STAR STRUCK
STAR SHAPED BASS GUITAR PINBALL HYBRID, 2017
LUCAS ABELA (AU)
Star Struck is Lucas’ latest concoction in his ‘pinball-as-instrument’ series, exploring the musical potential of pinball as a format for experiential instruments that give audiences a performer’s perspective. Star Struck features a four-person multiplayer playfield environment framed by bass guitars. The game features targets that produce stochastic compositions — randomly generated scores created by controlling an array of audio effects — that integrate pinball gaming into compositional construction.
BIO
Lucas is a free-noise musician and participatory sound installation artist whose practice evolved from within the international noise music underground. He is best known for vibrating shards of glass with his mouth to create oddly controlled, strangely musical cacophonies performed ecstatically with deft-defying technique. After a long performance career, he has turned his attention to participatory sound installations or, more accurately, large-scale noise instruments for musical play. Each is devised to switch roles between audience and performer in line with his philosophy that noise music is more rewarding to play than observe. To do this, he employs situational aesthetics to entice people to inadvertently perform his music, by providing fun, tangible experiences, layered with purposeful goals requiring focused engagement.