Registered User
Posts: 2
(11/26/01 12:08 am) Reply
Unknown Terminology
I'm a composition student but I've become more interested in multimedia pursuits, particularly using spoken and written words, experimental locations, and music to create a certain environment for the audience. Do any of you know what this artform is called? I've tried looking it up all over the place and can't find anything on it simply because I don't know what it is known as. I'm going to go insane if I can't find out more about it!
manniac dharma explorer
Posts: 221
(11/26/01 6:20 am) Reply
Re: Unknown Terminology
Well yeah, I figured that much. I just didn't know if this kind of performance art had been around long enough for someone to have affixed a label to it yet. I'm going inshane trying to find out anything about it!
I also discovered I threw away the articles I read on artists who were doing these things. It mentioned some woman who had some Bach choral piece recorded; each individual vocalist had a mic, and during the replaying of the performance, she tuned out voices and threw in some whispering and stuff. The "audience" members were given headsets and allowed to wander about some type of "set" while listening to the music. I also found a website several months ago about this sanitarium that was being demolished. Prior to the demolition of the building, an "artist" organized a project which included having yet another famous Bach piece played throughout the empty complex on thousands of speakers so guests could walk freely through each room and still hear the music. It was really interesting.
I guess that's the kind of thing I'm talking about, essentially.
Re: Unknown Terminology
I think there are a number of varying terms:
"Site specific installation" when the performance/installation interacts with it's environment, or "happening" (as you know from Cage) or performance art...I've also heard the term "multimedia work".
I've seen a bit of this work from the art side rather than the music side and when it's well done, it's truly stunning. With all the senses engaged, there's no way to stop observing/experiencing.
I'll leave you with links from one of my favorite art equivilents to what you are proposing musically.
This is the current project Turrell is undertaking: www.rodencrater.org/
This link gives you some samples of previous work...note the materials...everything you see is made with light...nothing else...so even though you may be looking at what appears to be a painting...you're actually in an environment where the light has been altered to play with your eye. www.pbs.org/art21/artists/turrell/
Re: Unknown Terminology
I'm interested in this kind of work in general. I have several artistic skills and I thought it might be a way to incorporate more than one of them at a time. The idea fascinates me, really. I'm somewhat possessed by the notion of creating an environment for an audience member rather than just a concert hall with the same old format.
I can hardly stand to sit through traditional classical concerts, mostly because the emotion behind the music tends to be really disjunct. Also, they're formal in the sense that you can only applause after the end of the piece, you can't applause between movements, you can't talk, etc. I feel people's eyes boring holes into me if I accidentally drop my program on the floor. I don't know if I'm just super-anal about all of this or if this is something some of you have also noticed. In any case, I would like to do something different with my own music performances. I've considered hiding the musicians during my senior recital and seating the audience in a very dark room. I also wouldn't have any programs--I firmly believe they ruin the anticipation of a musical experience.
Quote: I feel people's eyes boring holes into me if I accidentally drop my program on the floor. I don't know if I'm just super-anal about all of this or if this is something some of you have also noticed.
Ah yes! I am familiar with that scenario!
I like your idea of hiding the musicians and the programs...but I wonder whether perhaps the audience would require another sense engaged? Movement? Vision?
Part of going to a concert is in fact the voyeuristic desire to see people perform musical feats far beyond one's own abilities. If you remove the ability of your listeners to focus on the players before them, to what do you redirect their focus?
Or is the idea to leave them with absolutely nothing other than the music?
I should warn you, I have actually seen art performances which backfired...for example, when a pair of internationally famous "art stars" literally staged a "rock concert" in a museum. The idea was to loosen up the understanding of what went on in a museum...but the various trustees and members of that museum stood there stone faced as if they were viewing a painting they didn't understand while a few students, enthusiasm somewhat dampened by the presence of the trustees, tried to lighten up the evening as best they could.
I guess what I'm saying is that unless you're going for a state of confusion on the part of the audience, you have to build a sort of understanding into the piece. It takes a skillful hand to create and environment which clearly broadcasts: ANYTHING GOES! DROP YOUR PROGRAMS! WALK AROUND!
Intervention and Flow
Posts: 47
(11/28/01 10:29 am) Reply
Re: Unknown Terminology
I'm reminded of "tone poems," freely-structured orchestral pieces meant to evoke a certain image or story. The programs they used were meant to help the audience understand the relationship between the music and the story by providing a poetic text.
That sort of program--functional while still being flexible in meaning, as opposed to the matter-of-factness of being merely informative--may be more appropriate for the presentation you are going for.
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