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RTV: David & Gisela Gamper

Release Date: Wednesday, December 31, 2003

In this episode Roulette TV talks with composer David Gamper and visual artist Gisela Gamper about their performance  See, Here, Now, a multimedia work based on improvisations.

The artists 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, which are processed electronically, accompany the visuals. The 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 explain “visible music,” the video, and sound setup for player responses (the “third mind”) during their improvised performance. They further this discussion by how they gradually learned to free themselves from one-to-one reactions during the performance and the effect of their artistic collaboration on their personal life as a married couple.

Aired on rTV: 2003
Performance date: 05/07/2000
Episode digital release date: 05/08/2010
Host: Phoebe Legere


Composer/performer David Gamper is an accomplished designer of electronic music studios and a constructor of electronic music instruments. He studied at the University of California at San Diego with Pauline Oliveros and Roger Reynolds. Gamper also worked in Vermont as a goat farmer, town energy coordinator, and an 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.

Gisela Gamper, prior to her video work with See Hear Now, has been photographing and exhibiting for over 35 years. For See, Hear, Now she expanded her fascination with textures and collage into the realms of movement and color. The video she creates for live mixing in improvised performance captures the rhythms and colors observed in our world. Gamper exhibited widely and among her grants and numerous awards are two fellowship grants from the Vermont Council on the Arts and the Hasselblad Cover Award in 1991. Gamper’s photographs are in the collection of the Albany Institute of History & Art in Albany, NY, and in many private collections.