Janet Cardiff

After listening to her radio piece and her Whitechapel Gallery Project, I'd really love to take one of Janet Cardiff's walks. Even just sitting here, the recordings seemed so intimate and carefully pieced together. The narration made it feel like being in a movie, but that no one else will ever see. It was also very interesting because you could never really tell who the whisper voice was talking to. At first, it seemed as though he knew me personally and that he was sometimes looking out for me and sometimes stalking me. At one point, Janet actually answers him, though he still doesn't lose his ghostly presence.

I really noticed the three-level spatial structure, specifically with the ocean sounds. At first, I didn't even realize they were there because they were in the background. I felt that the voiceover became the middle ground because it was very obvious, however, I wasn't really that concious of it. I heard what she was saying, but I was paying attention to what she was pointing out (i.e. the water flowing from the broken pipe). She was able to create a fluidity of movement between the layers, especially with fading in and out of foreground sounds as we "walk away" from them. I was able to visualize everything around me, and build a map as I went along, but I think that the sense of place in time would be much more powerful if I were actually in that place. It would create a whole new layer of experience to look over at apparitions of the sounds because they are not visually there in the same time and place. I love the way she mixes real and sureal and is so successfully able to blend them together.

Listen to my Sounds

This is the sound project that I made for our first project. It wasn't really planned, I just listened to some different sounds, and eventually came up with a comprehensive flow of the sounds I liked best. Now that I listen to it, it sounds sort of plain, but it was good practice for the big sound project that's due next week as well as working with audacity.

Attributions (The Freesound Project):
Percy Duke - Gravel Crunch
Heigh-hoo - Car Door Closing
dude3966 - Footsteps
partymix - Doorbell

Lance Winn: drawing, robotics, sculpture

Yesterday I attended the art talk with Lance Winn who shared his work with drawing, robotics and sculpture. I missed the beginning, and therefore his discussion on ectoplasm, however, I did hear a lot about some specific pieces. I was fascinated by the way he allowed the work to guide him and make itself. I felt that this spoke to me because I've always held that curiosity about "secret messages" (even if I know they're not really there). I'm also very indecisive and have a lot of trouble planning any art project because I never know where I want it to go when I start. While I really enjoyed hearing his concepts, I wasn't too sure what I thought about the art itself. I liked that he layered his work so that what it started out as may not be what you see when you look at the finished product. I felt that he showed us a lot of the same work over and over again, which I thought to be unnecessary. I think his presentation would have been just as effective if he had chosen a select number of pieces that are mostly dissimilar from each other. I also give him a lot of credit because I don't have his patience to draw/paint all those lines!

The Journey

Planning this project is very difficult for me because I'm really not sure what I want to do yet. I like to listen to a bunch of sounds, pick some I like and then make the project from them. So I really don't have an explicit plan for what kind of journey I'm going to make. However, I would love to somehow incorporate the sound of water. I'd love to record dripping water; I'm not sure I'll get a great recording but I won't know until I try! I'm also not sure if the water will become the journey, or just something along the way. I'm excited to play with the sounds and see what I come out with.

"Consumed" by Melissa Dean

Yesterday I attended "Consumed" by Melissa Dean. It was (I'm sad to say) my first art event in all my time here at St. Mary's. I really enjoyed it, not only because I finally got to attend one and even step foot into Boyden Gallery, but I really enjoyed her talk. I was afraid that, not being an art major, I would have no idea what she was talking about when she discussed her techniques and philosophies behind her work. I was greatly pleased that this was not the case. I think my favorite piece was the painting of all the different items on top of one another, mostly because I felt like I understood it (which is sort of rare for me). I thought her ideas of the consumer vs. organic paradox were very interesting and loved that she wanted the viewer to decide what each piece says. I really like the idea of overlaying simplistic images on top of one another to take away meaning, it sounds fascinating and I'd like to try it sometime.

Sound Project

I listened to the sound project "Radio Radio" by DJ Spooky for this entry. When I first heard the racket coming from my speakers, all I could think was, "what the...?" As I started to pick out individual sounds and how they were put together I was very intrigued. I'm not sure how purposeful it was to put these particular sounds together or in what order, but I noticed various emotions coming to surface. For example, I happened to be listening to the audio alone at night, so when Alfred Hitchcock spoke, I was a little creeped out; when I heard the oh-so-familiar sound of dial-up internet, I started laughing, etc. I love music, especially music that mixes different beats and genres (I particularly enjoyed the clinking sounds mixed with heavier beats because it reminded me of music I used to make when I was little by tapping spoons together); things that you might never think of to put together. I thought this project did just that and it sounded great. An interview with the artist was played periodically throughout the duration of the piece. It was nice to hear some of the artist's theories and philosophies about art, however, the piece was never really discussed as to why he made this the way he did. It also sort of broke up the piece, so I was a little annoyed everytime the interview came on. I think it would have flowed better if they were separated or if less significant parts of the piece were played behind the interview. All-in-all, I enjoyed listening to it, so I'm going to explore more of the audio samples!

The Use of Forms

After reading the essay "The Use of Forms," by Nicolas Bourriaud, I wanted to see some of John M. Armleder's work that was discussed in the paper. I found this, which I really liked. I'm not practiced at understanding this type of art, but I just really liked the images I saw. The disco ball installation was mentioned in the paper as a site of "permanent scratching."

Cool Project

After looking around for a while, I found this really cool project called Augmented Animals by James Auger (found on the We Make Money Not Art site). There is a slide show of various animals and technological equipment that might benefit them (i.e. an "Acorn Positioning System" for squirrels). I thought it was interesting because what he says about human invention and technology is very true, and it was funny to see some thoughts of what we would impose on other animals as well.