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).

Linden Glendhill, colorful sound sculptures "making paint dance" for a Canon Pixma campaign

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.

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.

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."

VIDEO REMIX

VIDEO from michelle lee on Vimeo.