Just as I believe there is essentially a soundtrack for everything, each day has its own unique sound as well. I believe the world moves to the sound of music…or is it, the sound of music moves the world? Designer Craig Colorusso agrees and attempts to create a soundscape that moves with the elements of the day, powered entirely by the sun. This installation piece is titled Sun Boxes and a video of the piece in action as well as a description from the artist is below.
“Sun Boxes are an environment to enter and exit. It’s comprised of twenty speakers operating independently each powered by solar panels. There is a different guitar sample in each box all playing together making the composition. The guitar samples are all of different lengths so the whole piece keeps evolving.”
“Participants are encouraged to walk amongst the speakers. It sounds different inside of the array. There is a different sense of space inside. Certain speakers will be closer and louder therefore the piece will sound different to different people in different positions throughout the array. Creating a unique experience for everyone.”
“There are no batteries involved. The Sun Boxes are reliant on the sun. When the sun sets the music stops. The piece changes as the length of the day changes. Making the participants aware of the cycle of the day.”
Really gorgeous artwork by artist Dan Grzeca who is inspired by natural phenomena, animals and plant-like qualities which he weaves into his designs with lovely colors and lines. The above screen printed image was inspired by the Joy Division song Transmission, particularly the line “touching from a distance, further all the time.” He has also created a ton of fabulous gig posters. Here’s just a few…
I also love this art piece done for the Thursday/Envy split LP on Temporary Residence. Gorgeous.
Here’s another idea for transforming a building facade into a dramatic audio visual nighttime show, this time coming from Linz Austria. Set to music, this performance takes advantage of the 1085 LED controllable windows in the facade of the Ars Electronica museum. The windows have been programmed to perform in realtime with synchronized music that is played from speakers surrounding the museum. This was all programmed and choreographed in three days.
Thursday July 30th 2009, 7:42 am
Filed under: Music
Why not make a bus or a train car a musical stage? A group in Toronto called TRANSIT believes this is just the place to foster their local music scene by creating a music performance series titles The Transit Tapes which seeks to support the up and coming Canadian talent by hooking up musicians with local film, photography and audio crews. This project combines my love for music, fostering local artistic talent and even my obsession with transportation in urban areas.
The videos, made possible by Astral Media Radio, have an interesting feel to them, in the documentary vein, while playing along in busses while moving through the streets of Toronto. I love that the drummer in the video from Gentleman Reg above is drumming on the metal bar on the seat.
Unfortunately, likely due to audio quality and the ability to control the surrounding, the ’stages’ are without audience but I can’t help think how cool it would be if perhaps this project expanded to improvisational transit performances. It would be fun to see how people reacted to a full on band hopping on a train car, playing a full out song and then hopping back off again.
It reminded me of a project called In A Van shot around New York City’s lower eastside in September 2007. They shot one of my favorite bands, The Rosebuds…
In the spirit of my going away on vacation for a bit of relaxation and even a bit of sea kayaking…here’s a lovely video from The Rosebuds about taking their dog out to the lake set to “Nice Fox”, a track off their latest album. Enjoy and I’ll be back next week when the temperatures have returned to normal!
I’m not accustomed to the triple digit temperatures. Everyone and everything is moving slowly, even the Portland MAX lightrail has a speed cap of 35mph in the typically high speed areas due to heat-induced cable sag. My already overactive imagination is running rampant in the heat….
I stared out the window of the train, watching the world pass by at a much slower pace than normal, like life in slow motion, set to the soundtrack on my ipod. I imagined the city catching fire in a somewhat random fashion…a garbage can, a bench, the side of a building…flames shooting up and running through the streets like dominos. No one panics. The streets are on fire, the sky grows black and the urban environment itself becomes a stage.
I hear a beat coming from the distance. I grab my violin sitting on the seat next to me, jump off the train and begin playing through the streets. Sirens blare in the distance and shadows dance on the buildings, produced by people dancing among the flames. I’m joined by others and people in the streets are banging on any available surface to provide percussion.
It’s an urban musical on fire.
Below, listen to the inspirational track from Bell Orchestre that I was listening to in moment through my headphones on the train. I love this live version because it captures a feel of musical chaos amidst dramatic lighting…
Music has a way of reaching into ones soul. It can heighten the senses to be more vulnerable to surrounding experiences and visual stimulation. Music also has a way of bringing people together and crossing cultural borders.
In São Paulo, Rodrigo Maceira has started a music label called “Si No Puedo Bailar, No Es Mi Revolución” that seeks to use music and art as a force to bring together all Latin American cultures from Mexico to Argentina to Brazil. He hopes that the efforts will not only showcase their talent within, but hopefully will spread beyond Latin America to touch other cultures and express the beauty being produced throughout all of these countries.
In Rodrigo’s words, “Si no puedo bailar, no es mi revolución is a Brazilian plural collective focused on Latin independent cultural experiences. Essentially dedicated to music, the project, based in Rio and São Paulo, aims to spread its presence over the literature, the fine arts, the cinema and the graphic design made in the continent. In spite of being an initiative for Latin America marginal art integration, we have precious collaboration from people in Spain and Germany, for example. Our revolution won’t have frontiers.”
He has so far released two compilation albums, both of which are lovely, with long names and stuffed with as many tracks as will fit on one album; “Porque este océano es el tuya, es el mío” and “Pero ese olor en el cuarto de piano fue el primer perfume que necesitó en su vida“. The first release features independant artists with music ranging from indie rock to folktronic. The latest release with the title translate as “But that smell in the piano’s room was the first perfume he needed in his life” is described as an imaginary soundtrack to a book and again features artists from all throughout Latin America as well as Spain. Each album also features art from a Brazilian illustrator, Gustavo Gialuca.
images via Gustavo Gialuca
I first met Rodrigo with the release of his first album and have since learned about his many other endeavors that continue along the lines of art integration to defy borders. One of his projects he calls “La Joven Guardia” which he described to me as “a trilogy that is thought of as a ‘trip’ through the new music in Spanish – from Uruguay to Spain, crossing Argentina, Chile, Venezuela and Puerto Rico”. These are videos that feel very intimate in nature as if you’re just chillin’ out in a room with the artists and the first episode has so far been completed. I like this clip that of two songs that integrates artists Franny Glass of Uruguay and Hidrocor of Brazil using only voice and an acoustic guitar in “wondering about the meaning of having a common language” which is kind of fun, see video below…
Another project is the newly released Cuadernos Cecilia, a beautifully done online magazine (cover art at the top of this post) dedicated to new ideas in Latin America through the arts. It incorporates beautiful artistic imagary, photography and information about up and coming musicians like the lovely Jóvenes y Sexys. With the first issue released this is only the beginning of independant artists of Latin America making an impression through art and music in their effort to break borders, meet and better understand, not only the rest of their continent, but the rest of the world.
Today is the day of tangents and I love it when this happens where I find myself wandering aimlessly through the world wide web in search of absolutely nothing. I know I have a list of things to do and that I should step away from the computer but I just can’t because I enjoy these rare occasions where I can just be happy in my momentary laziness on a cloudy Sunday afternoon. In fact I’m not really searching at all, I’m just letting links call out to me and before I know it, I’ve got 15 different fascinating windows open that follows a trail that makes no sense whatsoever.
I always find some fabulous bits of randomness this way, like this video of three foley artists reimagining silent films. A quote from the clip…“The center of sound is silence. At the heart of the sound process is not making sound”.
Today I happened upon 43 Folders which I had actually found before but this was the first time I’d really paid attention to it. The most interesting thing is that I recognized the name of the blogger, Merlin Mann. The blog itself is about “finding the time and attention to do your best creative work”, which I suppose is quite funny as I had originally thought I was off wandering through irrelevant tangents and instead I find myself stumbling across something that provides advice on time managmenet for the crazy creative types. Go figure.
So this Mann guy, I know him better from his ties with one of my favorite groups The Long Winters out of Seattle (go see them live if you ever have the chance, you’ll have the best of times) and he also took some pictures of the band I used in an interview I did back in the day with lead-singer John Roderick for a music website (which oddly lost all it’s sense of punctuation) prior to the much better one I have been writing for the last few years now.
43 Folders is insightful but most importantly, intelligently entertaining and funny. Mann also contributes to many other things including the far less relevant but no less entertaining blog, You Look Nice Today, an audo-based journal of Emotional Hygiene, written by people like Mann, aka hotdogsladies along with Adam Lisagor, aka lonelysandwhich and Scott Simpson.
What does this have to do with anything? Nothing really. Well, perhaps that you can’t run away from time managment? ;-) I guess that’s my cue to tackle that list.
“You eventually learn that true priorities are like arms; if you think you have more than a couple, you’re either lying or crazy.”
-Merlin Mann
