For this work, I decided to use the second lesson of my post last week about recording "everyday sounds" - I thought it might be weird and interesting to record body sounds - gross stuff like smacking lips and scratching and nails and teeth. Then, the sounds were too gross for me to work with, so I decided to record my attempts at whistling too. After going through the sound clips, I thought it might be interesting to use only sounds I made with my mouth and experiment with amplifying them through audacity, as well as layering them. Even though the sounds make me slightly sick, I think it might be really awesome to be able to hear these sounds in an empty room quite loud - the chattering of teeth, licking of lips. I also can't whistle at all, so I liked the idea of "attempts at whistling" - recording ones lack of abilities to make sound.
Monday, April 23, 2012
2. Sound Art Piece: Attempts at Whistling
For this work, I decided to use the second lesson of my post last week about recording "everyday sounds" - I thought it might be weird and interesting to record body sounds - gross stuff like smacking lips and scratching and nails and teeth. Then, the sounds were too gross for me to work with, so I decided to record my attempts at whistling too. After going through the sound clips, I thought it might be interesting to use only sounds I made with my mouth and experiment with amplifying them through audacity, as well as layering them. Even though the sounds make me slightly sick, I think it might be really awesome to be able to hear these sounds in an empty room quite loud - the chattering of teeth, licking of lips. I also can't whistle at all, so I liked the idea of "attempts at whistling" - recording ones lack of abilities to make sound.
4. Software Art: Michael Takeo Magruder
Data Flower (Prototype I) - an internal view of a digital blossom
Michael Takeo Magruder is an artist and researcher based in the Kings College Visualization Lab. His work and research is devoted to exploring digital media, networks, and cultures. Data Flower (Prototype I) is an internet-based work, that take images from Flickr that have been tagged with 'flower' and then applied via algorithm to the modeling software that then creates this cycle of artificial flower growth and decay.
The work Data_Plex(economy) uses real-time data about financial markets to construct three-dimensional renderings of data via geometric shapes. It creates a realtime landscape and visualization of the flux of capital, the stock exchange, active during trading time and then silent when the market closes.
4. Software Art: boredomresearch (TM)
Lost calls of cloud mountain whirligigs, screenshot daytime, Custom Software, Computer, TFT Screen, 2009
boredomresearch is a project/collaboration of artists Vicky Isley and Paul Smith from Southampton UK. Their artworks are software/computer-based and explore ideas about biological forms in nature, and how they change and evolve over time. All their work is computer-generated, and lives both online as well as through the DAM gallery in Berlin/Cologne. Their works range from computer-generated print work (c-prints) to evolving software run on custom-made screens, as well as works that only live online and can be interacted with, such as a wishing tree, or the aspiration storm. In the above image, "whirligigs" transform and generate biologically as time passes over a craggy landscape, changing lights and shapes, as well as colors.
1. Sound Discussion
Last week's discussion about sound as a medium was fairly interesting, especially in the discussion of the distinction between music and art. Things I took away from it:
- Images are not syntactic; they do not have common elements with written language, in terms of syntax and how we have come to interpret them.
- When we observe sound art, whether it is a silence or at full volume, it reminds us we must listen very closely - it pulls the use of a specific sense we have that I think we might often take for granted; or we use it so frequently that certain abnormalities of that ability tend to pass us by unless we are asked to think about it. It reminds me of visual things we take for granted in a way - much of what we see is framed by what we know, and what we can assume from our past experiences. With sound, I think it could operate similarly, and some artworks can reflect those differences such as a room with no echoes or vibrations. It changes the experience of sound more than one could imagine.
- I think the lines between music and art are blurred, and that's OK. Within the contemporary world, I think genres exist but more or less they are getting broken down by works that tend to cross-over, or collaborate with other art forms. What makes one thing music and another thing art? I think it's the intention, and the "kind of art" it is. Popular art forms exist, as well as fine art forms, and they all find a way to simultaneously live or cross over in the reality of the art world as it is today. It all goes back to intention and how the work is framed to be perceived by the artist(s).
- Images are not syntactic; they do not have common elements with written language, in terms of syntax and how we have come to interpret them.
- When we observe sound art, whether it is a silence or at full volume, it reminds us we must listen very closely - it pulls the use of a specific sense we have that I think we might often take for granted; or we use it so frequently that certain abnormalities of that ability tend to pass us by unless we are asked to think about it. It reminds me of visual things we take for granted in a way - much of what we see is framed by what we know, and what we can assume from our past experiences. With sound, I think it could operate similarly, and some artworks can reflect those differences such as a room with no echoes or vibrations. It changes the experience of sound more than one could imagine.
- I think the lines between music and art are blurred, and that's OK. Within the contemporary world, I think genres exist but more or less they are getting broken down by works that tend to cross-over, or collaborate with other art forms. What makes one thing music and another thing art? I think it's the intention, and the "kind of art" it is. Popular art forms exist, as well as fine art forms, and they all find a way to simultaneously live or cross over in the reality of the art world as it is today. It all goes back to intention and how the work is framed to be perceived by the artist(s).
Linden Glendhill, colorful sound sculptures "making paint dance" for a Canon Pixma campaign
Monday, April 16, 2012
Final Project
My three words were: storytelling, audio, and painting and drawing.
When I think of storytelling and audio, I automatically think of artist/filmmaker Miranda July. She works with narrative storytelling often with her work, exploring stories of her own or mostly of strangers. I can't find the video, but I am thinking about the art her character make in "Me and You and Everyone we Know." From what I can remember, the character creates videos of found photographs and tells a narrative about the photograph. It's a simple but poignant way of imagining scenarios and inserting yourself into found materials. I was thinking about something similar.
When I think of storytelling and audio, I automatically think of artist/filmmaker Miranda July. She works with narrative storytelling often with her work, exploring stories of her own or mostly of strangers. I can't find the video, but I am thinking about the art her character make in "Me and You and Everyone we Know." From what I can remember, the character creates videos of found photographs and tells a narrative about the photograph. It's a simple but poignant way of imagining scenarios and inserting yourself into found materials. I was thinking about something similar.
Sound As Material: Lesson Plans
Lesson 1:
Exploring everyday sounds by collecting and recording sounds from your day, then using them together to make a sound art piece that describes the fluctuations of your day from quiet to loud - could become an interesting reflection to how different parts of our lives are characterized through sound and the noises we are surrounded by.
In a way, this project reminds me a line exploration project we did at TCCS where students varied lines to show the ups and the downs of their day - characterizing what they ate for breakfast, the drive to school, etc all through a singular line. How might a single clip describe an event, a feeling, a reaction?
Lesson 2:
Unusual sounds; learning to mix and amplify unusual materials to create interesting samples to create different effects; end experience could be to play in an empty room to see how it changes the atmosphere. Given the space and equipment, it could be great to experiment how the sounds and sound pieces change given the place - whether through headphones or an empty room to a loud room. Students could examine the impact of the space in which they listen. The second part of this is using unusual materials to create sounds - examining how cardboard sound when it is rubbed with a pipe cleaner or the swishing sounds of bubble wrap being crumpled. Could the bubble wrap sound be amplified in an empty space to reflect the crunching of leaves? What could this say? Etc.
Exploring everyday sounds by collecting and recording sounds from your day, then using them together to make a sound art piece that describes the fluctuations of your day from quiet to loud - could become an interesting reflection to how different parts of our lives are characterized through sound and the noises we are surrounded by.
In a way, this project reminds me a line exploration project we did at TCCS where students varied lines to show the ups and the downs of their day - characterizing what they ate for breakfast, the drive to school, etc all through a singular line. How might a single clip describe an event, a feeling, a reaction?
Lesson 2:
Unusual sounds; learning to mix and amplify unusual materials to create interesting samples to create different effects; end experience could be to play in an empty room to see how it changes the atmosphere. Given the space and equipment, it could be great to experiment how the sounds and sound pieces change given the place - whether through headphones or an empty room to a loud room. Students could examine the impact of the space in which they listen. The second part of this is using unusual materials to create sounds - examining how cardboard sound when it is rubbed with a pipe cleaner or the swishing sounds of bubble wrap being crumpled. Could the bubble wrap sound be amplified in an empty space to reflect the crunching of leaves? What could this say? Etc.
Sound Artist: Joseph Hoffman
Artist Joseph Hoffman, "Write Me Some Lines"
"Three different audio tracks travel through individual speakers randomly moving from one speaker to another throughout the installation. Some of the speakers are blown out and damaged causing erratic vibrations. The installation plays a 45 minute loop with a catalogue of several different blues songs with breaks in between each song. Each blues song is paired with abstract sounds"
Sound Artists: Russell Frehling
This video ... "illustrate[s] the process of fishing for resonant frequencies inherent in the architecture; a technique passed down by Russell Frehling, one of the many artists whose work is included in the show.
In his site-specific installation entitled Bass Soundfield Russell Frehling works with ambient waveforms extracted from the very highest parts of the audible spectrum: in effect, dissociating this sound material from its familiar context and experiential cues. What does remain are these remarkably ethereal bits that interact with the room in a captivating but confounding way."
In his site-specific installation entitled Bass Soundfield Russell Frehling works with ambient waveforms extracted from the very highest parts of the audible spectrum: in effect, dissociating this sound material from its familiar context and experiential cues. What does remain are these remarkably ethereal bits that interact with the room in a captivating but confounding way."
Monday, April 9, 2012
VIDEO IN THE CLASSROOM
1.
Experimenting with set creation, characters, and the camera. The lesson might allow students to experiment with materials to create a world for a video project. Students might partner up to create sets together using paint and cardboard, playing within the "frame" of a video and creating different props and masks to fulfill their overall idea, such as a trip to the future or a day in the jungle. Further exploration would require script writing and different elements of making a movie. A fun idea might be to create a background where students can poke their faces through and talk in a video, eliminating the need for many separate parts. This lesson might take cues from the videos of Michel Gondry that utilize everyday materials and "lo-fi" qualities to their full advantage.
2.
Video as documentation? Students might choose to make a video to document a day in their life; a way to show a portrait of themselves through making clips about their favorite activities. Similar to photo documentation but with video; ideally students would have access to video cameras and a lab to edit footage. They could also narrate a sequence of images in a still-image video. Time lapse could also be interesting.
Experimenting with set creation, characters, and the camera. The lesson might allow students to experiment with materials to create a world for a video project. Students might partner up to create sets together using paint and cardboard, playing within the "frame" of a video and creating different props and masks to fulfill their overall idea, such as a trip to the future or a day in the jungle. Further exploration would require script writing and different elements of making a movie. A fun idea might be to create a background where students can poke their faces through and talk in a video, eliminating the need for many separate parts. This lesson might take cues from the videos of Michel Gondry that utilize everyday materials and "lo-fi" qualities to their full advantage.
2.
Video as documentation? Students might choose to make a video to document a day in their life; a way to show a portrait of themselves through making clips about their favorite activities. Similar to photo documentation but with video; ideally students would have access to video cameras and a lab to edit footage. They could also narrate a sequence of images in a still-image video. Time lapse could also be interesting.
Ken Allen Studios
With digital photography, I think sometimes it is assumed that since the camera is doing it for us, how can our images still turn out so badly? Even with an SLR, the camera can make mistakes that wipe out details, turn the sky a strange blue, or be completely out of focus.
Seeing the level of detail they use to determine accurate color and resolution was eye-opening in a way because in our everyday prints, there is hardly a pause for when things are slightly pixelated and most of us produce photos on our iPhones anyway, instead of printing images - in that sense, we don't recognize poor resolution or quality in our photos because we never have to view them outside of our phones, Facebook albums, or computer screens. "Accuracy" is also not really emphasized with the onslaught of camera filters like Hipstamatic and Instagram that warp colors into a retro fashion. This doesn't mean the printed photograph means any less to us, especially when we think of fine art prints, but our ideas of documentation, how we use photographs - to capture moments, and memories - maybe has been altered and our approach to our memories altogether.
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