Artist Lecture #3 - Paola Antonelli

Yesterday I went to the lecture by Paola Antonelli, it was some pretty interesting stuff. She is a design expert, architect, teacher, author and curator for the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Her exhibitions looked interesting but it's hard to talk about them because of the limited amount of images. She did talk about some interesting things though. What I liked most was what she was saying about the interactions between scientists and designers. I think it is important that scientists and designers stay connected and work intimately with one another for the bettering of future technology and goods. I thought it was funny what she said about scientists not making their powerpoints look too elegant because they would not be taken seriously.

With new technology comes new possibilities, her speaking of the great change in ease of making a plastic chair reminded me of recording music. When I got into home recording, I didn't realize the quality that is possible these days. I expected that in order to get a decent recording you had to go to a real studio, but with improvements in technology it is becoming more and more possible to make studio-sounding recordings with just a laptop and minimal equipment.

Something else that she said that I thought was really interesting and I believe is probably true, was that she thinks if children can look at art and enjoy it then it is probably good. Children have the best opinions about that sort of thing because they haven't gotten their minds all mixed up yet. They don't have the same inhibitions and preconceptions that soil the way older people see things.

Contest #2 - The Art of Photography

Artist #19 - 4.12.10 - Diego Stocco

Today Paul showed me a video in our meeting of a guy playing a tree like an instrument, I was very impressed and so I decided to do my artist blog on him. His name is Diego Stocco. He is a sound designer/composer, and has worked on a variety of popular films, TV shows, and video games. He has also done sound design for patches on popular keyboards like the Korg Triton series. I know he's not really a visual artist but his work does pertain to mine in that mine is about sound and also his methods could be very useful to me, in my music as well as my art. I was noticing the types of microphones he uses to record his sounds, some of which were unfamiliar and intriguing. In "Music From A Tree" he uses a stethoscope at one point, and in "Music From Sand" he uses what looks like some sort of metal stick that somehow picks up sound. His use of super-amplified sounds is really interesting to me, things that don't seem like they really make much noise can become big, full sounds. As if you are suddenly very small, where sounds like rustling sand becomes as loud as an avalanche. Here is his website and some videos of his work
www.diegostocco.com


Music From A Tree, Diego Stocco, 2009


Experibass, Diego Stocco, 2009


Music from Sand, Diego Stocco, 2009

Idea #18 - 4.8.10 - Some new pieces

Lately I've been working on a few new things that are a little different than what I had been doing, but I feel like they are working. One of the ideas was this one,

Tree Sounds, Justin Lewis, 2010

I am not sure if I am happy with the image yet, I couldn't quite work it out, the way I had it in my head, but I do like the way the lines work together in it. I feel like this piece is dealing with ideas that I was working with last semester, about nature and it's importance, but it goes with my current work because it is also about sound and listening. I like that it is kind of humorous or absurd and lightly begs the viewer to 'listen' to nature.

Another idea that I have executed is this piece, Three Waves (Light, Water, Sound). This one feels like the most successful, in it I have taken a speaker box, covered the speaker holes with bags of water filled half way, shined a light through the back and placed a woofer speaker in the back of the enclosure. The speaker has the effect of creating subtle ripples in the water that change depending on the frequency of the sound. I really like the glowing effect it has, the interaction between the smoothness of the bags of water and the texture of the box. I suppose this piece is a sound sculpture, so I should have shot a video of it to show it's full effect.

Three Waves (Light, Water, Sound), Justin Lewis, 2010

Three Waves (Light, Water, Sound) Justin Lewis, 2010

Three Waves (Light Water Sound)(detail) Justin Lewis, 2010

And I have done another piece called "Rocking Speaker"



Rocking Speaker, Justin Lewis, 2010
Basically it is a speaker on a pole stand rocking back and forth to ambient or minimal music. This piece is also a sculpture but can be shown as video as well. In fact, it should be shown as a video at this point because I haven't figured out a way to make the stand rock for an extended period of time on its own. The stand is built a little off balance so if I just give it a little push it will rock for a while, but to install it as a sculpture in a gallery I would need a way to keep it rocking. It would be cool if I could control this by the tempo of the music, but I will have to do some research to figure out if that is possible. I sort of discovered this piece on accident when I made the speaker stands for my studio. The sheet metal I used for the base is a little too thin so it curved a little when I welded it so now, while it still supports the speakers, it is easily rocked with a push.

Artist #17 - 4.5.10 - Stephen Vitiello

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,

Stephen Vitiello - LFO Drawings


Stephen Vitiello - Speaker Shooting (Cannon)


Stephen Vitiello - Four Color Sound

Idea #16 - 4.1.10 - A few ideas

Up until my meeting with Paul, I hadn't really been looking ahead and didn't realize that panel review was so near, so I've been trying to get some ideas for new work for my portfolio. I've got a few that I like and will be executing today. Something else that I've been doing is when I'm listening to music I will watch TV on mute just to see what kind of random music/imagery associations can be made. It has proven interesting and often comedic but hasn't yielded any good ideas though.
One idea I want to do is a piece to be entitled "Microphone Recording Camera Recording Microphone" it will be a photograph to go along with a sound recording entitled "Camera Recording Microphone Recording Camera" It will consist of a photograph of a microphone, and an audio recording of the length of the shutter of the camera photographing the microphone. It will be a long exposure to allow for the sound recording to have some presence to it. The good thing about this is I don't think you necessarily need the sound recording so the image can stand alone in my portfolio.
I also had some other things that I've done this year that I wanted to include in my portfolio, but are somewhat unrelated to the bulk of my other work which is based on music. I am still thinking about if I want to do this or not. If I don't then that is more new work I have to produce, but if I do I may risk a lack of cohesiveness throughout my portfolio. One of these pieces would be my "Don't Look At This Piece", the gallery version of "Don't Talk About This Piece" which was an idea I had for a work that was to be viewed in a critique environment. To bring this piece into the area that the rest of my work is in, I was thinking that I could just tack "Listen To It." on the end so the piece would be "Don't Look At This Piece, Listen To It." This changes the meaning of it a lot, but I kind of like what it does to it. It creates a conundrum, and I think it still has the effect of heightening the viewers senses by asking the viewer to attempt to do something senseless. I also like it because it kind of sets the table for the rest of my work.
If anyone is reading this, please give me your thoughts.

Artist #15 - 3.29.10 - Carol Bove

At our meeting, Paul suggested I check out Carol Bove. There were a few pieces of hers that I really liked, but for the most part I thought her stuff was stupid. Some of her installations were really interesting though, like this one.Carol Bove, The Night Sky over New York, October 21, 2007, 9 p.m., 2007.

In it she has mapped out stars exactly where they are on the ceiling in a web with copper bars hanging from each star point. It reminds me of rays of light, as if they are traveling through space from light years away and I can see all of them falling here. This is one of her more aesthetically pleasing pieces as well, which was another reason I liked it. When I first saw it I thought it was some kind of sound art using wind chimes, when I found out it wasn't, it gave me an idea of an installation where the people in the gallery cannot help but occasionally knock a wind chime, thereby creating a sort of organic, accidental music. Although, this may not work because people might try really hard to avoid touching them, or if there are too many, the viewer may be annoyed. Here are a few more of Bove's work that I enjoyed. I like the ones that use a lot of repetition or pattern.Carol Bove, Untitled, 2009

Carol Bove, Tower of the Prophet, 2002

The ones I particularly didn't like were her bookshelf pieces. I didn't get how these are art. I did some reading, but still couldn't see the what the concept was of placing these items from the 60's and 70's on shelves. Maybe it is for the same reason that Paul couldn't respond to the image I brought him, the media didn't allow him to access the piece. I suppose it is possible that if I saw these in physical form, I would feel differently about them, but as they are, I am not interested.