Thursday, February 22, 2007

Aphorisms (realization of 2.8.2007)

Fluxus-artists of the world, now is the time for action! To-days art has lost it's usefulness and must be rejected in favor of a new order. Consider the following:

-Length is no measure of Art.
-The piano has outlived its usefulness.
-nobody writes manifestos anymore except for nut-jobs like the unibomber.
-If not alienating the audience means writing Rimsky-Korsakov inspired film scores and doing overly-complicated orchestrations of Dark Side of the Moon, then I proudly wear the title Jackass.
-Apathy is the vomit of the Gods
-In this day and age, tonality is a crutch for the feeble-minded.
-Musical quotation is an attempt by composers to procrastinate creativity.
-Modern Art Appreciation has degraded into a popularity contest, and sadly most artists would prefer the notoriety of a reality series over quality.
-(on modern artists): A generation of editors.


Performance is not exempted from this form of thinking:

Blow the fucking shit out of it man and don’t give a fucking inch and let’em know you are back there and that you don’t give a damn about their tempermental prima donna horseshit attitudes because you are a low brass player and that means you have to fuckin’ nail it to the wall and to do that you got to be a real fucking man, with a chin and that means you’re gonna’ by-God nail and plow and log and wahf and drag and push and "lead the whole damn section" through every part no matter what it is - Mozart or Mahler (Hell, they’re all the same ain’t they-besides, "a fortsado is a fortsado") and if they don’t like it they can by-God find another player because you don’t need their damn money and that those sissy-ass conductors and tin-eared string players (those turds "think" they can hear the grass grow) and the damn twiddly-dink woodwind pickers that are so sure that all low brass players want to play loud all the time CAN JUST KISS YOUR ASS and if they don’t want to pay you double-fucking scale they can simply get screwed for all you care ‘cause they couldn’t replace you with a player 1⁄2 as good and to just stick that bloody contract up their aristocratic assholes ‘cause if they don’t appreciate a big fucking sound with some body and breadth and projection and carrying power that you don’t want any part of this orchestra (such shitty management anyway) and to take the whole symphony society and shove it ‘cause you’re fed up with this amateur bullshit and to come across with some real bread or fuck-off or they’ll be huntin’ another player and that you’ve got a million other offers and that you’ve got no problem playing the horn because YOU CAN FUCKING READ!!!!!!

(realization of 2.8.2007, a Fluxus-inspired work, the score of which appears here on Sonic Event)

Thursday, February 08, 2007

2.8.2007 (Manifesto, After When Morty Met John)

Procedure:

-Collect one line of text from as many people as possible, each written in proper manifesto-tone.
-Do not allow contributors to see any other contribution.
-Without regard for organization or flow, construct a manifesto from the results. If necessary, apply random process to lines of text as to remove your aesthetic taste from the end result.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

2.7.2007 (Fire Piece #1)

Last week two good friends visited me here in Minnesota for a week of performing, chatting and catching up. As part of this, I learned that they are working on a Fluxus inspired work, and, by their example, I am featuring a week of Fluxus here on Sonic Event! For the next week I will post a new Fluxus work, written that day. Please comment, especially if you realize any of them. I'll feature the performances here on Sonic Event.

------------------------

2.7.2007 (Fire Piece #1)

Equipment:

Power Supply
Wire
Sound Producing Item (i.e. Piezo Buzzer)
Candle or other open flame

Procedure:
Connect the sound producing item to the power supply via the wire, which should be long enough to accommodate the flame underneath. Light the flame and allow it to burn through the wire as the item sounds. The piece ends when the sound ends.

Saturday, February 03, 2007

Multimedia and Second Life

Second Life, a virtual world produced by Linden Labs, has been written about in most major press outlets. I've spent a bit of time there over the last month, exploring and trying to get to know the place. My interest is mainly in the artistic and educational opportunites there. For the most part it is a social networking environment with a strong economic focus - most things cost money, and a good builder can can make real dollars there.

At any rate, finding truly interesting art has been a little difficult. The interactive elements take a while to load so many of them appear not to work at first. With a little patience, however, I've begun to discover interactive installation in SL (SL for "Second Life", RL for "Real Life").

One of my favorites is Catana Park:



(from the creators):
Cantata Park is an interactive, spatialised sound sculpture built in the virtual world Second Life. The sculpture is made from 256 individual nodes in a 16 x 16 grid. Each node is embedded with a single word, triggered by a participant’s movement through the work. Each participant creates a random narrative, assembled on-the-fly, and in real-time.

Cantata Park explores the notion of a “cut-up narrative”. By disassembling and reassembling a passage of text, the participant is free to extract unseen meaning from an existing text. The cut-up technique was popularised by Beat poets in the 1950’s-70’s as a method to “break the linearity” of written language, with William S. Burroughs using it extensively in his works. Burroughs believed non-pictorial languages contained a virus. By using non-linear writing techniques he believed the true meaning of language could be exposed, and the spoken word used as a weapon.

Cantata Park uses a passage of 256 words from Burroughs’ The Electronic Revolution (1971) and transfers the cut-up technique into a real-time 3D environment.

The work explores the possibilities of metaverse art, limitations of Second Life’s construction tools and scripting language, and the ability to appreciate conceptual art by proxy of an avatar.

Cantata Park was produced in December 2006 by Christopher Dodds and Adam Nash, members of the Metamatic Collective.

For those with a SL account, check it out at:

Mashup , Marni (199, 53, 26)

Oh, and my SL name is Kristian Lacava. Stop in and say "hi" if you'd like.
Counter
Web Counter