Justin Lewis: Senior Portfolio: Artist #17 - 4.5.10

I think I might have written about Stephen Vitiello at some point last semester, but I keep coming across him and am really enjoying his work, he is also an assistant professor here at VCU in the kinetic imaging department, I believe Paul had a show with him at Transmission a few years ago as well. One of his pieces that I had not seen until now but was astonished when I saw it, LFO Drawings, is something I was attempting last semester. I had set up a sub-woofer and filled it with watery acrylic paint, then blasted some bumpin' music. Unfortunately, my amp wasn't strong enough to get the speakers to really move enough to get the paint onto the paper in any sort of interesting way, no matter how loud I turned it up. I had planned on trying again when I could afford a nice amp, but it looks like Vitiello has already done it. On the bright side, this makes me think that I do have ideas worth executing. I would like to think of another way to use the process of making music or sound to make imagery as well. Most of Vitiello's work is composed of various sound recordings sometimes arranged in a musical, albeit unusual, method. The music follows a strange rhythm, making it more ambient than anything. Something that I thought was interesting about it is that some of these pieces which don't have any of the traditional qualities of music, Vitiello has still managed to be able to play with the listeners emotions through these dynamic and rich soundscapes. Here is a link to some of his sound pieces, http://www.stephenvitiello.com/index.php?id=C0_4_2 and here are a few visuals,