the new performer by sheila malone

as i was reading this article, the first definition malone includes of performance jumped out at me. — “simple definition of performance is : that which is feigned or pretended.” — I thought this was an inadequate definition. How do musicians necessarily feign or pretend? If one were playing a piece, like the one Thomas showed us that he will perform with his colleague Pauline, that has textual and visual descriptions of a quality or feeling that the musicians want to arrive at, then I could see where the notion of feigning or pretending comes into play. The performers are feigning in so that they are attempting to make us believe in a certain quality or emotion. But not all music is arranged this way. What if a musician was playing notes just for the aurally pleasing sounds they made? Where is the feigning or pretending there?

later on she introduced another definition of performance that i understood more: “anything involving action, interaction, time, and space is performance.” nothing came to my mind that seemed to contradict this definition.

“With the age of the computer, visual, aural, and text are combined as mediums for the performer to describe and rescribe the world around and within.” — performing is all about commenting on the world in which we live. computers are a huge part of our world now, so it’s only reasonable that they would become not only a focal part of the context of performances and the venue in which they are performed, but the performers as well. Yet still, the description of the “Nowhere Band” with Ralph as the main musician kinda weirded me out. I can intellectually understand why and how computers are becoming involved in the performing themselves, but it is still so foreign to me that it just seems completely unnecessary and extremely nerdy. But this is just my snap judgement, and I’m sure will be changed soon.

Two readings for 11/28

I saw the two readings as discussions about how technology has immersed into contemporary culture.  One of the main ideas from the deLahunta paper was that technology is certainly affecting the performing arts, and to remain competitive in a society where people have the freedom of choice, all forms of art must adapt to new cultural phenonmena.  The author states that innovations such as the internet has changed the way we perceive information and therefore, live performances must also take on a more interactive form in order to retain their appeal.  Essentially, it is because we have more choices now that artists/performers must create even more choices in order to stand out from the crowd.  Both readings hinted the societal complaint/mockery towards information overload.  In this context, it is clear where that came from.

june

Performance Art using Technology

Over the course of the semester we always complained about how hard it was to get a feeling for the Art through the readings. This one seems to be the hardest one yet. Not surprising, seeing as how it is practically impossible to even capture performance art like this is a still image. What really helped me get more of an idea of it was looking at the Troika Ranch’s website. They did a pretty good job of describing what they do. I imagine this kind of a performance would be a lot of fun for the dancer as they can alter the ’show’ any moment just by making a different movement.
What both articles brought up was how nowadays an abundance of technology has become so normal that we hardly even notice all the places it is used and where it plays huge rolls. One example given was at rock concerts. However, even at what we consider more traditional performances (like operas for example) a huge amount of technology is used. Though the articles focus on how technology is used directly and obviuosly to alter the on-stage show, I think one should also keep in mind how big a difference technology is making even in situations where it isn’t the center of attention.
clara

Mass MoCA

At Mass MoCA I found three exhibits/art works perticularly interesting. One of them was the Amusement Park by Carsten Höller. I thought it was interesting how seeing these rides in such a different environment could change the experience so much and also lead to interesting thoughts and feelings. The rides are set up in a big warehouse like hall with dimmed-light. They are moving very slowly and only some of the lights are on. Those which are on, turn on and off with fairly long intervals in between. Usually, people go to amusement parks to have fun. While one is there, one normally kind of forgets one’s real life and is just engrossed by the fast-paced rides and games and all the sounds and noise surrounding one. This experience in the exhibition is pretty much the exact opposite. It is darker, and qieter, and slower. This gave me several different feelings. At first, in a way it felt like an amusement park ride graveyard. It seemd sad. Like all these rides had seen better days and had now been discarded for newer ‘better’ rides. As though nobody wanted them anymore and here they were still blinking their light and circling around, just without any enthusiasm anymore because they had been rejected. Then, it also reminded me of memories. as though the whole thing was somebody’s memory, and I was walking around in it. It seemed as though somebody was remembering in slow motion, what his childhood days used to be like. Interestingly enough, due to the darkness, the slow’ness’ and the silence, the rides seemed bigger than they do at actual amusement parks. Perhaps this is because at amusement parks there are so many things going on that you don’t actually take the time to really look at anthing. Bacause you are taking everything in, you actually only take very little in. Here in this situation, standing so close to the rides and with nothing else to distract, you realise how small you are next to these machines. In an amusement park, the noise, lights and excitement drown out one’s thoughts. Putting these rides in a different setting provokes thoughts.
What I thought was very interesting about the Bat Project IV is that it was so intense that Jenn and I couldn’t even bring ourselves to enter the plane. This was part of a plane and it was full of bats which were hanging from every part of the plane. It gave me the impression of being the remnants of an old plane crash. I could just imagine how then over time bats would make this place their home. Not a very pleasant or comforting thing to be confronted with. It surprised me that there was a piece of art in a museum that is so intense that I would not be able to bring myself to completly view it ( not go inside it ). Mostly, we go into museums and feel like we know what to expect.
The other art piece which I like a lot is called Travel Guide for 2000-2042. It is a map of the world which is cut in a thin slice which twist around kind of like an apple peel. Then there are markers in all different places which tell you for that place and in which year what kind of catastrophe is going to happen there. Most of them are natural catastrophes. I think this is very fitting for our times seeing as we can not deny anymore that natural catastrohes are becoming more frequent and more extreme too. This piece reminds of us that and shows us what the world will look like if we continue like this.

*Clara

Moitri’s 2nd Event: Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago IL

Over Thanksgivng break I went to Chicago and visited the Museum of Contemporary Art while I was there. There was an exhibit called Massive Change the Future of Global Design. It was prepared by Bruce Mau who has lectured throughout North America and Europe. He has been in the field of design for over twenty-five years and has won many awards. Massive Change was created to show its viewers how our everyday actions influence design and structure.

The entire first floor of the MCA held this exhibition. There was a long room that had six screens that were placed side by side. Each had its own projector projecting different videos on each of the six screens. What was interesting was that these screens weren’t flat like we’re used to. Instead they all had sculptures of a city and it’s tall scy scrapers (see image here). At some points all the 6 screens showed the same image. While these changing images were playing there was a voice over. It was a woman who was telling us about how the human population will become 9 billion by the year 2050. She was telling us the pros and cons of the cities that we have now in different parts of the world–developed and developing countries. Basically we need to be able to produce “sustainable cities” to be able to accomodate the increasing populations of the world.

He was using the techonologies that we had discussed in class such as videos, sound, projectors, looping videos/voice overs. Along with the videos he also had a few sculptures on the opposite side of the wall. They were see-through spheres that were hung from the ceilings. Each sphere had an image inside that cut the sphere into hemispheres. And on top of the see-through spheres were text that made the viewers think about how they could make the environment cleaner or how would one sustain cities to provide for all of its inhabitants. Since these spheres were hung from the wall they were always turning and so if you wanted to read the entire text you had to turn around.

In another room there were kiosks of some sort where there were individual screens for individual viewers. These were interactive in the way that to be able to watch the video from the beginning you had to scan a bar code into the machine. Then it would start playing from the beginning. You could increase and decrease the volume. In addition to those features you could also touch the screen at some points to go from screen to screen. The Micro Kiosks were provided by Symbol Technology.

These two pieces of art were among other pieces that were also created by the same artist. The others were more informational than interactive or digital media. What I really liked about the piece was how strongly the author wanted to get his word out about sustainable cities and how to save energy so that we all can survive at the rate that we are growing in. He provided us information about cars and energy-saving cars and about cities and how we can grow our food on top of buildings if we have land and vegetation there.

In my previous blog I mentioned how a ‘good’ art would be presented by invoking some sort of uncomfortableness in a viewer but then also providing the viewer with a solution for that uncomfortableness.  Bruce Mau had many solutions to our growing population. We don’t know to what extent they will work but at least he contributed.
|Moitri|

Moitri’s 1st Event: Mt. Holyoke College Art Museum

The first event that I wanted to go to was to Mass MOCA, but traffic was bad so my friend and I drove to the museum in Mt. Holyoke instead. It was a cute sized museum. It didn’t have any interactive media art, but it had a nice collection of paintings and sculptures if you want to take a look at some of them:

• Jane Hammond: Paper Work
• Looking Beneath the Surface: The Quabbin and Hetch Hetchy Canyon
• Heads and Tales: Portraits and Propaganda on Classical Coins
• Asian Art from the Sackler Foundation

There were paintngs there that were based on black  ink. This is where black is used to creat other colors. For instance my friend who is an artist was telling me that he would never use black paint and white paint to make gray. He would use something else like blue and orange perhaps, because using black just makes the entire painting have a dark “layer” over it, which I really liked. I liked it because the black makes all the other colors look brighter. It makes yellows look like gold.

There were these other paintings that used colors that weren’t produced by mixing other colors. The paints looked like paintings done by a child. I don’t mean to say that the quality of the painting looked immature, but the colors looked very familiar. Something similar to what I did when I was a child. It was nice to see those colors up on a gallery wall.

Later on my friend and I were talking about how to present a piece of artwork. We discussed that for something to be good art, the art work should create a sense of chaos or some sort of uncomfortablness in the viewer. But then for something to be really good art then the chaos that the piece created should be resolved as well by the artist. Then the viewer can leave with a sense of relief and will be satisfied with the art work.

Overall, I liked the experience of the museum even though I didn’t see any media art. I learned about the use of colors and how to present a pice of work that’ll not only stirr the viewers emotions but also put it at rest.
|Moitri|

Ciufo paper

Sensors are implemented to pick up certain signals or certain signalsor certain combinations of signals.  Once the intended signal(s) is detected, a series of events are triggered.  The idea is to come up with a system that is so complicated that the algorithm is not readily decodable, thus simulating an illusion of unpredictability and chaos.  I am wondering whether the system was programmed with a certain general effect in mind, or was the programming completely random and/or affected by the limitations of the technology employed.  Why is it, for instance, that in the Ciufo instrument, the frequencies of the eight most prominent sine waves were analyzed?  This seems to be influenced by the fact that the less prominent sine waves cannot be detected as easily.  If this is the case, then as technology improves, these types of interactive improvisional systems would certainly evolve.  In traditional music,  one can typically tell which decade a certain song is from– it would be interesting if the same is observed for the types of improvisional music discussed in the Ciufo paper.   -june

Shirley Shor’s Landslide

I decided to go to the Berkeley Art Museum instead of the San Francisco MoMa for mostly practical purposes – it is a lot easier to get to from my Grandma’s house and I don’t know my way around San Francisco. Having been there, I am really glad I went to that museum. It has several exhibitions at a time and all of them are very interesting. They are all not your typical art gallery exchibitions (in my opinion of ‘typical’ anyway). They are all pretty contemporary and have a theme. One, for example, (I presume this is a more permanent one) has things (paintings, photography, actual artifacts) from or of the Bay Area.
The piece I thought was the most interesting and goes along best with our class is called Landslide and is by an artist called Shirley Shor. It is set up in a kind of black box. This is probably mainly for the purpose of making the projection easier to see. On the floor there is a sandbox. Aboce it, on the ceiling, there is a projector which is projecting a kind of animated map onto the sand. Due to this projection I probably wouldn’t even have guessed that it was sand (the sandbox was mentioned as one of the used materials and therefore I knew to look more carefully). The animated map being projected onto the sandbox is made using a computer program which the artist created herself. The map is always changing and, according to the description of the piece, it never repeats itself. I think the artist was really smart to project it onto a sanbox. The project would not be as good without it. The sand creates the impression of a real landscape with hills.
Perticularly interesting is the fact that the artist grew up in Israel. I would not be surprised if the ever-changing map reflects teh situation which she has grown up with. Borders are oftentimes too political and do not reflect reality. They are very politcal. How can politicians and armies decide that one country should end in a certain place if the natural borders and the natural landscape is always changing?
I love how this project which is probably actually fairly simple, can say so much and address so many issues. In a way, this fits into what we had talked about it class: one can make an istallation piece without it actually being impossibly difficult. Though Landscape is impressive and well set-up, it is actually only using fairly simple technology. It entails some programming, knowledge of animation, a projector and a sanbox. These are fairly basic things which we could all figure out if we wanted to.
Another nice thing about the Berkeley Art Museum is that despite it having several interesting exhibitions it was aslo not overbearing. It was the perfect amount. After having gone through it, I was satisfied with what I had seen, but it wasn’t too much for me too handle either. I think it is great when Museums manage that balance!

oh, I’m also including an image of the sandbox (there are actually two pictures of it at different times) which I scanned in from the museum brochure. I hope this helps to give you and idea of the piece. Also, if something is unclear to you from my description, just ask

-clara

Interactive Improvisational Music Systems — straying thoughts

Reading this article would have been monstrous if I had not seen you earlier introduce Eighth Nerve and explain many of the things mentioned in the paper to us. Seeing the visual component was a real big help. Although I have no desire to ever produce a mediated performance myself, understanding why one might want to do so and the components and also the challenges faced while engaging in such activity is interesting. Near the end of the paper, you quote Wanderley and say “hybrid systems using both of these control methods ‘can potentially outperform single acquisition systems.’” It just made me think about the prominence hybrid systems, and the idea of a hybrid, have achieved lately. We as a society seem to be moving away from the idea of a single, specialized device. We all want our phones to also be internet browsers AND alarm clocks AND little gossip fairies, etc, etc, as well as being a phone. The “best” to us now seems to be not something that is the BEST at being a PHONE (continuing this example): the best phone isn’t going to be the phone that gets the best reception, produces the clearest input and output, etc. These ‘phone’ qualities are not the defining qualities of the phone any longer. Instead now the ‘best’ phone will exhibit various other qualities: mini computer, camera, shopper, and probably many more functionalities as well. The ‘best’ phone is probably something in reality that is quite far away from the idea of a phone. Pretty soon the whole idea of a phone, or anything else for that matter, could be changed. I’m really tired so I don’t think I’m making a lot of sense, and I know this strain of thought is not what your article was mainly about, but it’s what I left the article thinking about.

I like that phones aren’t phones. I like that soon we won’t really know what to call our daily devices, since they’re so far from their single-use ancestors. It’s pretty exciting, because when we reach that point, we’re going to have to either struggle with creating new names for all our products, very interesting in itself, attempt to do away with the whole notion of naming, labeling, and constraining things, which I would be FASCINATED to see.

– janel

Design Concepts and Control Strategies for Interactive Improvisational Music Systems—Ciufo

I really like the spectrum that was drawn between an instrument and an electronic musical instrument that would compliment the instrument. To the far left of the spectrum the hybrid instrument is deterministic. The output of the electronic musical instrument is completely predictable. To the far right of the spectrum the instrument is not deterministic; its output is completely unpredictable. This gives the composer flexibility with the hybridized instrument.

 

I think the music that would result from this hybridized instrument would be a complete reflection of the musician. If someone likes to have control over things, then she would be on the far left side of the spectrum. And if someone was brave and curious then she’d be on the far right of the spectrum.

 

I know that music in itself can be expressive, regardless of it being a “normal” instrument or a hybridized instrument, but having the second option feels like it could be something more expressive. To be honest if I were given a hybridized instrument, I wouldn’t know what to do with it. I would probably just explore the different sounds it produced in the spectrum and then put the instrument down. I would feel too embarrassed to play it and have it be heard by someone. But then since a hybridized instrument isn’t very common, perhaps the listeners wouldn’t be able to judge me. It would be like very abstract art—they wouldn’t know what to make of it.

|Moitri|