collab of fields

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUeE0nkEhrE
awsome collaboration of art, body and music

Sync #8

33 degrees 50 minutes South composed and performed by SynC, which is the duo, Michael Atherton (ancient and contemporary acoustic instruments) and Garth Paine (computer, control surface, sensors). Focusing on the interface between acoustic and electronic music, SynC is an experimental ensemble for acoustic instruments and live electronics. This composition and performance collaboration seeks to contextualise ancient and modern musical languages within a single form. It does so by utilising ancient and contemporary acoustic musical instruments (eg. oud, hurdy-gurdy, gongs, marimba, and percussion) as the sonic foundation for complex live electronic processes, which generate a vast array of timbral environments, responsive to the acoustic input, but simultaneously independent. Wacom drawing table and Wii controllers are used as multidimensional control surface and sensors in live performance, allowing the duo to discard the constraints of the laptop. SynC was one of 20 international ensembles selected to perform at IRCAM in the Centre Pompidou for NIME Paris (2006), and for NIME New York (2007).  This was a very cool performance I liked the timberal difference and the texture. First when i watched this video I thought that Garth pain was taking notes on stage but then i realized that was like a wii electronic device that gave impulses and controled electronic sound.  I thought it was a very affective use of percussion instruments thought I would want to hear more deeper percussion instruments.  When the chimes came in I liked the very deep sound and it felt like there was something like specialization used because to me it felt like the Waa sound spread apart. I thought the electroacoustics were pretty sweet because its like they were projecting wildnerness music, like birds and water bubbling in water fall i liked that because it added a right character to the piece. Felt very outdorsy, which is something new because usually instruments do not sound like they are outside and in this composition it does to me.

http://vimeo.com/6777013

Party Pieces: Sonorous and Exquisite Corpses

This composition, written in 1945, was a collaborative effort of John Cage, Lou Harrison, Henry Cowell, and Virgil Thomson. The way it was composed is this: one person would compose a measure of music plus two more notes (starting the next measure); he would fold the paper at the barline (thus concealing the full measure he had written), then pass it to the next composer, who would continue the piece from the two notes he could see, completing that measure plus two notes across the barline, fold and pass it to the next person, and so forth. The composition is divided into twenty short pieces, each being about half a minute long on average. Not all of the four composers were involved in each particular piece. Two of the pieces (the first and the seventh) were composed by Cage and Harrison alone; the rest of the pieces involved three composers each. Of the four composers, only Cage and Harrison had their hands in all twenty pieces. Thomson joined Harrison and Cage for six of the pieces, and Cowell participated in twelve. The work was originally scored for 'any melody or keyboard instruments'. The instrumentation at the public premiere, in August 1982, was for flute, clarinet, horn, bassoon, and piano. The entire composition lasts approximately ten minutes. On a whole, I think the work is well-paced, with the twenty pieces contrasting well with each other, while yet maintaining a certain cohesion as a unified composition. Furthermore, the pieces work well when examined individually. They do not sound like slapdash links joined together; rather, they sound remarkably woven together, as though by a single composer instead of multiple (and very different!) composers. Antecedent phrases are answered by convincing consequent phrases, although often the particular answer is a little bit unexpected. This unpredictability, however, is understandable, since each composer knew only a couple of the notes the previous composer had written. In my opinion, this is part of the charm of the piece, for all throughout, we get pleasant little surprises. A literary equivalent would be for one author to write a sentence plus a couple of words starting the next sentence, cover the full sentence so it can't be seen, then have another author finish the partial sentence and write a few words starting the next sentence, pass it on, etc. This sort of collaboration is very much using a type of chance procedure: in this case, it could be called 'the human factor', not knowing what another person is going to do. Stylistically, Party Pieces: Sonorous and Exquisite Corpses sounds rather traditional for its time and contains virtually nothing which is experimental. While the composition is fairly good and interesting in its own right, I believe, however, that it is one of the least interesting works of the four composers who wrote it. Party Pieces does occasionally get played, but I feel that Cage, Harrison, Thomson, and Cowell probably intended it (as in the case of Mozart and his scatological canons, which are not among his best works) more for their own private amusement than for public performance.

Opera Company of Philadelphia, in Collaboration with Gotham Chamber Opera and Music-Theatre Group, Announces First Collaborative U.S. Operatic Compose

The Opera Company of Philadelphia, in collaboration with Gotham Chamber Opera and Music-Theatre Group in New York.Funded over five years by a $1.4 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Composer In Residence (CIR) program will provide a highly individualized professional development path for two of today’s most promising opera composers, selected on a competitive basis during 2011 and 2012. The goal of the CIR program is to foster tomorrow’s American operatic masterpieces through personalized creative development and intensive, hands-on composition opportunities.
The Opera Company of Philadelphia is partnering with two New York companies: Gotham Chamber Opera, which specializes in innovative productions of intimately-scaled, rarely-performed works, and Music-Theatre Group, well known for their development of new works. Together, this triumvirate is already working on the co-commission and co-production of Dark Sisters, a new opera with music by Nico Muhly and a libretto by Stephen Karam. The opera is currently in development, with a New York World Premiere in November 2011 and a Philadelphia Premiere in June 2012.
Though the focus is on emerging composers who see opera as a significant component of their future artistic journey, mid-career composers who are seeking to redirect their creative work into opera are invited to apply. While there is no pre-determined creative output required, composers are encouraged to make best use of resources by focusing their residency around one or more musical works. The resulting works may be considered for performance by the collaborators.
The CIR program will be administered by Kyle Bartlett, the newly appointed New Works Administrator at the Opera Company of Philadelphia.

Just when you thought you all got rid of me...

Awesome? (click here)

The 5 Weirdest Ways Music Can Mess With Human Brain

Just a simple article, but I found it interesting.

http://www.cracked.com/article_19006_the-5-weirdest-ways-music-can-mess-with-human-brain.html

collaboration in main stream

collaboration of music, art and animation....
band tool
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mznKkQxBCYs&feature=related

Alex Grey... Artist for Tool bands album cover and visual presentation of their music...

This is a great example of music meets art. Although the video seems to be out of context
to the text of the song, it still plays a significant role in presenting the music as a whole to be connected.
The Band had used Alwz Grey's visual prospect to their video in possibly out of the box creation.
Alex's art has been collaborated by the Tool band to visual representation of their music.To the audience's
satisfaction it seemed to enhance the pleasure of music even more by the art of such difference.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kAp5vLAJgs

Art, Music & The Body: Creative Collaboration

I found this super cool collaboration. Between Curator, fluteboxer and illustrator. The projects name is "Totally Wired: Drawing Breath". It is a very interesting project by Curator Annie Bicknell, fluteboxer Nathan Lee and illustrator Steven Appleby. What happens in this performance is that the fluteboxer is hooked up with cables and when he plays the flute curator is able to monitor the body and chest movements and  than the illustrator Steven obviously illustrates, he tryes to illustrate the things that he think goes through Nathan's head. This is really cool because its a collaboration between artists and scientists. When Nathan plays flute  Annie monitors his  heart and my oxygen blood levels through these wires and they put it into machines . Nathan and Steven are two completely different artist and having them work together was an experiment itself. But what made this project work is that they both head appreciation and enthusiam for each other works. Nathan Lee has some interesting music, I dont think I have ever heard of a flute beetboxer, it kind of remindes me of a Flutist from Shrek4:) I think this would be a cool project to do with a big orchestra, although results probably would of been very different because the illustrator would have to try to get in to too many people's head. I was not able to find a lot of information on this project, so I am not sure what else to include in this blog.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUeE0nkEhrE
By Olga Oseth

Sound Healing

I found 2 different sound projects, both related to sound healing. The concept is that sound frequencies carry the power to alter our structure and truly affect our soul for revitalizing, cleansing, and healing ourselves completely. Think of it like a form of alternative medicine.

The first thing I would like to share is about sound healing in general.

As long as we’re watching John Cage and questioning the definition of music, I would like to share an ancient practice of sound healing. Much like the new emergence of music therapy, this is an art of healing through the vibrational frequencies of music.

Medicine and music are meeting once again to marry art and science. One of the interesting things Darren Hall says is that sound healing is mostly a standard patient/practitioner relationship, BUT it doesn’t have to be! The beautiful thing about it is that anyone can create the sounds. This means that a few friends could get together and play sounds to promote a balancing and healing energy through the vibrations. I’m assuming if you’re reading this, you’re a musician at SCSU. Well, guess what? You’re a doctor too!

There are certain notes that work with the chakras in our bodies. Chakras are like centers of energy and within the body there are 7 that relate to different aspects of our self, such as sense of security, sense of confidence, love, communication, intuition, and overall sense of connectedness. The chakra system is like an Eastern psychology/biology/spirituality all encompassed in one ancient teaching.

So the diatonic scale can be used to open certain blocks in your body, re-balance ourselves, and help us address the problems in our lives. The quartz crystal singing bowls play at a perfect tone, so the idea is that playing them will remind your body of the perfect pitch when we get out of balance.

How can music and compositions open up realms of consciousness? Darren says when we open up the conversation about music, we start to realize the extent that music really touches us emotionally and helps us to dive deeper within ourselves. With one note or one musical composition, he says you can truly change someone’s life, and from a physics point of view, the vibrations do affect our bodies.

Yes, it could be a bit spiritual, but when music provokes an emotion beyond the physical vibration of the air, what else could music be but a spiritual practice?

2. (Last week’s blog)
Living Structures Sound Chamber Dome

This project is a sound chamber called the Living Earth Dome. The group that made it is called Living Earth Structures and they make all kinds of buildings, ovens, hot tubs, and benches all out of natural materials like cob, adobe, clay and bamboo.

One of the creators says “This is going to change the world. We’ll have wellness centers in the future and not just regular [pharmaceutical] medicine.”

This chamber structure is made of bamboo, bent to create a tipi with a rounded top, then the whole solid portion of the wall is made of cob and adobe clay. The acoustics inside the dome are the main feature of the structure, and it is going to be used by a sound healing practitioner and his/her patient.

This sounds more like architecture.. how does it relate to music? The acoustics of the sound chamber are perfect for encapsulating one’s self inside the sound. At 13:13 in the video, you can see them use a quartz crystal singing bowl and their voices. The whole point for sound healing is to focus all intention on the sound, and for this reason it’s important to have complete isolation from other sounds (street noises, dogs barking, etc.). In the same way that an orchestra hall is created to direct sound in the most beautiful way at the audience in the seats, the sound chamber is meant for a small group of people to come together in a tight spacious space to experience fully the healing sounds of the human voice, singing bowls, zen chimes, shaman drumming, or any number of sacred sounds and instruments that have been used since humans first became spiritually “in tune” on this planet.

Techno Squirrels

TechnoSquirrels is a Los Angeles based techno collaboration. There are only 2 performers that are in this group. Lisa from Sweden and Ryan who grew up in U.S.A. The 2 artists met in Liverpool, but that is not where techno squirrels started. Ryan hated techno music at first not until he heard the techno music in Liverpool. Lisa was always very interested in audio production and audio sounds. She thought it was an art of putting melody with electronic noise and how they can coexist. Both Lisa and Ryan at the time were working on completely different things, she was into singing he was into computer programming and film editing as a co-founder of Emo Riot Productions. So Lisa moved to LA and that is where the group was emerged. She kept writing new beats and bouncing ideas with Ryan and the reason why they called themselves techno squirrels because everyday working on their project a squirrel would stop by their window. Right now they are located in San Francisco and have released 3 EPs and a full length LP to date, been featured artists on KCRW sounds Eclectic with Nic Garcourt, BBC's Radio 1 and MTV The Real World. They both work not just on words for their songs but also the editing, mixing and creating new beats together even thought Lisa is the only one that sings. I found them on you tube when I typed musica electrica collaboration. I really like their stuff I listened to Love Come's First, Repeat 'Till Fade, Unbelievable and Mute and all their songs are pretty cool. I think they definately do have a specific style to their music. I liked a lot the use of panning that they do in their songs, most of the time when you listen to techno music it kind of feel all on top of each other but spacialization and panning for TechnoSquirrels music is super cool. They are very repetitive but from another side they improv the sections a little bit, I also thing they have some use of dynamics which in music now a days is not heard often, i think more dynamics would be better. They also use a lot of looping in their pieces from what I have heard so far. Here is their link check it out http://www.shejay.net/artistDetail.php?userID=1277

Remnants

By Olga Oseth
I found this awesome collaboration on you tube. Remnants. This is not a well known project. IThe people that are in this collaboration are  music/composer Original Musical Scores (from Russia) Danil Malinov,Малинов Данил http://tiny.cc/5en7t
Original Film Production & HD Editing (from Italy) Eduardo Casalini http://tiny.cc/xuu4teqaby
Original Poem & Voice Recital (from U.S.A.) Jo Salmoretti http://tiny.cc/9tcni. This piece is beautiful I think the voice accompanies the softness of music.  The music is repetitive but I think it goes well with telling a story about nature and lost story. It is kind of different to hear music with spoken words instead of a song. But I think it is kind of cool because its like a story is being told but not through singing, I think it would be cool to try  to put this poem with some awesomely created project in logic. This poem would go really well with echo to make it darker and more mysterious. The composer is from Russia and his music really refers to the traditional genre as I am used to hearing. 

Yesterday's hearts once flowed free here
Living out lives, sharing
People places, held so dear
Family, friends, abundant caring

Old walls do speak, you must see
Beyond the darkness and empty space
Listen close that which holds the key
To its history, once full of grace

Time stops for one one, this we know
The sun will rise, the oceans tide
Mortality is given and then lets go
Even hidden among this country side

Remnants of once before
Cob webbed shadows, take in light
Broken stones still mark a door
and the souls that which have taken flight

Dramatic and Desolate, yet beauty remained
Against the blue-grey sky
Its proven existence, still contained
Marks to ponder and ask why

Why this reminder of shattered pieces left behind
It's here to stay, to let it show
Life was once, so call to mind
What shall forever remain in moons glow.

I wasnt able to find more information how this people got together to create this, but I am assuming they are all friends. I thought this was a beautiful piece of work, even though the arrangers are not famous, they did a great job of putting this together. The video was done in Tuscany countrisde, but when I listen to music and words separately it makes me think of Ireland. 

Cantus and James Turrell

Sonic Architecture

Behind Walker Arts Center near downtown Minneapolis, a concrete walkway carved into the sloping terrain leads to an amazing space named Sky Pesher, designed by artist James Turrell (born 1943, Pasadena, CA). Once inside, the bunker-like concrete structure directs the observer’s eye to a 16-foot rectangular opening in the ceiling. A heated ledge around the internal circumference invites one to sit, lean back, and contemplate the sky’s ever-changing colors and moods, isolating the visitor from all buildings, trees, and city sounds.

The word “pesher” is Hebrew for “interpretation.” Among the Dead Sea scrolls, Essene scripts have been discovered that isolate each verse of a Torah book, such as Psalms, followed by a written contemplation of the text in order enhance one’s understanding of the passage. Likewise, Turrell invites us to expand our perception of a piece of sky.

Turrell has created a number of such visual experience installations around the country, each with its own unique setting and effect, playing with elements of perceptual psychology and optical illusion. His art spaces suggest a visual realization of Paul Schaeffer’s Reduced Listening theory and l’object sonore (the sonic object). Yes, we know it’s the sky, but once we get past that bit of the obvious and look with new eyes, we’re able to see colors change from pale blue to screaming orange, perceive warmth or coolness, watch white and grey and charcoal shapes undulating in the opening – appreciating the light on a completely different level.

As Turrell writes, “My spaces must be sensitive to events outside themselves. They must bring external events into themselves. I think of my works as being important in terms of what they have to do with us and our relationship to the universe, but not necessarily in scientific terms.”


Cantus is a professional all-male a cappella ensemble heralding from St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN where friends got together in 1995 just for the fun of singing. They have gone on to perform over 400 concerts in the United States and abroad, all to glowing accolades. Cantus performs without a conductor, listening and watching each other with rapt attention to the smallest details of the sound they’re making.

As 2010-2011 artists in residence with Minnesota Public Radio, Cantus has been exploring unusual acoustic spaces around the Minneapolis/St. Paul area in a project called “Sonic Architecture.” Sky Pesher was the perfect place for them to perform, whether it was for a crowd of 50-70 (all that can cram into the space), or just for themselves. In this space, Cantus chose to improvise on a traditional Indian Raga chant, utilizing mouth cavity alterations to create all manner of overtones and acoustic surprises. Cantus’ artistic co-director and baritone, Adam Reinwald, says of the event, “The harmonic overtone style combined with improvised Indian Classical Raga created a very ethereal, almost alien sound, which was a reaction to the austerity and simplicity of the space.”

Combination of the stark coolness of Turrell’s Sky Pesher and Cantus’ encompassing warmth of sound created an experience of enormous depth and spirituality. I invite you to treat yourself to a few moments of awe that this unplanned collaboration offers. http://bcove.me/ac12ut9f

More information on Sky Pesher: http://www.artsconnected.org/resource/120274/five-elements-of-contemporary-art-space-james-turrell-s-sky-pesher-2005/tab/comments

More Cantus Sonic Architecture:
Stairwell at MPR -- http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/12/17/cantus-stairwell/
Wabasha Caves http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/11/30/cantus-caves/
Under the bridge at Lake of the Isles -- http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/11/18/mntoday-cantus-bridge/




Margo Kanthak

MUSM 435 -- Spring 2010

Animusic

Dave Kent

I stumbled onto this company while browsing youtube. They are called animusic and they create computer animated video albums. They do this by using software of their own design that doubles as both 3D animation software as well as midi sequencing software. This allows them to create animations that can be programmed to trigger midi notes. The result is an animation that seems like it's creating the music rather than reacting to it.

The team is made up of two guys: Wayne Lytle and Dave Crognale. Dave is responsible for the artistic aspects of each piece, mainly the set design. He is responsible for creating all of the instruments in each set. All of the instruments that he comes up with are quite incredible such as a guitar with three necks complete with robot fingers, he also adds pipes onto it to create flute sounds.

Wayne is in charge of the mechanical aspects of each set. He is in charge of figuring out how the instruments created by Dave should move, as well as how all the virtual cameras in each set should move. He is also the one who composes the music using the midi sequencing aspect of their software.

In the end everything is computer generated including the music which is midi. However, thanks to their amazing software you still get a very realistic experience that is both fun to watch and listen to. They currently have two DVDs out and it sounds like they are working on a third.

Here are some pieces they have made:

Social Network- Music and Film

I have not had a chance to check out the movie “The Social Network” but the only reason I care to see it is because I am a huge fan of Trent Reznor (nine inch nails)of which scored the film. I have listened to a few of the soundtracks on YouTube and they remind me of what most of the ghosts album tracks are like. Every track has an image that it has been set to. The music gives the overall impression/feeling of the image. So yea his music works well with visual media.

I found it very cool coming across an interview with the people involved with production of the music for “The Social Network.” It gave some insight on the process they took in the making of the music and the collaboration that came about with the director. The director had Reznor in mind the whole time for the score. He was going for a synthesizer 80’s style mixed with modern scoring technique. I also found it interesting while shooting scenes they immediately were thinking about the music by putting temporary tracks to use as a starting place/idea/general mood.
In this project Reznor also works with Atticus Ross, of which he has been collaborating with since With Teeth (around 2005.) In the interview Reznor tells a little how they work, he free composes a little, and Ross tweaks it and/or arranges it differently, Reznor comes back and says who made this piece? Its cool what two people can come up with, it’s like a synthesis and things can happen in ways that one may never have thought possible. Also on how they worked, they sent mp3’s of the tracks to the director, found where material was placed, got feedback, and rearranged the music as they saw fit. Another challenge they had to overcome was re-imagining “In the hall of the mountain king” (Grieg) in synthesized manner. They ended up pulling it off and it sounds pretty good it... Wendy Carlos… eat your heart out.

This was cool to see a guy work outside his comfortable medium and do something different and successful with other people. I think he won some awards for scoring the film… I’m sure Reznor will be doing more work like this and it should be awesome to see what is next.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpqy_y39-Ac

Scratch the surface

From Christopher Hobbs reenactment of the Richmond Journey concert, it struck me that the scratch orchestra performed in non-traditional performance space. When doing the initial research it was never brought to my attention that when they performed it was not always in a space I am costumed to seeing a performance in. There is another aspect to the orchestra in which a concert may take all day moving from one space to another while performing different compositions. I must say my excitement about the group just exploded into hysteria. How amazing, especially for the performers. Going on an adventure with a group, experiencing what the composer instructed in their score. Your learning and performing the best way, through live interaction. Hobbs stated how much of an impact the orchestra had on the members even with its short life span. I’m able to understand this impact better through hearing an actual member telling the events. As stated by Christopher Hobbs, “John Cages’s notion that all noises, and all silences, can be music was the underlying inspiration.”

Tango Mechanique

By Olga Oseth
While searching on google for collaborative works I have found this awesome video of Tango Mechanique http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nEXsjxGGr0. It is by composer Hsiao- Lan Wang. She curently lives right now in Montana. She is Taiwanese composer and conductor living in United states. She collaborated with Daniel Zajicek, who is a composer and video artist.  Most interested in beauty and the bizarre, his musical output consists of solo, chamber, choral, electronic, video, and theater music. I really like HLW musical style. I listened to couple of her works  Nouveau Park , Tango Mechaniques and  Made in...(2008). She has collaborated with other artists for her works. Tango Mechanique at the beginning was like with curtain on the stage and I expected the curtains to open up and have dancers come out but it was different, totally not what I expected. In the visual aspect of it there were a lot of pipes and many digital squares type of thing flowing up and down the screen which I thought was very nicely done. The music was very rhythmical its like there was a story being told without words.
This is a link to the website with more workds by HLW
It is pretty cool check it out!
http://www.hsiaolanwang.com/?page_id=83
The second collaboration between Hsiao-Lan Wang and Daniel Zajicek, Tango Mécanique explores the dance of conflict and compromise between visual and sonic elements. Rich symbolism residing in the images triggers memories and impressions, while the music boasts heightened rhythmic energy that makes you think twice about what you are really seeing on the screen.
Lan Wang composes for orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo instruments, and electronic media. Her music investigates the fundamental elements of musical communication through new timbral, formal, and technological relationships.


I actualy found out that Hsiao- Lan Wang and Daniel Zajicek are married and they do quite a bit of collaborative work together.  Daniel Zajicek has some awesome video arts if anyone is interested 
http://tri-jack.org/projects/?p=163.


I think Tango Mechanique music has some interesting digital sounds, sometimes it sounds like there is water running through the pipes or maybe if string instruments are bowing super fast, it gives a feel of anxiety building up that all resolves with new motives being played. I like the bell sound at aproximately 2.17 seconds of this piece,  at aprox. 5.01 the visual part of this piece is building tension, which goes really well with the music.

On The Horizon

I understand that our blogs are supposed to be about a collaborative work, but I found this and I thought that it was important enough to share. For 2008, 2009 and 2010 the Gerbode and Hewlett Foundations have been awarding six $75,000 commissions for collaborative artworks. In 2008, grants were awarded for choreographer collaborations, in 2009 they were awarded for playwright collaborations. The winners for the 2010 collaborative commissions were just announced on January 19, 2010 and were for Composer collaborative works.

The work I am specifically excited about is called "Off the Walls" and will premier at San Francisco's de Young museum in 2013. It features Sarah Wilson, who is a trumpeter and composer who has received several awards and grants, and wide acclaim for her recent album "Trapeze Project" which features her on trumpet and vocals with clarinet, bass, piano and percussion.

The dance company selected to work with Sarah Wilson is called "Catch Me Bird" and appropriately enough, are an aerial dance company. Demo Video The de Young museum was chosen because of it's unique architecture and landscape, and "Off the Walls" is to be specifically composed and choreographed for that space, much as Poème Electronique was written for the Philips pavilion in 1958.

There were six recipients of this prestigious award, and all works will be premiered between December 2011 and June 2013.

1958 Brussels World Fair

I was recently reading Dr. Miller's blog at http://www.indabamusic.com/#!/artists_in_residence/scott-miller which specifically has an entry on collaborative works. He referenced the 1958 Brussels World Fair which seemed to me, a very good place to start.

Royal Philips electronics had asked famous architect Le Corbusier (1887-1965) to design the Philips pavilion for the World's Fair to be held in Brussels. Le Corbusier ended up designing the visuals inside of the space, and the design of the building (from a sketch of Le Corbusier) and some of the music in the entrance and exit (Concrèt PH) was a man working for him by the name of Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001).

"Suddenly there sprang to my mind, out of the unknown, the notion of an 'Electronic Poem,' " Le Corbusier said later. "A work capable of profoundly affecting the human sensibility by audio-visual means. . . to bring together on the creative level, by means of electronics, speed, number, color, sound, noise, unlimited power." Of course there had to be music; very bold, very special music. "Sounds, noises, unlimited power," Le Corbusier brooded, "a new creation opening all before it. . . . Suddenly I thought of Varese."
(http://www.sfsound.org/tape/varese.html)

Edgard Varèse (1883-1965) is known as the "Father of Electronic Music" and is credited with coining the term "organized sound". He composed "Poème Electronique" for the Philips pavilion to accompany images encountered when walking through the structure.

About 350 speakers were used in the installation and were used to spatialize the music to correspond with images, location of the audience and to utilize the acoustic of the physical structure itself.

Poème Electronique with images!

More photos of the 1958 Philips pavilion.

Native Inspired: MusicDanceTheatreVisualArtMedia

Gallery Exhibition at Perpich Center for Arts Education
Golden Valley, MN
January 2011

Nothing says collaboration and interrelated media quite like a recent public exhibit at Perpich Center for Arts Education during the month of January 2011. The “Arts High School,” as it is commonly known, draws gifted arts-focused students who, whether musicians, dancers, painters, writers, or media artists, take classes in most every discipline, as well as secondary school academics required by the state of Minnesota.

High school juniors and seniors drew inspiration from the Native American Arts & Culture and American Indian Aesthetics classes that were taught this last fall and winter. At the gallery opening of “Native Inspired” on January 6th, dancers and musicians performed live pieces to complement the visual art works on display. Three of the musicians in the class improvised to "Nanook of the North" and, according to their teacher Tom Kanthak, “We often created ‘stuff’ during the class while I read stories, played music” and such. Media students participated in a video production that introduced the exhibit to the public via their local Patch online news. http://goldenvalley.patch.com/articles/video-native-inspired-gallery-opens-at-arts-high-school-in-golden-valley#photo-4343857 Native American elders were on hand to share their stories and experiences with visitors at intimate table settings. And, of course, there were many interesting, inspiring, and beautiful visual arts pieces to view and ponder. All of these various artistic expressions emerged from the two classes.


The Center of Forever
Emi Hasty
“When award-winning Minnesota author Kent Nerburn spoke to our class earlier this year, he said, ‘Blue is the color of forever.’ These words served as an inspiration for this piece of art. I have been fascinated with Native American history, aesthetics, and culture this fall and winter. I’ve used the class as a catalyst for my own research and I have found inspiration in my discoveries. I’ve realized that when I really pay attention, I see that all my experiences all fit together into a sort of beautiful patchwork puzzle!
In this piece, I am exploring the idea of found objects in creating art. The Native American aesthetic is often defined by the materials used to create functional objects of beauty. I’ve used materials from my home including iris sees from my garden and pushpins from my basement. I look at this as an experiment in visual limitations.
I am extremely grateful for the opportunities and experiences I have been blessed to have had this semester in this class. I want to continue to learn and create art inspired by earth centered traditions and cultures. Mii gwetch!”

A Little Piece of Everything (watercolor)
Taylor Moretter

“I named this because compared to all the native american stuff we learn, we are just a tiny piece of it. there is so much to learn and tom does a great job at teaching us. I love the kiddish style of this drawing. tom has a very easy going way of teaching us. I based this drawing of a painting call ‘as time passes.’ note: this is my first and last time using a typewriter. thank you.”



Native American Aesthetics
Hanna Peterson
“For the pictures I showed in Tom Kanthak’s gallery, I did not focus on Native American culture, but mostly used my own inspiration and connected it with the things that we have discussed and learned. I used different types of printing for an on-looker to not only see my pictures, but feel as if they are there. The pictures are a collection of old photography and new technology that has taken over the media world. One of the pictures is digital and phoshopped and two of them are silver gelin prints that were developed in the darkroom, and one of those is handcolored with oil paings. I have a collaboration of styles to represent that Native American culture is still becoming part of society and should be always recognized.”

Duality (charcoal and marker)
Asmaa Bint Abdul-Azeem
“The four directions and the Fibonacci sequence. These are aspects of the way of the world and how it works are really interesting, because I believe even if people have unlocked puzzle pieces of it, there will always be an abundance of mystery. These mysteries are symbolized by declarations of shapes, numbers and images. I used the butterfly because it is a common symbol of transformation and that metaphor is a main theme that I honor. Behind the butterfly is a glyph of the four directions, a major focus in the American Indian aesthetics. My picture is taking non-obvious happenings and manifesting them in a sort of raw expressionist manner.”

To see more about what these amazing kids and teachers are doing, visit http://nacafall2010.wikispaces.com and http://aiafall2010.wikispaces.com/.

Margo Kanthak -- MUSM 435 Spring 2011

Conscious Breathing Interactive

"Lungs:The Breather" is an interactive art installation that explores the bodily process of breathing. They call also call it an installation environment because the "audience" or participant is immersed in the piece. You are not simply an observer of the piece. I found the video on "MediaArtTube", where there are a few hundred intermedia art projects.

The installation is a 4 person experience where the participant breaths into a mask that senses the air pressure and immediately responds with a sound and video reaction. Each person controls 4 jellyfish, and each jellyfish can interact with the others. As one person’s breath makes the jellyfish react in different ways, they interact with the other people's jellyfish too.

The effect of the piece is that the participant becomes very CONSCIOUS and AWARE of their breathing, which is a very unconscious and automatic bodily function for most people. The participants begin to realize their own identity in a different way, especially when experienced within a collective (with the other jellyfish controlled by other people's breathing).

This sound/visual installation breaks free from the "observer art" that we look at but do not experience fully, and it allows/requires that the observer has a direct experience of the piece, a deeply conscious experience. In my opinion, this is the way I want to push art and music. When you give the opportunity for someone to create, interact or "perform" in any way, especially “non-performers”, they begin to see themselves in a radically different way. This piece, “Lungs: The Breather” is a breath from the newest form of art performance, from several artists who use the lessons from the best teachers. Offer the opportunity for exploration and discovery and step out of the way for your students to experience and learn in their own way. In that way, “Lungs” strikes on a brilliant new application of interactive technology. This use of technology can be utilized for many kinds of direct, hands-on experiences... youth education, interactive entertainment, spiritual experiences... it’s limitless.


-Chase Binnie
MUSM 435

Fluxus and my dislike about it

By Olga Oseth

Fluxus is a name taken from Latin word meaning to flow- it is an international network of artists composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in 1960. They were very active with Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature and urban planning and architecture and design. Fluxus can also be described as intermedia. Fluxus was mostly explored by Cage in his experimental music in the 50’s. His most famous work for that was 4’33”. I have watched this on youtube performed by the full orchestra. I think it is stupid to have a conductor, full orchestra, all the instruments, make performers dress in concert attire and not play/make a single sound the whole performance. I do not understand how people would even pay money to listen to silence. I mean John Cage has some nice works but this is just a joke for classical musicians and I think for experimental music as well. I mean this piece there was literary NO SOUND, not even the clock ticking. What is up with that? I do not understand how did Cage even write this. In my opinion this is not even written its nothing with a name to it, I can take silence and call it Feathers for example and it would be the same this as Cage’s 4’33”. I have also tried to find other works on fluxus and I will tell you I was not impressed with any of it. Another work that I found was Fluxus/Performance Art: Do Geese See God? And I mean maybe the art would be modern art that I do not understand but I do not see hoe smelling/talking to the dead goose is going to answer any questions about God, ridiculous! The music that they put to this video was also inappropriate for my taste. I guess I am not a person who understands this art. Another example of fluxus I found is called George Maciunas – fluxus. This piece includes man in professional suits with boxes instead of heads. Music was not bad, I liked the whisper because it went well with the whole idea of creepy but I just don’t see this whole box thing.

                                                           

Decasia by Gordon

This is a film that mixes deteriorating celluloid and music. Film uses exstatics of decay to explore what lasts and what does not. Originally conceived of a live environmental multimedia performance with full orchestra. The European Music Month commissioned Michael Gordon to write a symphony that would be performed by 55 piece basel sinfonietta and staged by Ridge Theater. Film was created as part of production. There was a special 3 story floor hight scaffolding build and audience looked up through the projections to see musicians illuminated from behind the scrim.  This film was first performed in November 2001 in Switzerland. Bill Morrison reedited his film to correspond to Gordons music, which became the sountrack of the film.Once the music and images were set on film, “Decasia” reached an audience that was almost unprecedented for a work of experimental cinema and new classical music. This film brings intense emotions from the past.  Now Decasia exists in 2 formats. The staged version completely alters the performance space. Morrison first showed Gordon the damaged archival film that he discovered. They were marked with corroison and riddled by pockmarks. The first thing the composer thought of was the piano that had not been tuned in 20 years, which after hearing tracks of this film I did not think he used which is a shame because I think it would of created better effect of molded memories.  The Composer instead used three flutes, one was in tune and second flute tuned 8th note higher, and third flute is tuned an 8th note lower. When the flutes play in unison the sound sounds thick. So the whole orchestra was tuned this way to get thick sound production. Through this piece Decasia, music is very simple but you can not hear it that well because it is covered up. The resulting sound changes one's bearing to tonality, melody and harmony. The music becomes unstable. You enter a realm, like standing at the gates of heaven, wondering if there are 500 choirs of angels singing, because the overtones and the out-of-tuneness creates a massive complexity of sonorities.  Decasia is dedicated to Louis Andriessen. 


This is the link to one parts of Decasia that I found very interesting


 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy5HD8Ddw1s&feature=related


I think it is a really cool idea to put the dying sort of speak film into a new film. This film/music kind of gave me a feeling of running away from something in the dream and not being physically able to run.  When I first watched the documentary on this film I was not sure if the music was specifically made for the documentary or for the film when I did more research I found out it was written for the film. I love the aspect of full orchestra playing at the same time all the time because it really gives a feeling of moving forward. And when I watched parts of this film, it was really cool how the deteriorating film was showing images that looked like scientific molecules and cells, because of the way they were shaped. I found this very interesting collaboration because it was the Film director that came up to musician and they started on it together, felt like every step of the way was collaborated. 

Einstein on the beach

Olga Oseth

Studio for Interrelated Media

Musm 435

Dr. Twombly

Blog no.1  on “Einstein on the beach”

            After doing some research on the “Einstein on the beach” I found out that the composers call it an opera because it is pieces and fragments. This opera was premiered in 1976 in France, it consists of four movements that are connected by a series called “knee play”, and it marked the international breakthrough for its creators and changed what audiences might expect from opera, theater or performance art. Many critics have called this opera “timeless” because it is a one of a kind product that should be cherished for life.  There are only few people that have experienced this opera live.  This piece defies the rules of conventional opera. This piece does not use the traditional orchestral arrangement; it uses synthesizers, woodwinds and voices of the Philip Glass Ensemble. The work uses powerful recurrent images that are shown through dance that was created by choreographer Lucinda Childs and constructed in the classical principle of theme and variation. This piece was the first collaboration between Glass and Wilson. This is Glass’s first and longest opera score it is approximately 4 and a half hours.  The reason why this piece was created was because Glass and Wilson decided to do a collaborative work together and decided on an opera that was 4 to 5 hours in length. Glass and Wilson insisted on portraying historical image for the opera. Even though they chose symbols from Einstein’s life they decided against having a plot to the opera. The words that are used in the opera consist of numbers, solfege syllables and short sections of poetry. There is even one-hour documentary movie made on the play because it is such an inspiring and changing image of Opera. The music assigned to Einstein demonstrated a circular process, which becomes a repeating cycle that constantly delays resolution. This process uses both additive and subtractive formulas. Specifically themes within the opera allude to nuclear weapons science and AM radio. Opera consists of nine connected 20-minute scenes. This opera requires a cast of 2 female and 1 male and 1 male child in speaking roles, a 16 person SATB chamber chorus with great soprano solo part and a smaller tenor part and three reed players. From watching couple parts of this play I actually understood the topic for our project better and would love to see the play in real life. I think this play is def. good meditation piece, because when we were watching it today in class I found myself relax as well as think about other topics. I think the music in this opera helped the script more than the visual aspects to describe Einstein's thoughts.

A Survey of Website Audio Soundtracks for MUSM 435

by Margo Kanthak

The following natural science website videos were collected to compare audio components. Each video is truly fascinating in itself and I highly recommend you visit at least a couple of the sites below purely for enjoyment (if not a little education about our planet and universe).

However good a video may be, when audio is included, I expect it to provide enhancement of or definition to the content. During this survey, the relative success of each of these selections in meeting my audio expectation ranges from the music being a mere backdrop (1) to providing an element essential for the total experience (5). I welcome others’ comments and suggestions about the creative and contributory aspects of the audio compositions you'll hear. How could we do better?

Towers in the Tempest:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUG4-TEqPYc&feature=player_embedded
Originally from: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003400/a003413/index.html
Computer-generated model of a recent hurricane: The audio is innocuous New Age synthesizer rambling that is far more conducive to meditation than a tempestuous hurricane. What could have been dramatic sounds of wild winds were more like a summer evening breeze.
Rating: 1 / 5

Icebridge:
http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/search/Person/PerkinsLori.html
(Video #10678 -- about halfway down the page)
An ongoing study of glacier movement: The lively country guitar instrumental suggests a hint of American explorer, certainly appropriate to this video. The music also signals a scene change at one point. Other than that, I did not find the music to be significant to the bulk of the video.
Rating: 2 / 5

Fermi Sees Antimatter-Hurling Thunderstorms: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=49435631
Recent study of the effect of lightning: The information NASA presents is truly fascination, but the non-descript music is only punched with percussion for the lightning strikes. No other audio enhancement of the video is offered.
Rating 2 / 5

The Early Earth and Plate Tectonics:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDqskltCixA&feature=fvw
National Geographic five-minute video on a theory of Earth's land masses and tectonic plate: The professional-quality audio really makes a difference. Music changes frequently with the scenes and the sound effects definitely enhance the visual experience. One would expect such excellence of a television production, and it does not disappoint.
Rating: 4 / 5

One Second Before the Big Bang:
http://www.mandala-corporation.com/movie/bigbang.html (Quick Time)
or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FON1IA14vXU
Multi-faceted theories on the origin of the universe: Mandala Corp.’s first HDV short film was produced in 2009 as an experiment in fobots animation. Regrettably, no credits are given for the computer music composition. The superb audio component is as important to the enjoyment and comprehension of the material as the visual animation. BRAVO!
Rating: 5 / 5