The drumchoir complexifies the beat into distributed Polyrythmachines, webbed networks of poly#counter#contra#cross staggered rhythms that function like the dispersed architecture of artificial life by generating emergent consciousness.

– Kodwo Eshun

In 'More Brilliant than the Sun' musicritic Kodwo Eshun describes the co-evolution of man and machine. Machines have transformed rhythm and rhythm mutates body and spirit, he alleges. Moreover he identifies rhythm as the location, the interface and the result of that process. He is fascinated by African polyrhythmic drum sessions, where complicated patterns develop out of parallel simple rhythms. Eshun suggests that rhythm is a kind of 'connection machine' which, in a parallel process, connects small information components together to create unbelievably complex systems. Inspired by Daniel Dennets' connectionalistic image of body and spirit, he attributes an important role to rhythm as integrating principle in human consciousness. In 'Global Hockets' a lovely and age-old 'interactive model' is used for a 20th century, synergetic composite of sound and image, of man and machine. Hocketing was originally a mediaeval composition technique in which a rhythmic line, a melody or phrase, was spread in fragmented form over more than one voice. The musical image comes across in a jerky, rhythmic form. One fragment seems to react to another, one singer seems to be carrying out a dialogue with another. An important aspect of hocketing is that the parts work together and integrate in different ways, creating a rich, rhythmic tapestry of sound. This style can be found in various forms in many different cultures throughout the world. A lovely image for a universal, creative dialogue. Communication in which various elements, viewpoints and visions are brought into balance with each other. The 'hocket' becomes, then, a kind of small entity of information that demands a reaction. The association with the 'push/pull' principle of interactive media is obvious. The New Zealand ensemble, From Scratch, has been using hocketing techniques for years in their musical performances. This gives it a musical as well as a spatial dimension. From Scratch originally made improvised music using found materials. They made assemblages, sculptures which were played as instruments and produced new and unusual sounds. They still make the assemblages, but now they also build refined sound objects which follow specific tonal systems. Some of the assemblages, made up of PVC pipes, pots, hubcaps and many, many more things, are tuned to the absolute tonal system, others to the harmonic or microtonal systems. For their performances they create a fascinating landscape of sound objects which can be approached and played from different angles. During the energetic performances the musicians change alliances in accordance with a spatial, polyrhythmic hocket. In 'Global Hockets', From Scratch gives the performance an extra dimension in the form of a medial dialogue with the computer. Michael Saup and Supreme Particles created an interactive, medial environment especially for this. In this medial landscape light, moving image and computer graphics react to the movements and the music of the performers. The musicians' 'hockets' release 'visual hockets' from the medial system. These transform the music into parameters which generate and influence the images. Here, as in earlier performances like 'Ballistic Ballet' (1996) and 'Architexture-Remote Skin' (1997), live images of performers are combined with re-recorded material and, following different computer algorithms, edited and replayed. Existing footage is chosen specially to complement the music. The result of this process varies from pure light, along pulsating patterns, to the modulation of 3D worlds. Some images are atmospheric by nature, others create rhythmic patterns of light. Symbols and patterns, like the Maori Ta Moko tattoos, crop up regularly and give shape to the regulating and integrating principle of hocketing on a universal, mythical level. The choreography in 'Global Hockets' is precise and follows the principle of hockets at both the music and performance levels as well as in the relationship between interactive and noninteractive visual elements. The piece, which is exactly 1 hour, 1 minute and 1 second long, consists of 16 parts.

a – entrance event; b – unison pulse accelerando; c – polyrhythmic module; d – interlocking modules; e – unison pulsed metal sounds; f – water bells; g – handbell hocket ; h – accapella sample hocket; i – clap hocket; j – bass drum stations; k – virtual silence; l – zitherum drone texture and jilziras; m – improvisation ; n – pipe stations; o – finale; p – end

The dry listing of the successive parts contrasts sharply with what goes on in that one hour (plus). During the performance From Scratch continually changes between tight, structured fragments and improvised breaks and then returns again to organized hoketing. The combination of the analogous polyrhythm of the music with the digital layered visualizations of 'Supreme Particles' sets off an extra 'hocketic' dialogue. All these loose elements from separate stimuli and impulses gradually create a dramatic environment which encircles the audience like a pulsing global brain. An inside out, hallucinating, collective consciousness that generates, integrates and transforms (archetypical) images and sounds. Global Hocket > Global Brain?

– Geert-Jan Strengholt