Nice Noise

This is a soundscape. Now, how I did it. I basically wanted to grab the most unconnected sounds that I could. My initial ideas was to mash them into a glorious "stampede" of sound. I started to do just that. My idea was to export a work that just showed how an excess of sound was not always a good thing. I was kind of wrong. I found that the sounds had these unique pleasant elements that I wanted to stay on and enjoy. Further more the chaos that ensued from stacking them on top one another was not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, I found comfort in it. This piece was actually a learning experience for me in that there is alot of good to be found in the presence of much sound. If those things present and making sound are good, then life and the atmosphere we live in will be in turn good. I think that this piece makes me examine what I enjoy and how I react to things on the basis of what they are individually not necessarily just a massive lump of sound.

Skadooshko

Skadooshko

This is my made up word that will debut in my soundscape.

Deep Listening

The computer tower whirs below my desk. The buzz of something electric resonates like awful white noise around me. The dog yips from his spot in the garage. Probably at a toad. More likely because he heard a noise and has the need to make one in return. Still more buzzing. The floorboards groan. Old floor boards do that. The room down the hall emits a half snore, and the rustle of my brother rolling over in his bunk. The other dog barks. It's likely the shadow of a neighborhood cat taunting her. The furnace vent makes a pop and groan. It's a little cool tonight. Footsteps rush down the hallway and into the bathroom. A toothbrush rattles, scrubs for 25-30 seconds,humming of Adele music accompanies it, the water rushes down the fawcet and sink. The water stops. The light switch flips, and footsteps carry down the hall, and downstairs. The volume of silence is almost overwhelming it drags on. I hear only the hum of appliances and well, eerie absence of sounds that make the house alive. Will this silence end? It does. My ten minutes are up.

Legomation

I started out with a box full of legos and the simple idea of competitive friction.

I built the set in about two hours. I limited my movement to one lego "dot," one step, one third of arm movement at a time. and I repeated each guesture three times. This gave a uniformity, that I was able to make comic breaks, and also gave a nice smoothness to the overall work.

I love competition. But only healthy competition. I believe that working out with friends, playing other teams, and competing with your own goals is a healthy process. It is how I work every day. I am aware of my shortcomings and want to work toward specific achievement through enhancing my strengths. However, I find that individual success is something that has taken a perverse turn in things I observe. 

I have been struck with the idea of folks needing desperately to "keep up with the Jones." People would rather keep status quo in a lot of ways than be bothered with stepping up. That is not cool. I also think that other folks are obsessed with not being anything "less" than what someone else is or has. These lego men fight over who has the better wall. It is a petty, jealous exercise that is comically stupid. I think jealous competition is unhealthy and has a destructive energy about it. And I think that plays out rather naturally in this video. I think we improve ourselves when we use our own compass as a guide and only refer to competition as an occasionally appropriate measuring stick. (For example, before you call yourself the best _____ ever, you ought to look at what all the other (fill in the blank)'s are doing. I think individual success is something that is to be celebrated by the whole.

Reaction to George Rush

I was lucky enough to sneak in the gallery around noon, shortly after Darker by the Day opened. I was immediately drawn into the show by the dark window, and shadowy branch marks that adorned the first wall. I felt an immediate sense of calm wash over me. I found the paintings aesthetically pleasing primarily for that reason. When viewers go into the gallery they are congronted with one plain, curtained white window (staring out). The other three windows are filled with varitions of a composition involving all or some of the following items: a milk, carton, tape recorder, candle, and pill bottle.

My interpretation hinges on my reactions to color. I really enjoyed Rush's use of black, white, and gray tones. I thought the windows each had a masterful touch to them, and I also found the use of those colors gave the show an earie life without the presence of life. I found the subject matter so mundane that it forced me to consider larger themes. I think the elevation of the mundane forces us to consider those objects functionality, and to not take for granted both the mundane and not mundane. If the objects around us are lifeless without our presence then that gives us as humans a duty to use our space of time to color that space, or simply fill it with things worth considering.

Three Questions
Why black and white for the Pearl Conard Gallery?
Is the minimal and mundane nature of the subject matter a reflection on those items or the items left out of the frame?
What is the function of the branches on the wall?

Muybridge's Mare Runs a Wall