Turn Around Performance Video

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."

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.

(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.

(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.

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.