“indeterminacy” in Monteverdi
July 9, 2010 | Filed Under Blog | Leave a Comment
Monteverdi wrote instructions in his “Sfogava con le stella” indicating the singers to figure out the rhythm themselves (sort of like sprechstimme).
Interning Currents2010 (video art show) – a documentation
July 8, 2010 | Filed Under Blog, video art | Leave a Comment
A few weeks ago, I packed my car and drove from Denton, TX to Santa Fe, NM to help setup Currents2010, a video art gallery open to the public for almost 10 days (June 18-27). During its opening, 2000 people traveled through the free exhibit to see video art from the available 82 artists’ work presented.
I arrived to Santa Fe Sunday evening (June 13). Monday morning, Jordan Glazer, a colleague and fellow intern, and I met our professor, David Stout, and the other member of the Noisefold duo, Cory Metcalf, at the Center for Contemporary Arts (photo) where they rehearsed for their June 19th concert. We promptly drove to El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe to get acquainted with the volunteers setting up Currents2010 and begin work. It was apparent right off that the artists and volunteers setting up the show had an incredible work ethic and were all very friendly and courteous. I came to find out a few days later, while interviewing Mariannah Amster and Frank Ragano (the curators of Currents2010 and founders of Parallel Studios), that the kind atmosphere was not a product of chance. Frank and Mariannah explained that they did not include artists in the show solely based on their work. They received enough entries through Rhizome that they made it a point to know an artist personally, via email and Skype, before accepting them into the show. Frank and Mariannah find it very important to keep personal contact with each person involved in their projects: everyone is treated equally (volunteers, exhibit visitors, artists, etc.) which means emails, phone calls, texts, etc. are always answered immediately = everyone is important. Because Currents2010 had a very limited budget and most artists would be traveling to Santa Fe to setup their own work, Frank and Mariannah wanted to make sure everyone would get along well and have an enjoyable time together. Frank has no problem with words like “entertainment” and “fun” as other “snooty” (that was my word) artist may. The point of putting on a show like Currents2010 is to provide entertainment (a good time!) in addition to education, so people enjoy themselves while experiencing new things.
In the interview with Frank and Mariannah, we got into a conversation about the current art world. They are both interested in changing the current mentality of the stereotypical art world by providing another option. That conversation made the distinction between many of the galleries I had visited during my stay in Santa Fe. It is sad that some organizations cater to donors and put on an air of elitism. Art can easily become a privileged “object” reserved for the rich and scholarly rather than for all to experience and enjoy. I was blown off at one gallery by an artist that obviously thought I was an inferior, but I felt very welcome at other galleries (such as meow wolf) that seemed excited to have a “the public” visit their work.
I was fortunate to talk to many artists and organizers like Frank and Mariannah during my time in Santa Fe, but Monday morning (June 14) Jordan and I began to setup our own professor’s work, and installation piece by Stout and Metcalf called “iIi“. One of the best parts of my Santa Fe experience was seeing how different artists and builders displayed the work. Frank, an artist and contractor, had devised an idea of hanging projectors from the 22-foot ceiling using metal piping supported by c-clamping a mount he welded to the building’s frame. Frank generously gave Jordan and I three of the welded mounts, but we had to go to the hardware store for pipe and c-clamps. Because he specially made wooden plates to mount any projector mount on allow for the placement of a DVD player above the projector (photo), we had to come up with another solution for our projectors: a simple plastic PVC pipe adapter attached to our proprietary projector mounts (photo).
Once “iIi” was installed and VGA cable problems were troubleshot, Jordan and I began helping install other works by running power and audio cables, hanging projectors and screens, and painting walls and divisions. It was helpful to me, as someone looking toward curating one day, to see and work with many artists’ solutions to material onto which to project. Three artists chose to project onto material that could be viewed from either side, a great solution to an open space such as that of El Museo: Jim Coker’s “Kingfisher” (photo), the Vasulkas’ and Rob Shaw’s “untitled” (photo), and Carlisle’s and Hamilton’s “Displacements” (photo). Many of the artists’ work were projected onto gator board (a thick, very reflective foam core board), which could be cut to fit most of the artists’ needs (here is an example: Hisao Ihara’s “Continuum” during installation). One of the most interesting materials on which an artist projected was glass. Robert Campbell projected onto five glass circles hung in a row with matte rings forming what looked like a target (photo of installing the work, photo with projections). Campbell’s work was very compelling and memorizing to watch. One needs to get a full explanation of the work from Campbell’s point of view in order to fully realize it (it has to do with genetics and yellow florescent proteins). Another interesting method of projection was seen in Robert Drummond’s work “Projection Anaphoric” in which he projected from the ceiling (photo) onto the floor (photo). What the viewer sees is a morphed video on the floor corrected visually by a cylindrical mirror (photo).
Overall, I was able to see a larger variety of video art than I had ever seen before. Frank and Mariannah expressed to me that they consciously decided not to give Currents2010 a theme so they could present a large variety of works. I would have liked to have seen more interactive works; the two Currents2010 did have, Dr. Whoohoo!‘s “Walking Threw Dandelions” (photo) and the Vasulka’s “untitled” (photo), were great pieces and the virtual graffiti (photo) outside was a great touch though. One could spend hours in the Currents2010 exhibit trying to view all the works. Not only were there a few projectors showing more than one work such as Hillerbrand+Magsamen’s “Four Place Setting” (photo), but there were screening rooms (photo) showing single channel works ranging from those of high school students to those of professional video artists. The unique and inspiring ideas, such as Novakova’s prisms (photo) and David Webber’s cathode ray four channel piece (photo), provided an additional angle to video art to soak in.
If you want to get a better feel for what Currents2010 was like, go through my flickr album embedded above. I included the map of the exhibit and reference the letter labels on the map in my descriptions below each picture when applicable.
For my own record and further study: Some artists I talked to during my stay told me to look up the following = Gary Hill (video artist), David Jones (video synth), Janet Cardiff (sound installation), artbots (art robot competition), Koyaanisqatsi (Philip Glass film), Joanne Lefrak (scratched glass), Douglas Henderson (sound artist), Michael Snow (tracking shot), Patrick Wilkanowski (longue ???), and David Lynch (specifically Mulholland Drive).
My next project
April 2, 2010 | Filed Under Blog | Leave a Comment
I think I am going to make a video switcher for composite video. I want to switch between multiple video cameras that have composite outputs (using an arduino) and send their signals to my computer so I can manipulate them live with Isadora. Here is the IC I think I’m going the try – the circuit looks simple:
Jonathan’s sculpting work on the installation
March 24, 2010 | Filed Under Installation Art, Music Composition, Sound Sculpture | Leave a Comment
Here are some photos of Jonathan Snow’s work so far on Recycled Sound. He is still going to do more work grinding and adding a clear coat. He’s welding in brackets for the motors tonight, so I snapped a few pix.
Here is the top (inside) part of the center sculpture that will house the brain of the project (Arduinos with transmitters and a digital compass):
Here is the base it is mounted on (blurry pic, but you get the idea):
Here is the center sculpture with the rotating top in place:
And here is a picture of one of the surrounding sculptures:
recycled sound setup
March 22, 2010 | Filed Under Blog, Installation Art, Music Composition, Sound Sculpture, physical computing | Leave a Comment
[I will edit this post soon to be more detailed]
I am posting my scratchy sketch of the pitches I am using for Recycled Sound. Click on the picture to see a larger version. Branches with two notes means it will alternate between the two pitches (it should should like it is always progressing between two chords). The purple wiggly lines indicate the ratchet sound makers.
Here is a picture of the electronics and the sound makers in a very small version of the circle they will be in:
soldering and soldering and soldering and . . .
March 22, 2010 | Filed Under Installation Art, Music Composition, Sound Sculpture, art, physical computing | Leave a Comment
I have been doing a great deal of soldering the past week (all day, every day). Here’s are the arduinos and optoisolated transistor circuits:
Next is the main unit for the center sculpture = a unit housing two atmega328 chips (“two arduinos”) using the same clocking crystal, two RF transmitters and one digital compass. The atmega328 chips have different programs on them and one of them controls the other. I am showing the breadboard version next to the final perfboard soldered version (I haven’t pushed in the atmega328 chips in the perfboard yet):
Next is the arduino with RF receiver. I am showing three versions = the commercial arduino, the breadboard arduino, and my perfboard arduino:
Here is another picture of all of the units together:
construction of sounds for Recycled Sound
March 22, 2010 | Filed Under Blog, Installation Art, Music Composition, Sound Sculpture, physical computing | Leave a Comment
Here are some pictures of the construction of the “sound makers” for Recycled Sound. I took apart an old set of student bells (used by junior high students learning to play keyboard percussion) and constructed something to hold a motor with a chain attached. When the motor turns, the chain hits the bell (it sounds like an old telephone – but specifically pitched). The other objects I made sound like a very loud ratchet. The pipe extension amplifies the sound (they do not really have any particular pitch). Other motors with chains will be mounted to the sculptures Jonathon is making – they should all sound a bit different.
optoisolator
March 22, 2010 | Filed Under Installation Art, Music Composition, Sound Sculpture, art, physical computing | Leave a Comment
I changed the optoisolator circuit I used in the light-box project I did after doing some more datasheet research for this installation piece. I’m just going to post a labeled picture rather than a circuit diagram (due to time). I’m also posting a picture of a soldered finished product (with two optoisolators). This circuit turns powers a 12V motor with a 12V battery controlled from a 5V arduino board (separated by an optoisolator in order to make sure the 12V cannot reach the arduino). This circuit works great with PWM output of the arduino = very smooth and responsive.
new batteries!
March 9, 2010 | Filed Under Blog, Installation Art, Sound Sculpture, physical computing | Leave a Comment
I just bought 12 great batteries (Werker 12V 7.5ah) from BatteriesPlus for only $15/each — that’s over half off! Thank you BatteriesPlus! I’ll be charging the batteries in parallel using the Schumacher 2/4/6 Speed Charge. I put a picture below of how to charge in parallel (the guy at BatteriesPlus said to think of a ladder to remember it = great tip).
burning arduino bootloader with another arduino
March 6, 2010 | Filed Under Installation Art, physical computing | Leave a Comment
Burning the arduino bootloader using another arduino duemilanove is very easy. I’m documenting it here (informally) so I can remember how to do it later. It is all done in the Arduino software (I was using version 0018)
1) upload the example sketch (File->Examples->ArduinoISP) to the arduino that has a working bootloader already on it (I used a duemilanove – I’m not sure if it will work with the older ones, but I’m sure it will . . . I’m going to give it a try later with my old NG).
2) hook up the two arduinos (from the digital pins of the arduino with the ArduinoISP sketch to the ICSP pins of the other arduino) and put an LED (with resistor) on the following pins of the arduino with the ArduinoISP sketch on it:
9: Heartbeat – shows the programmer is running
8: Error – Lights up if something goes wrong (use red if that makes sense)
7: Programming – In communication with the slave
3) with only the arduino with the ArduinoISP sketch plugged into the USB of the computer (the other gets power from this one) – go to (Tools->Burn Bootloader->w/ Arduino as ISP) and it will take a while (30seconds or more) to burn the bootloader
4) that is it!