Taylor Dupree
Live in Madrid
May 25, 2005
Recorded live in Madrid, Spain, the artist has focused on using a minimalist approach. Taylor appears to be playing specific tunes on a piano to a live audience. As he is playing, there is a faint sound in the background of the audience often times heard coughing, sniffling, or at times making sudden movements. There is a bit of static in the background, but I believe he intends to do it to invoke his surroundings to the listener. Although there are mellow tunes being played, his minimalist approach allows for the listener to create their own melody. While I was listening to it I began to create a storyline in my mind as to what he was attempting to invoke with the sounds. I found that it was a tense feeling, one of despair that I had trouble making sense of. To a friend who I shared the piece with he said "It sounds like a piece from a horror movie." I was intrigued, the more the artist added to the melody, the more I was intrigued to hear. I was the audience and he was the orchestrator of the piece. Although horrified by the sound I was in tuned to wanting and expecting more from him. However intense the feeling became, the more I listened. And then I had it! The artist is attempting to captivate the place in our mind that keeps us (the viewer) from watching and waiting. A very human instinct that we ourselves question at times.
Allen Ginsberg
Vajra Mantra
April 15, 1972
Unlike the piece above, the artist has incorporated the tune of a mantra within a melodic rhythm. Although I have no clue what the speaker is saying, it appears as though he may either be giving praise (mantra) to what I would assume is God. It is a very intense and drawn out clip of what appears to be the same sentence repeated. When I looked up the definition of vajra it states that it's meaning comes from a Sanskrit meaning either Thunderbolt or Diamond. Mantra straight from Wiki states "syllable, word, or group of words that are considered capable of "creating transformation" (cf. spiritual transformation).[1] Their use and type varies according to the school and philosophy associated with the mantra." From the recording the vocalist appears to have strong and a rhythmic feel-like a thunderbolt. However, it is also captivating and beautiful like a diamond. Perhaps with this sound, the artist is attempting to invoke the beauty that is found within praise towards otherly worlds or even beings.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Saturday, January 22, 2011
First Post
The American Life 109: Notes on Camp
Originally aired August 28, 1998
By: WBEZ Ira Glass
This piece is about bridging the gap between campers and those who have not attended camp. The piece primarily focuses on one camp in Michigan, however often goes to other individuals experiences within their own camps. The narrator structures the broad cast in a light and airy voice that plays off the broadcaster like style of the clip. He begins the broadcast with a small prologue, transitioning from one sequence of the airing with a harmonica that often plays a tune similar to the emotion of the last scene. As a listener you become aware of the transitions as soon as you hear the melody of the harmonica playing in the background. After the prologue, he then begins to create a sense the atmosphere of the camp by beginning with the "Mr. Popular" whose persona demonstrates the familial like atmosphere that the councilors create for the campers. He then transitions into the specific routines that involved at a camp that many children take part of and enjoy.He does this in a way to sort of illustrate to the listener the manner in which this fun loving community really allows for children to let go of all of the inhibitions and constraints caused by daily suburban life. He allows us to enter the intimate bubble of camp life. I believe it is through his soothing and calm voice along with his descriptive illustrations of each sequence. There are no special effects the material appears in its rawest form. You hear the chirping of the birds, the crackling of the fire wood, the chants of the campers so clearly that you fell as if you were in the same room. Then he does something so marvelous-that I am really enthused that he did-he invited the outside world in to tell their camp stories. Stories that are so personal that I am at times brought to tears because of the sincerity and openness of the individual sharing their stories.
Janet Cardiff
Audio walks (Curated by Tom Eccles for the Public Art Fund (June 17 – September 13).
Dreams: Telephone series (2008-2010)
Monica Biagioli
Janet Cardiff is a Canadian Instillation artist who received notoriety for her Audio walks. Her audio walks, originally done in London allow for the listener to walk through the streets of London through the guide of Janet with a set of headphones. As I was listening, I was not aware of the location of where it took place in however was able to partake in the walk within my imagination because of her directions. I could imagine taking a walk down a street with the sound of footsteps being made in the background. I felt the hustle and bustle of the street, the singing of a man, and the distant recollection of another individual who once may have taken these same steps. I agree with Monica's description of the walks, it does allow for a sense of surrealism and a question of reality. Although I was not within the street, following the directions specifically the richness of sound and tone of the narrators reconstructed my reality. I was the walker being guided by the Janet through a metaphysical time in history.
Ashley Rober
She was a visitor
Created in 1967
"She was a Visitor" is an almost robotic like voice repeatedly repeating the statement "She was a visitor" throughout the entire track. Although there is a constant reciting of the statement there was also what appeared to me as a set of string instruments off in the distance. Some appeared closer than others creating the feeling of a tunnel like affect. I felt lost mostly, but transfixed on the narrator. I wanted to focus on the alternate sounds, but found that I wanted to follow the narrators voice. I did feel a sense of loss she was once here and now she is not, I am unable to focus on other things, but am asphyxiated with the past and the individual who is only referred to as she. I believe the artist did this so that the viewer can interpret on their own who is this woman, where are we physically and metaphysically. The barely audible sounds are heard, but it is definitely intentional to attempt to establish what they are but at the same time learn little about them.
John Cage
Excerpt from Silence: Disconnected
Created in 1930s
This is a mainly audio recording that appears like a poem. It follows a sequence that begins with the idea of a dirty filthy acts of Americans. Then talks of the manner in which Americans destroy the earth and nature. It appears as though he is attempting to illustrate to the listener the manner in which we attempt to control and structure our reality in a manner in which we can find tolerable. However the manner in which we do it affects nothing but the source we take it from. Greed destroys our society while creating its very fabric that holds it together. I believe the narrator chose to do it in this manner because it allowed for him to use art to illustrate to others the nature of society, which is mimicked in the poem itself.
Orson wells
The war of the worlds
October 30 1938
Narrated by Morgan Freeman in the beginning, creates a looming and frightening. I fell this way because of the tones in the background which creates a felling of gloom. The broadcast treats the audience as just that, an audience. The transitions with dancehall music appears appropriate to the time period, giving a steady and obvious transition for the audience to follow. The manner in which the broadcasters treated the broadcast as an ordinary broadcast illustrated the broadcaster's awareness of their role as societies main source of news and communication. When the broadcast goes blank, I felt a source of abandonment and freight because I was unaware of what was going to happen and if their was going to be an answer. I was sucked in and entrapped within the air of 1938, but when it was announced that it was all over and a joke, I only felt an overwhelming sense of anger.
Originally aired August 28, 1998
By: WBEZ Ira Glass
This piece is about bridging the gap between campers and those who have not attended camp. The piece primarily focuses on one camp in Michigan, however often goes to other individuals experiences within their own camps. The narrator structures the broad cast in a light and airy voice that plays off the broadcaster like style of the clip. He begins the broadcast with a small prologue, transitioning from one sequence of the airing with a harmonica that often plays a tune similar to the emotion of the last scene. As a listener you become aware of the transitions as soon as you hear the melody of the harmonica playing in the background. After the prologue, he then begins to create a sense the atmosphere of the camp by beginning with the "Mr. Popular" whose persona demonstrates the familial like atmosphere that the councilors create for the campers. He then transitions into the specific routines that involved at a camp that many children take part of and enjoy.He does this in a way to sort of illustrate to the listener the manner in which this fun loving community really allows for children to let go of all of the inhibitions and constraints caused by daily suburban life. He allows us to enter the intimate bubble of camp life. I believe it is through his soothing and calm voice along with his descriptive illustrations of each sequence. There are no special effects the material appears in its rawest form. You hear the chirping of the birds, the crackling of the fire wood, the chants of the campers so clearly that you fell as if you were in the same room. Then he does something so marvelous-that I am really enthused that he did-he invited the outside world in to tell their camp stories. Stories that are so personal that I am at times brought to tears because of the sincerity and openness of the individual sharing their stories.
Janet Cardiff
Audio walks (Curated by Tom Eccles for the Public Art Fund (June 17 – September 13).
Dreams: Telephone series (2008-2010)
Monica Biagioli
Janet Cardiff is a Canadian Instillation artist who received notoriety for her Audio walks. Her audio walks, originally done in London allow for the listener to walk through the streets of London through the guide of Janet with a set of headphones. As I was listening, I was not aware of the location of where it took place in however was able to partake in the walk within my imagination because of her directions. I could imagine taking a walk down a street with the sound of footsteps being made in the background. I felt the hustle and bustle of the street, the singing of a man, and the distant recollection of another individual who once may have taken these same steps. I agree with Monica's description of the walks, it does allow for a sense of surrealism and a question of reality. Although I was not within the street, following the directions specifically the richness of sound and tone of the narrators reconstructed my reality. I was the walker being guided by the Janet through a metaphysical time in history.
Ashley Rober
She was a visitor
Created in 1967
"She was a Visitor" is an almost robotic like voice repeatedly repeating the statement "She was a visitor" throughout the entire track. Although there is a constant reciting of the statement there was also what appeared to me as a set of string instruments off in the distance. Some appeared closer than others creating the feeling of a tunnel like affect. I felt lost mostly, but transfixed on the narrator. I wanted to focus on the alternate sounds, but found that I wanted to follow the narrators voice. I did feel a sense of loss she was once here and now she is not, I am unable to focus on other things, but am asphyxiated with the past and the individual who is only referred to as she. I believe the artist did this so that the viewer can interpret on their own who is this woman, where are we physically and metaphysically. The barely audible sounds are heard, but it is definitely intentional to attempt to establish what they are but at the same time learn little about them.
John Cage
Excerpt from Silence: Disconnected
Created in 1930s
This is a mainly audio recording that appears like a poem. It follows a sequence that begins with the idea of a dirty filthy acts of Americans. Then talks of the manner in which Americans destroy the earth and nature. It appears as though he is attempting to illustrate to the listener the manner in which we attempt to control and structure our reality in a manner in which we can find tolerable. However the manner in which we do it affects nothing but the source we take it from. Greed destroys our society while creating its very fabric that holds it together. I believe the narrator chose to do it in this manner because it allowed for him to use art to illustrate to others the nature of society, which is mimicked in the poem itself.
Orson wells
The war of the worlds
October 30 1938
Narrated by Morgan Freeman in the beginning, creates a looming and frightening. I fell this way because of the tones in the background which creates a felling of gloom. The broadcast treats the audience as just that, an audience. The transitions with dancehall music appears appropriate to the time period, giving a steady and obvious transition for the audience to follow. The manner in which the broadcasters treated the broadcast as an ordinary broadcast illustrated the broadcaster's awareness of their role as societies main source of news and communication. When the broadcast goes blank, I felt a source of abandonment and freight because I was unaware of what was going to happen and if their was going to be an answer. I was sucked in and entrapped within the air of 1938, but when it was announced that it was all over and a joke, I only felt an overwhelming sense of anger.
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