Early in her career, she could be described as a musician/composer/performer. She’s now seen as a chamber musician/sound artist. She’s famous for doing live voice overlaying with digital devices to make rhythmic and abstract sounds.
About the instruments that she uses: I consider the instrument the combination of my voice and the electronics that I use. She started in the 1980s, and the instruments now are way different from the ones she uses now. She used to carry a rack of 7 analogue devices and a mixer with effects. In 1999, she transferred all her instruments to digital on a program called MAX. No tax flights no more. She built a MAX patch that could carry all her instruments. Over time, the tech advances could be helpful or a curse, as she reflects. New versions and plugins would come every year and it would be complicated to keep up with all these updates.
In the first performance, she used a delay unit – as simple as it is – and more and more delays were added from that performance onwards. However, they were called digital delays, but the controls or analogue. The software plugins maintain a certain consistent cadency for her work – more practical and more exact.
1990’s – PARTS OF SPEECH Performance and sound piece.
2010 – Baggage Allowance – a gallery exhibition with sound and showcased objects that died last year because of the flash plugin where it runs. But she wants to get back with it in a new way. By this time, she expanded her knowledge of sound and video installation. The installation has seven pieces, with sculptures. The bag x-ray: an interactive installation that analysed the baggage of each visitor. Antique trunk: old trunk that people would use to travel where sound and image would be triggered when the drawers were open. These drawers were filled with real objects so people could see them. Suitcase: a fool grown human sleeping inside a suitcase with the sound of Pamela’s voice muttering and mumbling.
2007 – She made an immersive setup. Sonic Gestures. Gestures associated with sound are showcased on 8 screens. It was showcased later in Oslo and Berlin.
She’s interested in many areas of the art world, but the sound is the centre of her work. Speech is what she considers to be the thing she most focuses on. After recording interviews with people, she figures out that those same artefacts possess rhythmic and melodic valuable material. MEMORY TRACE (2012).
Also, she’s been making chamber music performances with electronics. All her chamber works have a written score. She wrote a piece for Kronos Quartet – PAMELA Z and the Movement of the Tongue (World Premiere February 21, 2013, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco). Also for Sol Quartet – ATTENTION, while a video was played in the background, it would be used as a guide and notation for the quartet. The players are distracted by cellphones, calls, and texts, which change the end of the piece.
She is currently in Rome, working on Simultaneous.