Hello all,
We have finally found a time that works for all the participants of our Mississippi river trip advisers.
The time and place are:
When: Wed. April 8th, 4.30pm-6.30pm
Where: In-flux space, Regis Art Center, 405 21st Ave. S, Minneapolis, MN 55455
This meeting is one of the two make-up classes for the two class-periods we have missed and is thus mandatory for all students.
Ali
"I think what Ali means is the coding/computer work vs physically building things" John, Inna, Andrea and I discussed using Google Talk on March 10th, to discuss the plans for the Mississippi trip. The basis of our discussion was using the resource of water as a installation in our media making process. Since analog by definition is "is the process of taking an audio or video signal (in most cases, the human voice) and translating it into electronic pulses." This theme created three main concepts, create real-time sound, story telling, and organic projection.
One of the concepts that came out of our discussion was a way to create sound in real time using water as a sound source. Since we will be surrounded by water, there will already be these sorts of sounds in our environment, but if we have a way to amplify many other types of sounds made with water and perhaps process them electronically, we might be able to produce audio content that blends into the environment, or cooperates with it in some way.
To do this in real time poses some challenges. For example, wind could interfere with microphones, so some sort of wind screen or shielding would need to be used. Underwater microphones were also suggested, which would not have a problem with wind while under the surface of the water. An alternative is to prerecord a library of water sounds that could be used for performances. However, I think that being able to use water as an instrument for performing brings in an organic element has a certain charm that might be difficult to achieve with samples.
Feedback might also be a problem, but we could use processing in Max or other software to dynamically adjust the microphone levels. I've seen video of this being done with a feedback piano at Stanford University Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics. Here's a video that illustrates some of their work including the feedback piano project.
http://vimeo.com/3384555
Some examples of how liquid could be used to create sound include: submerged microphones, pouring water from one container to another, droplets of water falling into a container, blowing bubbles into a container through a straw or hose, tapping on metal containers with moving water inside, water draining down sinks, and so on. Using prerecorded sounds we could also use surf, waves, rain, streams, rivers, splashing, etc.
Another concept that came up was in recording to do a play on how humans interact and a sort of storytelling occurs with a play on words. Like when little children play telephone under water and you see how stories change over time, and how meanings become distorted. It would be interesting to do an underwater telephone game where someone tells a story and see how that translates about going down the mississippi, but not only translate but to further it by changing the sound of a human voice into electronic pulses to match the meeting between analog and digital. Another aspect we looked at was how water affects us and what it means to us. It must carry a certain meaning since we will be traveing down it, so artists that use water in their work was suggested. The depletion and usage of water in today's society, and how that is affecting us and how it will effect us in the future. We want to use water as a vehicle for sound production and basically translate it to how past meets present, analog meets digital, how there are parallels that exist.
Some ways of executing the organic projections and sound was using some things we already have that contain analog: CD players, iPods... using it to project video analog. Let's carry out the visual aspect of analog. It is also important to state that even though we are making the plans of how to execute these programs, through MaxMSP, Proccessing and such, we should all educate ourselves on how to look outside the box and create new forms, new sounds, new images in a more lowbudget sense as well. USE THE WATER, it is our biggest installation/collaboration yet.
Artists we referenced were: John Cage, Beth (TJ Barnes' wife) and artists from http://eai.org (electronic arts intermix), http://www.wwar.com/categories/Artists/Subject_Matter/Water/
Thank you for your thoughts in the first brainstorming session. We will continue to do this regularly for the rest of the semester. Starting with the above map, I have devised four groups.
Please find below your name; the group titles should sound familiar and have some common meaning to us all after our 1st brainstorming session.
...
The wheels are now officially turning.
I have submitted a grant for our Mississippi (on a boat like this)/Fargo tour and have leads on other funding sources. Please study the grant application to get a sense of the over all plan/schedule.
We should now make it out collective goal to make this trip happen.
There are two grand areas of work:
1) Financing, Planning, Logistics for the trip.
2) Devising an artistic goal for the tour and plotting the means to achieve that goal
We will spend some time in class on Thursday brain-storing/white-boarding the above areas.
Come to class with an artistic vision for what a MAW @ Mississippi/Fargo trip would, could, should be; your ideas will give us a place to start the discussion.
Exciting!
Ali
wow, anyways, congratulations on spark being a major success, it was good to further get to know everyone in the class, but also finally see some work in action on outings and seeing people perform.
with that said, would anyone be willing to examine the possibilities of going to media city in windsor, ontario?
15th EDITION of media city
is May 20-23, 2009
http://www.houseoftoast.ca/mediacity/Home.html
media city has been a staple of video and contemporary real time media for many years now. i have gone to it before, it was absolutely extraordinary and it gives you a feel of what is going on elsewhere
Continue reading "VIDEO ART DEBAUCHERY! Vive Winnipeg, l'enfer oui!" »
i figured to share the link of videopool the video collective in winnipeg, MB, which is nearly 8 hours north of minneapolis. since we were going to go and project in fargo, why not think about winnipeg as a projection spot. here is the link.
http://videopool.typepad.com/video_pool_home/
this is very much like the collectives we read about in the article. community action, accessiblity, and artistic movement are all keys within this really cool place.
let's connect shall we? i want to email them as i have visited a few times before.
Hey everyone,
I was thinking about the Mississippi River Outing this May/June and I came up with a ton of ideas. Since I am a Stage Manager by trade, most of these thoughts are in the form of unanswered questions. If anyone has insight on answering any of them please do so!
So the first thing I was thinking about were topics that could be researched or explored.
-Water as a commons: water is a common resource to be shared and used by all.
-Bottled water and the privatization of water
-Environmental impact of dams and pollution on the river
-Non-native species and ecosystem concerns
-The inter-connectivity of water systems: dumping waste and garbage upriver damages ecosystems down south- ie the dead zone in the ocean in the gulf of Mexico. What happens to any part of the river will affect every other part of the river.
-Who handles our water? How does it get from the river to our homes and our homes back to the river?
-How can we change things that are harming the river? What outlets and resources can we give the public that we are showing this too? What ways can we give them to "take action" besides "turn off your water while you brush your teeth"?
-River history and the influence of the river on local history of the places we are going. Myths and legends about the river from different cultures.
Some ideas I had about the content of the projections/performances:
-I think that it would be cool to have more art forms then just the projections at the scheduled stops along the river, like combining them with puppetry and music.
-Having some-sort of interactive projection to demonstrate visually how the things we do to the river can turn into catastrophes elsewhere on the river
The next set of questions have to do with logistical issues.
-What organizations would like to collaborate with us on this outing?
-Where are we going and where are we stopping? What are some organizations we can contact in those places so we can market our art/performance or collaborate with artists in those areas
-What are the rules and regulations about public art in the places we are going?
-How far down the river can we go? Where are we starting from? How do we get though the locks/dams along the river?
-What kind of boat do we need? How many people can go? Food? Gear?
-How are we paying for all of this? Grant writing or organizations willing to donate- minimize costs for the students/instructors
-Are there any festivals or events we can integrate ourselves into?
-Safety of people and equipment. Is the river level safe at that time of year?
So I was thinking about all these things and realized that one of our good family friends Dave Wiggins is in the park-service and is basically in charge of the river. So I called him up and he said he could probably talk for an hour about each of my questions. He talked about some other organizations that probably would be interested in helping us out or collaborating. There is this guy named Chad that bought a huge boat and now takes it up and down the river dredging up all the things people have thrown in like cars and refrigerators ect. I thought it would be cool to work with him because then we could show the public how they could help right then and there. So Ali said we should probably bring Dave in to talk to us. I agree.
So, that's what I have. Let me know what you guys think!
-Martha