TROGLODISME

Watchlist: The Day the Earth Stood Still,...

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:24:00 -0500

Watchlist: The Day the Earth Stood Still, 1951

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043456/

Max Neuhaus: Sound Art?

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:39:00 -0500

From the early 1980s on there have been an increasing number of exhibitions at visual arts institutions that have focused on sound. By 1995 they had become almost an art fad. These exhibitions often include a subset (sometimes even all) of the following: music, kinetic sculpture, instruments activated by the wind or played by the public, conceptual art, sound effects, recorded readings of prose or poetry, visual artworks which also make sound, paintings of musical instruments, musical automatons, film, video, technological demonstrations, acoustic reenactments, interactive computer programs which produce sound, etc. In short, ‘Sound Art’ seems to be a category which can include anything which has or makes sound and even, in some cases, things which don’t.

Sometimes these ‘Sound Art’ exhibitions do not make the mistake of including absolutely everything under the sun, but then most often what is selected is simply music or a diverse collection of musics with a new name. This is cowardly.

When faced with musical conservatism at the beginning of the last century, the composer Edgard Varese responded by proposing to broaden the definition of music to include all organized sound. John Cage went further and included silence. Now even in the aftermath of the timid ‘forever Mozart decades’ in music, our response surely cannot be to put our heads in the sand and call what is essentially new music something else – ‘Sound Art’.

I think we need to question whether or not ‘Sound Art’ constitutes a new art form. The first question, perhaps, is why we think we need a new name for these things which we already have very good names for. Is it because their collection reveals a previously unremarked commonality?

Let’s examine the term. It is made up of two words. The first is sound. If we look at the examples above, although most make

or have sound of some sort, it is often not the most important part of what they are – almost every activity in the world has an aural component. The second word is art. The implication here is that they are not arts in the sense of crafts, but fine art. Clearly regardless of the individual worth of these various things, a number of them simply have little to do with art.

It’s as if perfectly capable curators in the visual arts suddenly lose their equilibrium at the mention of the word sound. These same people who would all ridicule a new art form called, say, ‘Steel Art’ which was composed of steel sculpture combined with steel guitar music along with anything else with steel in it, somehow have no trouble at all swallowing ‘Sound Art’.

In art, the medium is not often the message.

If there is a valid reason for classifying and naming things in culture, certainly it is for the refinement of distinctions. Aesthetic experience lies in the area of fine distinctions, not the destruction of distinctions for promotion of activities with their least common denominator, in this case sound. Much of what has been called ‘Sound Art’ has not much to do with either sound or art.

With our now unbounded means to shape sound, there are, of course, an infinite number of possibilities to cultivate the vast potential of this medium in ways which do go beyond the limits of music and, in fact, to develop new art forms. When this becomes a reality, though, we will have to invent new words for them. ‘Sound Art’ has been consumed.

Max Neuhaus

(First published as an introduction to the exhibition “Volume: Bed of Sound”, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, July 2000.)

Joseph Herscher

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 07:17:09 -0500

Joseph Herscher

Donate!

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:43:21 -0500

Donate!

Video

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 07:01:00 -0500

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more pictures and reference...

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 00:57:00 -0500

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more pictures and reference here: http://www.troglodisme.com/ceilingfans

I finally found it! Slip Rings: how to make a connection through a rotating assembly

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 20:41:00 -0500

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slip_ring

1913, Paris - Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 05:51:00 -0500

1913, Paris - Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel

Camera: record player + objects

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 19:15:32 -0500

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Camera: record player + objects

Brainstorming for major project

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 08:33:00 -0500

College needs: A4 log with Thoughts, Articles, Technical Investigations, Exhibitions, Experimentation. Demonstrate: (1) ability to plan and manage practise based research, (2) reflect critically on my work, (3) situate my research in relation to appropriate theoretical frameworks.

Ceiling Fan Installation: The plan is to use various and different ceiling fans as elements for a slow and probably pretty noisy ‘sequencer’, which will work describing a circular motion. Like persons compelled to follow their everyday routines - running after buses, doing tedious jobs or simply being with people they don’t like - the blades of the fan run continuously. One of my main ambition would be to represent the moment when something different happens, that very special bit (or beat?) when the routine is broken by a stranger or by a disturbing element. You see, hear or feel something, you meet and talk to somebody and, for a moment, everything changes. But often, the big city does not allow this to last a long time.. creaking and scraping, everything starts again.

Each fan will be positioned at different heights so that the blades can run closely enough but without touching each other. The visitor is invited to “play” with the speed of each fan. This will occasionally make the blades overlap in an unpredictable way giving life to a sonic event that could be either acoustic and mechanical or just an occasion to trigger digital processes.

Even if the visitor will have a primary role controlling the speed of the movements, thus making this installation interactive, the most important interaction will happen “in the air” between one fan and another. Events will be triggered in a random fashion, creating a situation for chance operation sonic events.

Interaction > I will experiment with different media : radio-transmitters, microphones-speakers feedback, accelerometers, temperature sensors, hall effect sensors (magnets), acoustic objects (wood, metal, bells, springs).

Make it! > There are several problems that I still needs to solve: how to slow down an AC motor, how to wire something on a rotating head, how to hang the final piece

Research & Theory >

Making videos positioning the camera on a series of rotating objects (record player, blades, car wheel, bicycle wheel*, windmill, earth!, propellers); Making a graphical representation to show people and test the project.

Chance operation (Background noise - Brendon La Belle);

Interactivity: the role of the viewer;

Kinetical art sculpture (Calder, Theo Janses, Pe Lang, Realist Manifesto - Contructivism) > *Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel (first ready made object and one of the first kinetic sculptures: a non-functional machine operated with mass produced parts which was completely subverting the notions of the artist’s crafts and the viewer experience).

old test (tumblr messed up with the audio.. it’s not...

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 19:01:00 -0500

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old test (tumblr messed up with the audio.. it’s not synched at all!)

Now stands: Kastner & Co.

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 08:43:00 -0500

34-36 Margaret Street, London W.

Where Kastner & Co used to have the main showroom for their ‘Instrument of Soul’, the Autopiano (which “enables instantly young and old to play all the finest music ever published in most masterly and indiviual style”)… now stands Fresco, serving a selection of sandwiches, cakes and snacks as well as a choice of soft drinks including coffee. This is the first of a series of nostalgic posts about places I’ve never really been to… mainly cause they were there when I was minus 120 years old. Well..

‘Variable 4 takes the form of a surround-sound...

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 14:33:00 -0500

‘Variable 4 takes the form of a surround-sound installation which responds to weather sensor data in real-time, generating music which reflects the current atmospheric conditions. This section describes the structure of the piece, from its physical structure to the 24 movements which make up its musical content.’ (http://www.variable4.org.uk)

Anri Sala at Serpentine Gallery

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 13:36:00 -0500

I fail in judging things these days, but one thing I learned from this exhibition is that there is a place that keeps making really elaborate musical boxes. It’s called Reuge and apparently is where Anri Sala is getting his ones done.. Someone else I need to send a letter to!

List of books I need to find

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 09:54:00 -0500

History of Music Machines - Smithsonian Institution

Clockwork Music - W. J. G. Ord Hume

Encyclopedia of Automatic Musical Instruments - Q. D. Bowers

The menace of Mechanical music - Sousa

Sound, Knowledge and the Immanence of Human Failure - Sulsman

Mechanical Music Instruments - Buchner

Musical Boxes - David Tallis

Bassel Organ - W. J. G. Ord Hume

An Introduction to Automatic Instruments - Fuller

Sound Art (Beyond Music, Between Categories) - Alan Licht

Background Noise - Brandon LaBelle

The Audible Past - Jonathan Sterne

Capturing Music - Mark Katz (“a recording in one thing, a concert is another and never the twain shall meet”)

The Medium is the Message - Marshall McLuhan

Glenn Gould Reader - ed. Tim Page

Technologies of the Self - Michel Foucalt

Mechanisms - Matthew G. Kirschenbaum

Technology as Symptom and Dream - R. Romanyshyn

Aeolian Hall, London

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 14:18:00 -0400

During the interval of yesterday night’s show Rex Lawsan talked abut the Aeolian Hall, pioneering brand of the first famous pianolas. Leaving aside the nostalgia that comes to mind thinking about Central London in early 20th century, I really need to remember to visit it. According to wikipedia it’s located in 135-137 New Bond Street, surrounded by Burberry and Ferrari I guess.. To visit asap!

Radio 3 Live in Concert: Flights of Fancy

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 13:46:00 -0400

Yesterday night I went to see a concert organised by BBC 3 with BBC singers. It featured the first performance of Gabriel Jackson’s Airplane Cantata, Stravinsky’s Etude for Pianola, Conlon Nancarrow’s ”Study no 6” and more. The Pianola was “conducted” by Rex Lawson, one of the most respected performer around. It is quite funny that I found out about this concert just one hour before its start, but it really meant for me.. as it was the first time I saw a real pianola in working order. This is actually the moment I start thinking about my dissertation! It was amazing to see and listen to pianola’s rolls (some of which were fairly complicated) resonating on a Steinway grand piano.. This kind of early Pianola seats just behind the piano and, with mechanical fingers, touches the keys following the score/roll, as a human would do (well, this is what I need to discover yet!).. at the same time, all the dynamics and tempo (“rubato in the ancles as the presenter called it) were left to Rex to control.

(Here is the show on iPlayer, if you want to have a listen.)

Some notes from the Postmodernism exhibition at V&A, London.

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 17:10:00 -0400

Ettore Sottsas - Basilico Teapot

N. O. Lund - The Future of Architecture

Gaetano Pesce - Church of Solitude

Ron Arad - Concrete Stereo

Martin Bedin - Super Lamp Prototype

J. Holter - Protect me from what I want

Some notes from the Postmodernism exhibition at V&A, London.

L.S.D. Experiments

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 08:12:54 -0400

L.S.D. Experiments

Places I would like to visit (tonight): Pasolini's Monument

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 17:42:00 -0400

Pasolini’s monument: Aostia, Rome [41.741537, 12.248954]