One of the things I often think about is how sound art and (more specifically to my own work) sound design can be done in a performative context, of course with things like music it is a long and storied tradition dating back as far as history can be recorded. But for something that an artist might not call ‘music’ it’s slightly different. I have seen it done extremely well in the form of a play, it was paper cinema’s rendition of Macbeth, it was done with paper characters that were manipulated live, however the most amazing part of it for me was the live foley, from musical stings to horses trotting on gravel there was a whole secondary performance going on which I found myself watching more than the actual play itself. Now of course this piece is much less narrative based but it is still a performance of sorts, I would love nothing more than to witness something like this in person. The beauty is that with something as uncontrollable as flame the sound would be totally different, the strings would snap and the wood would warp in a distinct way.
I find Yosuke Yamashita’s piano burning to be much more of a spectacle. Whilst Lockwood’s is more reserved and feels almost ritualistic, Yamashita’s performance is, well, far more performative, you can see him struggle against the flames, the songs changes as the piano begins to burn and only certain keys still play and the sounds of the flames join the composition, there is a very exciting activity to this one which I feel makes it a lot more captivating to listen to.