dedicated to Creation, Performance and Artistic Research, is the author, together with Ângelo Martingo, of one of the chapters in the book Innovation in Music: Technology and Creativity (Routledge, 2024), co-edited by Jan-Olof Gullö, Russ Hepworth-Sawyer, Justin Paterson, Rob Toulson and Mark Marrington.
The chapter is entitled “Transforming Performance with HASGS: Research-led Artistic Practice with an Augmented Instrument” and analyses the development and technical possibilities of the Hybrid Augmented Saxophone of Gestural Symbioses (HASGS) as a case study, exploring the optimization of augmented instruments and the role of research in transforming performance.
Abstract
Drawing on the development and technical possibilities of Hybrid Augmented Saxophone of Gestural Symbioses (HASGS) as a case study, this chapter aims to discuss the optimisation of augment instruments and the role of research on the transformation of performance. HASGS, as shown in https://www.henriqueportovedo.com/hasgs/, was developed as an academic project aimed at enhancing performance by electronically controlling parameters in mixed music performed in the mechanical instrument, thus reducing the recourse to external control devices for electronic purposes. After three preliminary prototypes, the current system is constituted by an ESP32 card, providing Bluetooth and wifi connectivity, while based on a digital fabrication solution that can be directly integrated into the instrument’s body, thus transforming the saxophone into a hybrid instrument – both an acoustic instrument and an electronic controller. The remaining components of HASGS include a ribbon sensor, a four button keypad, a trigger button, two pressure sensors, up and down selectors, and an accelerometer.
In the context of a performance practice in which the interpreter is required to be a creative agent within a multidimensional context of sonic manipulation, improvisation and expressive extension and augmentation, HASGS can be seen both as contributing to the optimisation of this new virtuosity, and as a result of the changing role of academic and musical research in the transformation of artistic practice, as illustrated in the detailed description of the recent piece Study 1B.
