collaboration
fruit baskets
“It was Friday, December 13, 1991. We were driving from Georgia to Michigan. It was cold and rainy in Tennessee. We turned on the radio and this is what we heard....”
fruit baskets is a collaboration of choreographer Patricia Plasko and new media artist Paul Marquardt. The sound score is a humorous mix of a live radio broadcast selling fruit baskets from a grocery store in Tennessee. In a minimal setting of movement, sound, props, and projections, the work performed by a dancer and stage hand explores the acts of giving and taking.
The segmented poles used in the work are equipped with triggers that are interfaced with a computer. The computer is programmed to play digitally sampled sounds in response to movement of the poles. Each pole is capable of triggering any of three sounds at any one time. The sets of sounds are changed by controls on one of the poles to correspond with sections of the performance. The poles become instruments used to play the "music" of the work as well as important visual elements during the prerecorded dialog.
Premiered at the Fringe Festival of Independent Dancers in Toronto.