| What's in a name |
[Jun. 25th, 2009|12:39 pm] |
Somehow it never occurred to me until I saw this design for a t-shirt.
Apparently Axl Rose was once known as Bill Bailey before he adopted his stage name. |
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| Against Soundscape |
[Jun. 17th, 2009|05:16 pm] |
Excerpts from Tim Ingold's Essay, "Against Soundscape" (from Sound and the Environment in Artistic Practice, ed. Angus Carlyle, 2007):
“The environment that we experience, know and move around in is not sliced up along the lines of the sensory pathways by which we enter into it. The world we perceive is the same world, whatever path we take, and each of us perceives it as an undivided centre of activity and awareness. For this reason I deplore the fashion for multiplying – scapes – of every possible kind.”
“We need to avoid the trap, analogous to thinking that power of sight inheres in images, of supposing that the power of hearing inheres in recordings. For the ears, just like the eyes, are organs of observation, not instruments of playback. Just as we use of eyes to watch and look, so we use our ears to listen as we go forth in the world.”
“Sound is not what we hear, any more than light is what we see. Herein lies my third objection to the concept of soundscape. It does not make sense for the same reason that a concept of ‘lightscape’ would not make sense. The scaping of things – that is, their surface formation – is revealed to us thanks to their illumination. When we look around on a fine day, we see a landscape bathed in sunlight, not a lightscape. Likewise, listening to our surroundings, we do not hear a soundscape. For sound, I would argue, is not the object but the medium of our perception. It is what we hear in.” |
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| Fear of Music - Why People Get Rothko But Don't Get Stockhausen |
[Jun. 16th, 2009|12:11 am] |
I'm not sure if comparing visual art to music (or Rothko to Stockhausen) is fair, but I'm keen on reading this book by David Stubbs.
Synopsis
Modern art is a mass phenomenon. Conceptual artists like Damien Hirst enjoy celebrity status. Works by 20th century abstract artists like Mark Rothko are selling for record breaking sums, while the millions commanded by works by Andy Warhol and Francis Bacon make headline news.
However, while the general public has no trouble embracing avant garde and experimental art, there is, by contrast, mass resistance to avant garde and experimental music, although both were born at the same time under similar circumstances - and despite the fact that from Schoenberg and Kandinsky onwards, musicians and artists have made repeated efforts to establish a "synaesthesia" between their two media.
This book examines the parallel histories of modern art and modern music and examines why one is embraced and understood and the other ignored, derided or regarded with bewilderment, as noisy, random nonsense perpetrated by, and listened to by the inexplicably crazed. It draws on interviews and often highly amusing anecdotal evidence in order to find answers to the question: Why do people get Rothko and not Stockhausen?
http://www.o-books.com/product_info.php?products_id=561 |
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| Countdown |
[Jun. 15th, 2009|11:12 pm] |
If you're wondering WTF I'm doing in London, this is supposed to be the next three months of my life (when I'm not snoozing). This is the initial outline of my dissertation. It sounds much less exciting than the music and art I'm looking at, por supuesto.
OPERATIONS AND INSTITUTIONS
This dissertation looks at two artists, Brian Eno and Cory Arcangel, and how they engage in 'performing the systems' (Tom Holert) in which their work are derived from and situated in. The systems they employ in their art, ranging from compositional/computing algorithms to heuristic operations, connect with various other systems – capitalism, communication, and culture.
Eno’s theoretical underpinnings of Ambient music is explored in its relation to the efficiencies and effects of generative art and experimental music, specifically how they expand on notions of organization, labour, and productivity. Arcangel’s new media practice, which can be seen as an extension of Eno’s work, represents a contemporary practice capable of initiating a non-paranoid paradigm (Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick).
Through both artists’ works, the dissertation shows how they perform institutional critique by moving away from being institutionalized (i.e. co-opted) by their very systems, and instead instituting (i.e. beginning) gestures (Jan Verwoert) that are not merely subversive but productive to various fields. |
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| Where I End and You Begin |
[May. 18th, 2009|08:31 am] |
Upon sharing my knowledge of Rodeohead, J asked "Have you heard Radiodread?" I immediately burst into laughter, both of us acknowledging the sheer genius of the name. I was then extended the pleasure of listening to not just Radiodread but also Dub Side of the Moon.
It is amazing how cover projects can adopt a life of their own. The painful reproduction of the found sounds of Dark Side; the adept instrumentation on all the songs; the adaptation and reinvention of rock music into other genres of music. It takes effort to make music that surpasses/subverts originals of such high quality. And where does tribute/parody begin for such projects?
If you're wondering what led to our discussion of Rodeohead, it was a development of our conversation about Fat Bird Rodeo. Make a guess. I wonder if there are Youtube videos of the abovementioned. It would be dreadful. |
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| Hanging On a Star |
[May. 16th, 2009|02:09 am] |
Nick Drake is a folk singer from the Seventies, and his songs are made up of deceptively simple guitar work and understated vocals. He died at 26, and it was never known if his overdose of prescribed antidepressants was intentional.
"Hanging On a Star" can be found on Time of No Reply, which consists of out-takes and alternate recordings that weren't included in his three studio albums. On this song he sings:
Why leave me hanging on a star / When you deem me so high
Why leave me sailing in the sea / When you hear me so clear |
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| 666 |
[Mar. 25th, 2009|12:35 pm] |
From Cory Arcangel's website:
"If you have ever wondered what Iron Maiden's "The Number of the Beast" would sound like compressed over and over as an mp3 666 times...here's your chance..and if u r wondering, YES it does lose quality each time it is compressed. ........ps - If u like this project, don't forget to study up on your old school and check out Alvin Lucier's I am Sitting in a Room."
http://www.beigerecords.com/cory/Things_I_Made/Maiden |
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