from the Inferno part of Dante's Divine Comedy
uttered by an unnamed demon
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Saturday, October 17, 2009
NEVER TOUCH THE GROUND, YOU WILL DISAPPEAR IF YOU TOUCH THE GROUND...
How to Build Binaural Stealth Mics
Sound Artist Janet Cardiff, who works alongside Georges Bures Miller (see link in side bar for more info) uses Binaural Microphones to record her "Walks"
These microphones actualize 3-D sound, and when you listen to her walks (she literally goes on walks and tells a story) it sounds as though u are actually walking with her... I have a couple MP3s recordings of her walks if you are interesting in listening to one or a few of them in full length.. however you can listen to excerpts to some of them on the website (click on the word Walks) =)
PHOTO: Janet records her walks while carrying a mannequin head that is wearing the microphones... so that mannequin head becomes the listener...
I have become recently extremely interested in Sue De Beer's work. In her latest video SISTER she collaborates with Alissa Bennett: writer and wife of artist Banks Violett ( see previous post for more examples of her writing). Bennett writes the screenplays and monologues/spoken words that are included in DeBeer's videos. SISTER, is beautifully haunting, enigmatic, and even playful. I encourage everyone to watch this beautiful and intimate portrayal of a relationship between sisters.
This piece struck a connective chord... for many reasons i could draw correlations from my personal experiences, and was extremely moved by this piece... some stills i could relate with
THE FLOOR IS LAVA
things sisters do...
Sound Artist Janet Cardiff, who works alongside Georges Bures Miller (see link in side bar for more info) uses Binaural Microphones to record her "Walks"
These microphones actualize 3-D sound, and when you listen to her walks (she literally goes on walks and tells a story) it sounds as though u are actually walking with her... I have a couple MP3s recordings of her walks if you are interesting in listening to one or a few of them in full length.. however you can listen to excerpts to some of them on the website (click on the word Walks) =)
PHOTO: Janet records her walks while carrying a mannequin head that is wearing the microphones... so that mannequin head becomes the listener...
I have become recently extremely interested in Sue De Beer's work. In her latest video SISTER she collaborates with Alissa Bennett: writer and wife of artist Banks Violett ( see previous post for more examples of her writing). Bennett writes the screenplays and monologues/spoken words that are included in DeBeer's videos. SISTER, is beautifully haunting, enigmatic, and even playful. I encourage everyone to watch this beautiful and intimate portrayal of a relationship between sisters.
This piece struck a connective chord... for many reasons i could draw correlations from my personal experiences, and was extremely moved by this piece... some stills i could relate with
THE FLOOR IS LAVA
things sisters do...
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Potential Banner Design
Pending apporval... this is the potential banner design for The Curatorial Apprentices FIRST SHOW!!!! AT the CFA!!!!!
It will contain various objects from Africa from the University Museum's collection
It will contain various objects from Africa from the University Museum's collection
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Alissa Bennett
Excerpt:
"And then it's quiet, and I listen to the wheels until they're playing 99 Red Balloons, I mean the 7 Seconds version, and everything's the same as always, like time isn't progressing in my life at all cause I'm still finding the same song I found last week, and I'm wondering who's gonna take my place in the passenger seat when I'm gone, and by then I bet the radio will be fixed, and it will be warm enough to go outside without a coat. It sounds perfect, like the first day of summer vacation, but I know it will only happen if I'm not here.
I've really thought about that, like how every single person who was ever in my life is gonna think that if they'd just found the right word, or if they'd payed more attention during ninth grade suicide prevention class that they could've stopped it, but it's not like that.
I have to talk to the school psychologist twice a week now, but I never really listen to what she's saying, I mean, I listen, but her advice only makes sense for a second, like when I'm in that office it's a different universe where I could salvage my life and my academic career, and there's a chance that I will have some control over what happens in my life, but as soon as I leave, all I can think about is that the prospect of having to brush my teeth for the next sixty years is just too disgusting and awful for me to deal with.
Everybody wants to think that suicide is this dramatic event, and it's not. It's like you're walking on top of a roof, and you have about ten seconds to decide if you want to stop, or you want to keep going, and you decide to keep going. Sorry I'm always talking about this shit- it's boring, but it's not like, a cry for help of anything. It's just the truth, and the day I die, the sun will come out, whole world's gonna smell like green. There's a bee in the classroom, so I'll turn out the light, shut my History book, and start summer vacation that lasts for ever.
Sitting in the car with Jim, the windows are all rolled up cause it's still a little cold, and he always smells like soap and cigarettes. There's a cup of soda from McDonald's on the dash board, and he's kind of my boyfriend, so I know I can have as much of it as I want. I don't want any, but I'll drink some to show him that I didn't forget, and we're still together. His hand's on the stick shift, and I'll cover it with my own while I stare out the window, and there's no way he could ever imagine that all I'm thinking about is how I could never do this for the rest of my life. He kind of looks at me for a second, and he's so nice to me and he'd never ask me for gas money and for now I'm really happy just to sit in the car and watch the trees.
Hand clapping starts, 99 red balloons go by."
For full writing by Alissa Bennett in the Superficial Dragon
"And then it's quiet, and I listen to the wheels until they're playing 99 Red Balloons, I mean the 7 Seconds version, and everything's the same as always, like time isn't progressing in my life at all cause I'm still finding the same song I found last week, and I'm wondering who's gonna take my place in the passenger seat when I'm gone, and by then I bet the radio will be fixed, and it will be warm enough to go outside without a coat. It sounds perfect, like the first day of summer vacation, but I know it will only happen if I'm not here.
I've really thought about that, like how every single person who was ever in my life is gonna think that if they'd just found the right word, or if they'd payed more attention during ninth grade suicide prevention class that they could've stopped it, but it's not like that.
I have to talk to the school psychologist twice a week now, but I never really listen to what she's saying, I mean, I listen, but her advice only makes sense for a second, like when I'm in that office it's a different universe where I could salvage my life and my academic career, and there's a chance that I will have some control over what happens in my life, but as soon as I leave, all I can think about is that the prospect of having to brush my teeth for the next sixty years is just too disgusting and awful for me to deal with.
Everybody wants to think that suicide is this dramatic event, and it's not. It's like you're walking on top of a roof, and you have about ten seconds to decide if you want to stop, or you want to keep going, and you decide to keep going. Sorry I'm always talking about this shit- it's boring, but it's not like, a cry for help of anything. It's just the truth, and the day I die, the sun will come out, whole world's gonna smell like green. There's a bee in the classroom, so I'll turn out the light, shut my History book, and start summer vacation that lasts for ever.
Sitting in the car with Jim, the windows are all rolled up cause it's still a little cold, and he always smells like soap and cigarettes. There's a cup of soda from McDonald's on the dash board, and he's kind of my boyfriend, so I know I can have as much of it as I want. I don't want any, but I'll drink some to show him that I didn't forget, and we're still together. His hand's on the stick shift, and I'll cover it with my own while I stare out the window, and there's no way he could ever imagine that all I'm thinking about is how I could never do this for the rest of my life. He kind of looks at me for a second, and he's so nice to me and he'd never ask me for gas money and for now I'm really happy just to sit in the car and watch the trees.
Hand clapping starts, 99 red balloons go by."
For full writing by Alissa Bennett in the Superficial Dragon
Master Players Concert Series
Dani Galietti
CAP - Oct 10, 2009
8pm-10:30pm
Master Players Concert Series
“I Left My Heart in Newark”
Last night marked the season opening Faculty Gala for the Master Players Concert Series. The performance entitled “I Left My Heart in Newark” featured the voice and musical talents of the University of Delaware Faculty in the Music Department. The chosen pieces that were performed were by a variety of different composers, some of which included as Rachmaninoff, Rossini, Sarasate, and Brahms.
The performance began with a piano accompaniment. Soprano Sara Seglem-Hocking beautifully sang “Chere Nuit”. In the next performance an xylophone was brought onto stage, and a very animated Harvey Price accompanied by Linda Henderson on the piano played Rain and a Spanish Waltz by George Hamilton Green. Before the performance Price noted that Green was one of the ground breaking xylophone composers. I especially enjoyed this piece because of the performative qualities the musician brought to the piece. Not only was their a focus on the music but Price had an extremely corporeal response to each individual note he played- it was as if he was literally acting out the music. He wasn’t just playing music; you could tell he was extremely passionate about it. This was extremely true in the case of baritone singer Robert Brandt, in his performance of “Largo al Factotum” from “The Barber of Seville”. As he sang to the piano accompaniment of Marian Lee, his facial expressions and arm movements truly conveyed a sense of the song and his personality. However, I was even more enamored when Lawrence Stomberg entered on stage with his Cello. Along with Holly Raodfeldt-O’Riordan on the piano, they played two incredibly amazing movements from Rachmaninoff’s Sonata. Before the performance, Stomberg noted that the reason for his more formal Tuxedo attire was because he was “so pumped for tonight”. Though the validity of this statement was thrown off by the jesting remark of tenor singer Blake Smith, who told the audience that it was in fact he, himself, who told Stomberg to wear a Tux. Smith was an incredible performer, in tone, and in actions. With Marian Lee on piano, they ended the first half of the performance with incredible energy and life.
After intermission, the second half began with Xiang Gao on violin, and Marian Lee on piano performing 5 movements from the Carmen Fantasy, Op. 25. Gao and Lee were fabulous together. There was so much emotion and energy in the music and especially their performance. The following performance was a Piano Sonata for four hands. Two women, Marian Lee and Christine Delbeau, shared the bench and played a lighter, fluffier piece. The piece, by composer Francis Poulenc, took advantage of the dissonance that was created by the two players, to create a fun and lively sound. The concert culminated in a multi faculty final performance of Brahms’ “Liebeslider”.
CAP - Oct 10, 2009
8pm-10:30pm
Master Players Concert Series
“I Left My Heart in Newark”
Last night marked the season opening Faculty Gala for the Master Players Concert Series. The performance entitled “I Left My Heart in Newark” featured the voice and musical talents of the University of Delaware Faculty in the Music Department. The chosen pieces that were performed were by a variety of different composers, some of which included as Rachmaninoff, Rossini, Sarasate, and Brahms.
The performance began with a piano accompaniment. Soprano Sara Seglem-Hocking beautifully sang “Chere Nuit”. In the next performance an xylophone was brought onto stage, and a very animated Harvey Price accompanied by Linda Henderson on the piano played Rain and a Spanish Waltz by George Hamilton Green. Before the performance Price noted that Green was one of the ground breaking xylophone composers. I especially enjoyed this piece because of the performative qualities the musician brought to the piece. Not only was their a focus on the music but Price had an extremely corporeal response to each individual note he played- it was as if he was literally acting out the music. He wasn’t just playing music; you could tell he was extremely passionate about it. This was extremely true in the case of baritone singer Robert Brandt, in his performance of “Largo al Factotum” from “The Barber of Seville”. As he sang to the piano accompaniment of Marian Lee, his facial expressions and arm movements truly conveyed a sense of the song and his personality. However, I was even more enamored when Lawrence Stomberg entered on stage with his Cello. Along with Holly Raodfeldt-O’Riordan on the piano, they played two incredibly amazing movements from Rachmaninoff’s Sonata. Before the performance, Stomberg noted that the reason for his more formal Tuxedo attire was because he was “so pumped for tonight”. Though the validity of this statement was thrown off by the jesting remark of tenor singer Blake Smith, who told the audience that it was in fact he, himself, who told Stomberg to wear a Tux. Smith was an incredible performer, in tone, and in actions. With Marian Lee on piano, they ended the first half of the performance with incredible energy and life.
After intermission, the second half began with Xiang Gao on violin, and Marian Lee on piano performing 5 movements from the Carmen Fantasy, Op. 25. Gao and Lee were fabulous together. There was so much emotion and energy in the music and especially their performance. The following performance was a Piano Sonata for four hands. Two women, Marian Lee and Christine Delbeau, shared the bench and played a lighter, fluffier piece. The piece, by composer Francis Poulenc, took advantage of the dissonance that was created by the two players, to create a fun and lively sound. The concert culminated in a multi faculty final performance of Brahms’ “Liebeslider”.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Cassandra Jones
Dani Galietti
CAP - Oct 6, 2009
6pm -7pm
Cassandra Jones Visiting Artist Lecture
Visiting artist Cassandra Jones introduced herself to the University of Delaware as a Photographer. However, all the work that she showed contained no photographs that she her self took. She began, with the quote “Now a days photography has become as widely a practiced form as dancing and sex.” Jones commented that there were already so many photographs out there in existence that instead of adding to this limitless resource she decided that she would use it.
When she was younger, Cassandra promised her grandmother that when her grandfather passed away, that she would accompany her grandmother in her return to Greece. However this happened at a very unfortunate and extremely hard time: during Cassandra’s last thesis year. She confessed how she put up a fight but however in the end obliged. It was here in Greece where she decided to put her camera away and explore the wealth of imagery that was already in circulation.
For the first few weeks she was on the island, she noted how her grandmother, who hadn’t been on the island in over 36 years would encounter familiar faces. Every time this happened, the two people would stop in recognition, embrace, and cry. This was followed up with coffee and the combing through extensive amounts of photo albums. It was at these encounters and coffee meetings that Cassandra began to notice that almost every person had the quintessential sunset photo. This is where the idea for her thesis work came from.
“Eventide” her thesis piece is a 5minute stop-motion video of the sun setting. The photos came from hour and hours of Cassandra collecting from people’s personal albums, magazine, and the Internet. She would then scan all the imagery in and arrange them so that as the sun set it always anchored in the center of the screen. She did this with another one of her video pieces “Wax and Wane” which showed the different stages of the moon as if moved in an arc from the left to the right side of the screen. Interestingly so, this is not the first time something like this has been created. She showed the audience a video created by the NHL, which has been broadcasted on television. It shows the Stanley Cup positioned in the center of the screen, and as the photos change the players and team change showing a linear progression of Stanly Cup champions and the Cup’s passing through generations of hands.
Another source for her imagery became EBAY. She poured through thousands of photos looking for patterns and trends in imagery, until she found the one she was looking for. This was the $2.99 “cheerleader with leg in the air” photograph- the quintessential crotch shot. She purchased this photo and then used PhotoShop to arrange the figure into a radial design. She did this multiple times, using different cheerleaders in the same position. She continued to do this with as many different cheerleaders in the same position until she had a array of different radial designs of different cheerleaders. She then arranged these into a pattern and created her own wallpaper. This was incredible because when you saw an installation view the wallpaper resembled “your grandmother’s wallpaper”. However on closer inspection you noticed these flesh tones, and if the viewer came close enough they would be rewarded with the fact that these intricate designs were actually composed of fragments and layers of cheerleaders. She did this also with photographs of actually flamingoes. She noted that it was interesting how the flamingo “money shot” resembled that of a lawn ornament. Commenting on how the way in which we think about flamingoes is extremely influenced by these kitsch objects.
One of her most interesting works was entitled “Swarm” in which she described as a drawing. For this series, she collected thousands of images of lightning bolts and then arranged them so that the lighting created a closed connected circuit. However if you really looked at this circuit you realized that the lightning was arranged to resemble different urban animals. In the first collage she showed, the lightning created an outline of a bunny, and in her other arrangement it created the outline of a squirrel.
Though her work wasn’t extremely cutting edge and original, her ideas and the way she talked about her process was extremely interesting and inspiring. The process of searching and arranging added more to the work than just the pure visual element.
CAP - Oct 6, 2009
6pm -7pm
Cassandra Jones Visiting Artist Lecture
Visiting artist Cassandra Jones introduced herself to the University of Delaware as a Photographer. However, all the work that she showed contained no photographs that she her self took. She began, with the quote “Now a days photography has become as widely a practiced form as dancing and sex.” Jones commented that there were already so many photographs out there in existence that instead of adding to this limitless resource she decided that she would use it.
When she was younger, Cassandra promised her grandmother that when her grandfather passed away, that she would accompany her grandmother in her return to Greece. However this happened at a very unfortunate and extremely hard time: during Cassandra’s last thesis year. She confessed how she put up a fight but however in the end obliged. It was here in Greece where she decided to put her camera away and explore the wealth of imagery that was already in circulation.
For the first few weeks she was on the island, she noted how her grandmother, who hadn’t been on the island in over 36 years would encounter familiar faces. Every time this happened, the two people would stop in recognition, embrace, and cry. This was followed up with coffee and the combing through extensive amounts of photo albums. It was at these encounters and coffee meetings that Cassandra began to notice that almost every person had the quintessential sunset photo. This is where the idea for her thesis work came from.
“Eventide” her thesis piece is a 5minute stop-motion video of the sun setting. The photos came from hour and hours of Cassandra collecting from people’s personal albums, magazine, and the Internet. She would then scan all the imagery in and arrange them so that as the sun set it always anchored in the center of the screen. She did this with another one of her video pieces “Wax and Wane” which showed the different stages of the moon as if moved in an arc from the left to the right side of the screen. Interestingly so, this is not the first time something like this has been created. She showed the audience a video created by the NHL, which has been broadcasted on television. It shows the Stanley Cup positioned in the center of the screen, and as the photos change the players and team change showing a linear progression of Stanly Cup champions and the Cup’s passing through generations of hands.
Another source for her imagery became EBAY. She poured through thousands of photos looking for patterns and trends in imagery, until she found the one she was looking for. This was the $2.99 “cheerleader with leg in the air” photograph- the quintessential crotch shot. She purchased this photo and then used PhotoShop to arrange the figure into a radial design. She did this multiple times, using different cheerleaders in the same position. She continued to do this with as many different cheerleaders in the same position until she had a array of different radial designs of different cheerleaders. She then arranged these into a pattern and created her own wallpaper. This was incredible because when you saw an installation view the wallpaper resembled “your grandmother’s wallpaper”. However on closer inspection you noticed these flesh tones, and if the viewer came close enough they would be rewarded with the fact that these intricate designs were actually composed of fragments and layers of cheerleaders. She did this also with photographs of actually flamingoes. She noted that it was interesting how the flamingo “money shot” resembled that of a lawn ornament. Commenting on how the way in which we think about flamingoes is extremely influenced by these kitsch objects.
One of her most interesting works was entitled “Swarm” in which she described as a drawing. For this series, she collected thousands of images of lightning bolts and then arranged them so that the lighting created a closed connected circuit. However if you really looked at this circuit you realized that the lightning was arranged to resemble different urban animals. In the first collage she showed, the lightning created an outline of a bunny, and in her other arrangement it created the outline of a squirrel.
Though her work wasn’t extremely cutting edge and original, her ideas and the way she talked about her process was extremely interesting and inspiring. The process of searching and arranging added more to the work than just the pure visual element.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
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