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