Monday, February 28, 2011
Video Stills
The possibility stands that I could be displaying photos with recorded audio of the performances instead of videos on multiple monitors. This emphasizes sound over moving image. Above are stills taken from the video for the performance "Five Stages - Getting To Know the Stage."
Sunday, February 27, 2011
One For Violin (1962)
It seems that instrument smashing is not a stranger to art either. Nam June Paik performing One for Violin during NEO-DADA in der Musik.
Below is a video of the performance being re-inacted.
(click on images to enlarge)
Below is a video of the performance being re-inacted.
Body Pressure (1974)
Body Pressure
Press as much of the front surface of
your body (palms in or out, left or right cheek)
against the wall as possible.
Press very hard and concentrate.
Form an image of yourself (suppose you
had just stepped forward) on the
opposite side of the wall pressing
back against the wall very hard.
Press very hard and concentrate on the image pressing very hard.
(the image of pressing very hard)
press your front surface and back surface
toward each other and begin to ignore or
block the thickness of the wall. (remove
the wall)
Think how various parts of your body
press against the wall; which parts
touch and which do not.
Consider the parts of your back which
press against the wall; press hard and
feel how the front and back of your
body press together.
Concentrate on the tension in the muscles,
pain where bones meet, fleshy deformations that occur under pressure; consider
body hair, perspiration, odors (smells).
This may become a very erotic exercise.
Bruce Nauman, Body Pressure, 1974, (c) 2002 Bruce Nauman /Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Breathing Exercises - Instructions
Here are the set of instructions I read in the performance Breathing Exercises to Raise the Collective Heart Rate and Forget About Your Butterflies.
for Performer and/or Audience
1. Stand up straight, hands at your sides, chest out, head facing forward with your chin up.
2. Inhale, slowly raising your arms from your sides up above your head.
3. Repeat as many times as desired.
4. After repeating step 2 enough times begin to incorporate the body in the upward motion created by the arms (i.e. standing on the tips of your toes, jumping, etc.). Breathing rate can increase as well.
5. Rn around your stage performing steps 2 through 4. (Participating audience members may run in place or in a small circle)
6. Continue running until your heart rate has increased noticeably and/or fatigue has set in.
7. Stop.
8. Cool down by repeating steps 2 and shaking your hand and feet.
for Performer and/or Audience
1. Stand up straight, hands at your sides, chest out, head facing forward with your chin up.
2. Inhale, slowly raising your arms from your sides up above your head.
3. Repeat as many times as desired.
4. After repeating step 2 enough times begin to incorporate the body in the upward motion created by the arms (i.e. standing on the tips of your toes, jumping, etc.). Breathing rate can increase as well.
5. Rn around your stage performing steps 2 through 4. (Participating audience members may run in place or in a small circle)
6. Continue running until your heart rate has increased noticeably and/or fatigue has set in.
7. Stop.
8. Cool down by repeating steps 2 and shaking your hand and feet.
(Glitch) Music and Video Performance
In Chicago I had the opportunity to check out an exhibition at the Jennifer Norback Gallery (a small gallery a few blocks from the MCA) that UF alumn Wesley Wilson had a piece in. There I met a few artists that were working in the mixing of digital media and experimental music.
James Connolly and Kyle Evans were amazing. Totally agonizing to listen to but fantastic at the same time.
Spencer Hutchinson, the artist who organized the exhibition in collaboration with Jennifer Norback, had some really great pieces as well including one entitled Video Performance #1 with Affected Turntable (2010).
The piece used a hardware hacked mattel mindflex toy to control the operation of a belt driven turntable. The brainwave energy picked up by the mindflex sensor was transformed to a variable electric current to control the playback of original sound pieces on an custom cut vinyl record.
James Connolly and Kyle Evans were amazing. Totally agonizing to listen to but fantastic at the same time.
Spencer Hutchinson, the artist who organized the exhibition in collaboration with Jennifer Norback, had some really great pieces as well including one entitled Video Performance #1 with Affected Turntable (2010).
The piece used a hardware hacked mattel mindflex toy to control the operation of a belt driven turntable. The brainwave energy picked up by the mindflex sensor was transformed to a variable electric current to control the playback of original sound pieces on an custom cut vinyl record.
Artifact
Keith Buchholz, one of the organizers of the FluxFest, performed a variation of Release (you can see the score for the performance in the scan of the book in the previous post) in which he smashed a mug from the MCA gift shop on the floor and placed the broken pieces in envelopes that he handed out to members of the audience. I was lucky enough to receive an artifact.
Fluxus Scores
While I was in Chicago I got to sit through three days of Fluxus performances (some of which I got to participate in) enacted in the main lobby area of museum. Here are a few scores they performed that they also handed out to the audience.
What I realized most about the Fluxus performances was that a lot of them were just plain old fun. One thing I think I had forgotten about in all my attempts to locate my work in academia was "play." I forgot about playing - playing music, playing the stage, playing characters, etc.
I had some wonderful conversations with Nancy Tien - a former sculpture undergrad from UF who's now in the performance department at SAIC - about performing, play, trust, absurdity, and fun. It was really refreshing. The simplicity of the performances caught me off guard at first. I found myself thinking a lot of it was dumb...until I participated in a few of the performances. While some were more successful than others I found that the space of the gallery itself changed. The relationship between audience members that were willing to participate and those that weren't changed. The relationship between the artists and the audience members changed. And probably most important of all - it was all relatively accessible. I think more people (including myself) were more confused at times because of the absurdity of the performances and not because they were over intellectualized. They were simple and poignant. I enjoyed that about them.
(click on images to view larger version)
What I realized most about the Fluxus performances was that a lot of them were just plain old fun. One thing I think I had forgotten about in all my attempts to locate my work in academia was "play." I forgot about playing - playing music, playing the stage, playing characters, etc.
I had some wonderful conversations with Nancy Tien - a former sculpture undergrad from UF who's now in the performance department at SAIC - about performing, play, trust, absurdity, and fun. It was really refreshing. The simplicity of the performances caught me off guard at first. I found myself thinking a lot of it was dumb...until I participated in a few of the performances. While some were more successful than others I found that the space of the gallery itself changed. The relationship between audience members that were willing to participate and those that weren't changed. The relationship between the artists and the audience members changed. And probably most important of all - it was all relatively accessible. I think more people (including myself) were more confused at times because of the absurdity of the performances and not because they were over intellectualized. They were simple and poignant. I enjoyed that about them.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Andy Kaufman
Do you give the audience what they want? How much do you make them endure?
Andy Kaufman reads The Great Gatsby (embedding disabled upon request - otherwise I'd have the damn thing on here)
Andy Kaufman becomes Elvis Presley (embedding is also denied on this video - f*ck this youtube user as well)
I particularly like how Andy has a pre-recorded laugh track for this "improv" sketch:
Andy Kaufman reads The Great Gatsby (embedding disabled upon request - otherwise I'd have the damn thing on here)
Andy Kaufman becomes Elvis Presley (embedding is also denied on this video - f*ck this youtube user as well)
I particularly like how Andy has a pre-recorded laugh track for this "improv" sketch:
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Performance Videos
Here are some videos of the performances I'm putting together. They're definitely not complete or fully fleshed out but I like where they are headed - particularly some of the more absurd interactions I'm having with the stage. Much more room for additions and improvements by way of voice and character and purposefully using the multiple tiers of my stage to affect the performance. Everything so far has been relatively silent.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Star Slinger
One of my favorite DJs/producers that I haven't been able to stop listening to. He basically uses a drum/sample machine to mix his songs, often sampling from old soul records and filtering them to make them sound spacey. He's gaining a lot of notoriety now and is a great example of a genre of DJ-ing called "controllerism."
I just love the overall "glitchy" feel to the music. It's not part of the Glitch genre but it's getting there. I can imagine the recording of my voice - or some other kind of audio - blipping, repeating, looping, glitching like this.
His newest music video that reflects his "spacey" sound well: "Morning"
Performing live in a comic book shop:
Ean Golden remixes the White Stripes:
In the end, I'd like my audio interface to operate in similar fashion. Maybe not for remixing songs (or perhaps I could - I'd have to have a reason for appropriating the act of DJ-ing) but definitely for manipulating and looping audio.
I just love the overall "glitchy" feel to the music. It's not part of the Glitch genre but it's getting there. I can imagine the recording of my voice - or some other kind of audio - blipping, repeating, looping, glitching like this.
His newest music video that reflects his "spacey" sound well: "Morning"
Star Slinger - Mornin' Directed by Alan Jensen from Star Slinger on Vimeo.
Performing live in a comic book shop:
Star Slinger - Elizabeth Fraser (Live) from Star Slinger on Vimeo.
Ean Golden remixes the White Stripes:
In the end, I'd like my audio interface to operate in similar fashion. Maybe not for remixing songs (or perhaps I could - I'd have to have a reason for appropriating the act of DJ-ing) but definitely for manipulating and looping audio.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Vito Acconci
A reference/connection I won't be able to avoid - in fact I don't dare avoid it. I certainly won't be masturbating beneath my stage, but I will be thinking about my audience and their presence in the gallery.
Norman McLaren
Mark-making becomes visuals becomes music:
McLaren also made films of performances/dances. Here is a work entitled Pas de Deux split into two parts:
Pat. 1
Pt. 2
Mark-Making/Scores
Here are some examples of composers who took the idea of a compositional score and bent it. The visual represented the concept - music and composition through indeterminacy and chance. Many of them were called "Mobile Works" because they were written in separated parts, allowing for the performer to choose when and what to play as well as what order it is played in. Ultimately, authorship comes in to question - is it the composer's piece because they wrote the score? Or does it become the performer's piece because their interpretation changes the piece from performance to performance? I like the blurriness of definitions there.
Anthony Braxton
Christian Wolff
Sylvano Bussotti
Cornelius Cardew
Anthony Braxton
Christian Wolff
Sylvano Bussotti
Cornelius Cardew
Chalkboard (2010)
A picture I posted below from the Economist article that I linked up is of this piece. Marclay's new work brings together two things I'm interested in: participation and scores.
Guitar Drag (2000)
One of my favorite pieces by Marclay - I love the references to rock and roll and guitar smashing. I don't know why I never made the connection (until now) between this piece and my own work Attempts at Guitar Smashing.
Making Marks
There's No Sound In My Head from lateral on Vimeo.
Documentary by Robert Arnold about Mark Applebaum's Metaphysics of Notation.
Available on DVD at: http://innova.mu/artist1.asp?skuID=436
This documentary about Mark Applebaum's process of making music and scores was really inspiring. Thoughts about interpretation, artistic license, authorship, mark-making, performance are swimming through my head. For a while I've toyed with the idea of having some kind of score available for the audience, based on the performance.
Yves Klein
Yves Klein and his anthropometries - mark making with the body:
Another video of a different performance - this time with a small orchestra performing alongside the painting. Unfortunately no sound in the video but I do enjoy Klein's pairing of music and painting. Also in the video is Klein making his fire paintings.
Another video of a different performance - this time with a small orchestra performing alongside the painting. Unfortunately no sound in the video but I do enjoy Klein's pairing of music and painting. Also in the video is Klein making his fire paintings.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Christian Marclay
A blog I came across after conducting some research about Christian Marclay - Some Assembly Required. Put together by Jon Nelson, host and producer of a radio program of the same name.
Art in America article about Marclay's work - by Carol Diehl.
A Slave To the Rhythm - The Economist
Documentary:
A photo collage of Tatlin's Tower
The Stagehand's Unseen
Olympus Manger, Scene II
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