David & Gisella Gamper

Composer/performer David Gamper is an accomplished designer of electronic music studios and constructor of electronic music instruments. He studied at the University of California at San Diego with Pauline Oliveros and Roger Reynolds, then worked in Vermont as a goat farmer, town energy coordinator, advocate for community and private philanthropy, and directed a Baroque recorder ensemble and community chorus, among other activities. He is currently the director of development for the Expanded Instrument System, a project of the Pauline Oliveros Foundation, and he performs worldwide as a member of the Deep Listening Band. Gamper is also half of hilde+ed productions, a multi-media content development partnership. For their Roulette TV performance, David Gamper and photographer/visual artist Gisela Gamper create a microcosmic world that opens with images of water bubbles and small organic objects projected throughout the performance area. Small quasi-random sounds of a struck seashell, electric keyboard patterns, tiny bells and wood flute are processed electronically and accompany the visuals. The organic, water images begin to modulate into human hands moving around Tesla coils which in turn emit squiggly rays analogous to the organic images. In their interview, David and Gisela Gamper describe "visible music" and the video and sound setup for and player responses (the "third mind") during their improvised performance, how they gradually learned to free themselves from one-to-one reaction during performance, and the effect of their artistic collaboration on their personal life as a married couple. Click here to view clip.