installation/ diy electronics/ circuit bending performance

just to let you guys know the minneapolis group Beatrix Jar is going to be performing this summer June 18th in the Walker Art Center - James Turrell’s Sky Pesher installation. since a few of us were able to see this on our trip to minneapolis i thought it would be interesting to see this group perform in this location. if you want any further information about this performance you can go to Beatrix Jar's Myspace at http://www.myspace.com/beatrixjars

another sound mapping project

here is that sound mapping/photography project i had been talking about.
http://www.theircircularlife.it/frameset.htm

511 sounds

Overall i think that this performance was a success. The thing that i liked about this performance/ installation was the openness of the format for performing it. The thing i didn't like was slicing my hand open on a glass bottle, but that was more performer error than a flaw in the performance guidelines. The only other thing that i felt wasn't as successful was the record player element. The reason i feel this way is because it was so windy that day that it was very hard to use the record players that we had made. It was also very hard to hear the record players because of the wind and the fact that my record player was not working very well. I also didn't feel that the fuse detonation element of the performance worked very well. But this also may be because i was in the bathroom tenting to wounds for half of the performance. I just feel that the sound i made as a fuse were never really responded to directly. (maybe i just had a lot of duds) The way that it seemed to me was that everybody had kinda forgotten about the fuse/detonation aspect of the performance and was focusing on making 511 sounds. But since the performance was so open ended that it works any way that it is performed.

sound installations

The Group Install.

The installation we did as a group was just plain fun. Not only did we get to play with noise making devices we had the campus for an audience. My favorite part was when one of my Buddy's from my England trip walked up and thought we were all crazy. Also i don't know if it was just me but i felt that most of the people that walked by saw were extremely confused, they had a wasn't 420 yesterday look on there face.

Otherwise the problems with the install were just the fact that you didn't really know what the other person was doing and i spent most the time worrying about making 500 different sounds. Then as far as a performer i could only concentrate on my own work so i had trouble with comprehending it as sum of parts.


My Install.

For my own Install i was dead set on using the telephone to record and distribute the piece. This made it unique and it also made it a bit of a pain in the ass. I quickly found out that its not that easy to record stuff on answering machines and then to rerecord then and mix them in pro tools. Especially if your in the same room as the answering machine, this just leads to feedback that just turns into wailing or screeching.

But I bravely moved forward anyway. I simplified the process. I just recorded dial tones and ringer sounds through a Mic and then i recorded the voice parts though the microphone. then mixed it and distributed it through the telephone to some of my profs answering machines.

The piece it self was set up to be the ultimate drunk dial. After i started it i realized that it would work best if it had two parts the drunk and the sober buddy. i thought this would work better because i figured the average person would be really confused if they got a message on the answering machine of two people in a dialog. I furthered the confusion when i mixed the hell out of it. I chopped, inverted, reversed, and added many different sound effects to the piece.

In all i think it was a minor success just because anyone that listen to it would be really confused and that was my ultimate goal. But i say minor because i figure most people probably deleted it before listing to the whole piece.



Leave your# if you would like to hear it.

Wanna set up your own hacked Google Map?

Students:

We've explored the steps necessary to add a hacked map to this page. It's not the easiest thing to do, but the first step is to apply for the Google Maps API.

You can find that information here.

Here is a tutorial that you might find helpful.

Google Maps Standalone Mode from RancidBacon

River sounds

first google map

Sawyer's Concert Map

Soundmap

MN Sounds

The White Horse

Cloud Sounds

This is a google map

Paul's Soundmap

Paul's Soundmap

P.A.C. Bathroom sounds

first google map

Files you will need to make your own Google Map

Right Click and "save link as..."

Right click and "save link as..."

You will need both of these files in order to make the map work, and you will also need to create a folder called "markers" in your own webspace, and place the image below into that new folder:

Red Marker, right click and "save link as..."

Google Map

The map below shows a short sound recorded in the SCSU Performing Arts Center on Tuesday, March 17th at 10:49am.

Sparks

The first event done at the Walker was entitled "Siren" by Ray Lee. We walked into a space that looked like backstage to me. I in fact found that space for this presentation very interesting. I still wonder how the performance of this would have been in an open auditorium instead of having concrete walls enclosing the sounds.

The performance was started one tone at a time. I like this in fact, because it gave us (audience) the chance to incorporate each sound to each other or by themselves. If say the sounds were set off at the same time I would have not gotten as much from that. As more of the tones are set off you get kind of a drone sound. Then the arms on the metal tripods were set to spin at different speeds, which caused a rhythmic pattern depending on where you were standing. This was also very interesting for me, because what I saw was the tripods which were lower to the ground were set off first, causing them to reach the maximum rotation speed first. So at one point in time I heard a rhythmic patter coming from high tones. As the lower tripods started to slow down the high tripods were spinning faster so then I got a rhythmic patter from different tones.

I liked the lights on the tripods very much. I think they added a visual effect along with the sounds, more so when the lights were turned off. That was sweet as heck. Here is a picture: http://calendar.walkerart.org/enlarge.wac?id=10820

More to come..........