Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Video of the reception
The Puma Press made a video of the reception of my show and posted it on Youtube. Here is the link.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Reed Ghazala
Circuit bender- Reed Ghazala takes electronic toys and keyboards and turns them into devices capable of new and amazing sounds. Go to his website now!
Trimpin
I was reading a fascinating book from the library titled: "Musical Instrument Design" by Bart Hopkin that provides practical information on instrument making, when I noted a website by Hopkin called: windworld.com. It has a wonderful gallery of weird and fantastic instruments, old and new from around the world. On the site I learned about Trimpin-The Movie, currently making the rounds of independent movie festivals and which is a documentary of the genius inventor of musical art sculptures named Trimpin. Check it out!
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
"This is your Brain on Music...
is the title of a book by Daniel J. Levitin that explores the connection between music-its performances, its composition, how we listen to it, why we enjoy it-and the human brain."
I am enjoying this book a lot because it explains in laymen's terms the ways our brains interpret sounds, learn how to listen to music and recognize when notes are wrong, or when there are slight dis harmonies or discordance.
I am enjoying this book a lot because it explains in laymen's terms the ways our brains interpret sounds, learn how to listen to music and recognize when notes are wrong, or when there are slight dis harmonies or discordance.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Tuning
Last Wednesday (September 9) Dr. Brett Reed distributed a score he'd written a couple of years ago to the Percussion Ensemble. Titled: Tuning, it is written for eight percussionists and has a quote from David Antin meant to be illustrative of how a musician may approach the work:
"...for all of us who are alive there are those times when you have to carry your life as you've already lived it and know it to some other place where you have to present it the way you already know it to some kind of public of others you think is meaningful."
12 minutes long, the piece has geometric symbols for considerations by each player for certain moments within the piece where one or more players are playing independantly or ensemble, or somewhere in between. Also, there are descriptive words meant to influence a player at a given moment in how to play their part, depending on how they interpret the word: mangled, dark, primitive, brilliant, awkward, disintegrate, insistent, calm, constrictive, empty, dark, restrained, coolness, and moisture.
There are large rectangles that represent moments when a player is soloing, and at those times the other players are providing background sound. The most difficult moments are when the entire ensemble have to play three notes simultaneously and are quiet for a brief period together.
Understandably, it sounded like a trainwreck mostly, but we have one more practice period before the Saturday reception at which time we will perform the piece at 6pm.
This is not a traditional piece of music for me. I took piano lessons as a teenager, and was in the junior and high school bands, so am familiar with scores, and musical notations and the difficulty in playing an instrument so that the sounds match those of other players playing similar scores, or matching the sound I think I should be making according to my memory of the work by someone else.
This piece is more like the kind of artwork I enjoy making, the type where the interpretation and the production/performance is the result of interpretation on behalf of the artist/musician and on behalf of the audience. The result depends on how every participant perceives the work in the moment.
"...for all of us who are alive there are those times when you have to carry your life as you've already lived it and know it to some other place where you have to present it the way you already know it to some kind of public of others you think is meaningful."
12 minutes long, the piece has geometric symbols for considerations by each player for certain moments within the piece where one or more players are playing independantly or ensemble, or somewhere in between. Also, there are descriptive words meant to influence a player at a given moment in how to play their part, depending on how they interpret the word: mangled, dark, primitive, brilliant, awkward, disintegrate, insistent, calm, constrictive, empty, dark, restrained, coolness, and moisture.
There are large rectangles that represent moments when a player is soloing, and at those times the other players are providing background sound. The most difficult moments are when the entire ensemble have to play three notes simultaneously and are quiet for a brief period together.
Understandably, it sounded like a trainwreck mostly, but we have one more practice period before the Saturday reception at which time we will perform the piece at 6pm.
This is not a traditional piece of music for me. I took piano lessons as a teenager, and was in the junior and high school bands, so am familiar with scores, and musical notations and the difficulty in playing an instrument so that the sounds match those of other players playing similar scores, or matching the sound I think I should be making according to my memory of the work by someone else.
This piece is more like the kind of artwork I enjoy making, the type where the interpretation and the production/performance is the result of interpretation on behalf of the artist/musician and on behalf of the audience. The result depends on how every participant perceives the work in the moment.
Monday, September 7, 2009
A Paradigm Shift
I have undergone a significant change in my thinking about what to consider when making a work of art. Till recently, I thought of the visual art constituting a seperate body of work from the cooking, acting, singing, and dancing I have explored over the past few years. But now, I see that it is possible, and very desirable, to combine as many sensory stimuli as possible in order to provide the most provocative and interesting works. I realized just this week that allowing and encouraging viewers of the Musiciphilia exhibit to interact with the pieces, has increased the enjoyment and response to the work, much more than in any other exhibit of my work over almost 40 years.
When viewing an artwork such as a painting or sculpture, we have to use our visual organs to provide a window on the stimulus in front of us. Our brain has to connect the visual information with associations of objects, places and concepts in our experiences in order to complete the cycle of stimulus/response.
When we view a concert, or a dance performance, or a theatrical play we take in the movements, sounds, and concepts through our eyes and ears in a one way manner. We are not allowed to alter the presentation or we risk disrupting the experience for the performers and the other audience members.
But when we are in the world, we engage the world directly, by using our sense of smell to tell us about a place, an object, or a person. we use our hands and skin to tell us what an object, or place or person feels like. We use our tongue to tell us what a thing, or a place tastes like. We use our ears to know what an object, a place, or a person sounds like. And most of the time, these sensory experiences are jumbled together in random ways that combine to be what the real world is like. Of course, most of us have the benefit of our eyesight to tell us color, shape, texture, size, location and movement as well.
This realization has me thinking I need to incorporate more stimuli of more senses than just the eyes, especially when showing work in a gallery, or public setting. I need to find ways to stimulate the ears, hands, nose, and even the tongue, in the works I create. Plus, I need to create opportunities for viewers to create their own experience of my works by bringing their own skills to bear as if my works were instruments for the creation of stimuli. It is exciting to consider!
Imagine coming into a gallery space and coming up to an object on a pedestal. The shape and color are engaging to the eye and bring to mind a time and place through characteristics of the motifs and surface quality. When you reach out to touch the piece, the surface texture yields under pressure, as if it is made of a fleshy substance, not hard and unyielding as you expected. As you lean close to inspect further you inhale a mix of aromas that make you think of markets in exotic lands, and animal fur and fruit. You notice a label on the pedestal that instructs you to lift a lid off of a container built into the object and to remove one piece from inside. Due to the angle, you are unable to see inside the chamber after lifting the lid, so you stick your hand in with some anxiety, not knowing what might be inside. Your hand comes to rest on a bed of smooth stones and you pick one to lift out. As you remove the object your hand brushes against some hanging objects which move against each other and create a gentle tinkling sound. The object in your hand is a dark, rich colored round shape with an intriguging texture that reminds you of a seed. As you turn it in your hands it gives off a scent of spices and a feeling of warmth to your skin. You bring it to your mouth and hold it on your tongue. Your head is filled with a flavor of cocoa and lavender and something unknown but wonderfully enervating. As you savor the flavors in your mouth, and walk around the object you have a sense of knowing, and awareness that the object is something from the past, and a place far away, but somewhere you definitely want to visit.
This would be a great work of art.
When viewing an artwork such as a painting or sculpture, we have to use our visual organs to provide a window on the stimulus in front of us. Our brain has to connect the visual information with associations of objects, places and concepts in our experiences in order to complete the cycle of stimulus/response.
When we view a concert, or a dance performance, or a theatrical play we take in the movements, sounds, and concepts through our eyes and ears in a one way manner. We are not allowed to alter the presentation or we risk disrupting the experience for the performers and the other audience members.
But when we are in the world, we engage the world directly, by using our sense of smell to tell us about a place, an object, or a person. we use our hands and skin to tell us what an object, or place or person feels like. We use our tongue to tell us what a thing, or a place tastes like. We use our ears to know what an object, a place, or a person sounds like. And most of the time, these sensory experiences are jumbled together in random ways that combine to be what the real world is like. Of course, most of us have the benefit of our eyesight to tell us color, shape, texture, size, location and movement as well.
This realization has me thinking I need to incorporate more stimuli of more senses than just the eyes, especially when showing work in a gallery, or public setting. I need to find ways to stimulate the ears, hands, nose, and even the tongue, in the works I create. Plus, I need to create opportunities for viewers to create their own experience of my works by bringing their own skills to bear as if my works were instruments for the creation of stimuli. It is exciting to consider!
Imagine coming into a gallery space and coming up to an object on a pedestal. The shape and color are engaging to the eye and bring to mind a time and place through characteristics of the motifs and surface quality. When you reach out to touch the piece, the surface texture yields under pressure, as if it is made of a fleshy substance, not hard and unyielding as you expected. As you lean close to inspect further you inhale a mix of aromas that make you think of markets in exotic lands, and animal fur and fruit. You notice a label on the pedestal that instructs you to lift a lid off of a container built into the object and to remove one piece from inside. Due to the angle, you are unable to see inside the chamber after lifting the lid, so you stick your hand in with some anxiety, not knowing what might be inside. Your hand comes to rest on a bed of smooth stones and you pick one to lift out. As you remove the object your hand brushes against some hanging objects which move against each other and create a gentle tinkling sound. The object in your hand is a dark, rich colored round shape with an intriguging texture that reminds you of a seed. As you turn it in your hands it gives off a scent of spices and a feeling of warmth to your skin. You bring it to your mouth and hold it on your tongue. Your head is filled with a flavor of cocoa and lavender and something unknown but wonderfully enervating. As you savor the flavors in your mouth, and walk around the object you have a sense of knowing, and awareness that the object is something from the past, and a place far away, but somewhere you definitely want to visit.
This would be a great work of art.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Percussion ensemble
Last night was the first night of the semester for the Percussion Ensemble class taught by Brett Reed. I decided to enroll in the class because I want to be able to understand more about traditional and non traditional percussion music and musical instruments as I know I will be continuing to explore the sound aspects of the ceramics I make in the future.
There are eight students in the class. There is a wide range of experience ranging from a couple of guys who were in their high school marching and concert bands as drummers, one guy who has been playing a drum set for seven years, and four others who have little or no experience directly in drumming, but, like myself have an interest in learning more. It seems like the perfect kind of group for me to fit into.
Brett explained that we will learn how to play several pieces of music, some traditional and some experimental. He even said he will provide scores that the class can perform on my pieces now on display at the reception on September 19! I am very excited at the prospect.
Brett suggested reading Steve Schick's book: "The Percussionist's Art", which is in our library.
There are eight students in the class. There is a wide range of experience ranging from a couple of guys who were in their high school marching and concert bands as drummers, one guy who has been playing a drum set for seven years, and four others who have little or no experience directly in drumming, but, like myself have an interest in learning more. It seems like the perfect kind of group for me to fit into.
Brett explained that we will learn how to play several pieces of music, some traditional and some experimental. He even said he will provide scores that the class can perform on my pieces now on display at the reception on September 19! I am very excited at the prospect.
Brett suggested reading Steve Schick's book: "The Percussionist's Art", which is in our library.
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