Over the course of the semester, I began to realize I was looking to sound as a touchstone of identity, a wholeness, a lodestone, an anchor, a tag. I resonated deeply with the teachings of Pauline Oliveros, who created compositions, concertas, and actions made of movement and noise. I could never mediate until working with her sound meditations. I remember studying with her my final year of undergraduate work. We'd lie on the cleared floor and listen to her voice ,talking us out beyond consciousness. She'd always say to listen to the noises produced by everything living, including yourself, and to "imagine yourself as part of the field of sound." That was the trigger for me. That was it. I was gone. For my final project, I staged an Oliveros-style performance in an empty studio in CMB, to involve and benefit the whole class. 12 blindfolded participants would play one of three intruments, making noise to try to attract the other people playing like instruments. Their instructions were to play their instruments while listening for others and to move towards them. When they found all four members of their group they were to make a song. Meanwhile, 12 people with flashlights moved rapidly around and over the participants, creating confusion and providing light for the cameras in the darkened studio. Three cameras documented the affair using the light from the cameras to create surreal and confusing video documentation. During the hunt for like sounds, I played a wall of baffling and jarring music taken from creative commons-licensed sounds of flutes, kazoos, and rattles. This served the purpose of misleading the blind performers. Ingredients: 12 ties, 4 rattles, 4 kazoos, 4 recorders, 3 cameras with tapes, 12 flashlights, 36+ amazing ACTLabbies, one large dark studio Results: After a short peroid of disorientation people moved towards one another and began playing in tandem. Afterwards, they said it felt very satisfying and "safe" once they found their "people." The distractions of noise, light, and motion proved no match for the human ear's ability to recognize and discern one small chosen sound within the din. Video documentation: Although I know that any attempt to boil any subject, person, concept, or thing down to its essence is basically doomed for failure, I'm glad I had this chance to enact what, for me, was a very important and deep urge towards simplification of identity that's been occuring on many levels of my life in recent months. In a sense the performance banished this feeling and left me more accepting of the din, chaos, lights, and motion than about the simple sounds. After all, if perfection is heaven you've gotta be dead to achieve it. I'm grateful for oppositional forces in life and contradictions... and most grateful to Soundscapes and the ACTLabbies for the chance to find the voice to sing this song.
Over the course of the semester, I began to realize I was looking to sound as a touchstone of identity, a wholeness, a lodestone, an anchor, a tag. I resonated deeply with the teachings of Pauline Oliveros, who created compositions, concertas, and actions made of movement and noise. I could never mediate until working with her sound meditations. I remember studying with her my final year of undergraduate work. We'd lie on the cleared floor and listen to her voice ,talking us out beyond consciousness. She'd always say to listen to the noises produced by everything living, including yourself, and to "imagine yourself as part of the field of sound." That was the trigger for me. That was it. I was gone.
For my final project, I staged an Oliveros-style performance in an empty studio in CMB, to involve and benefit the whole class. 12 blindfolded participants would play one of three intruments, making noise to try to attract the other people playing like instruments. Their instructions were to play their instruments while listening for others and to move towards them. When they found all four members of their group they were to make a song. Meanwhile, 12 people with flashlights moved rapidly around and over the participants, creating confusion and providing light for the cameras in the darkened studio. Three cameras documented the affair using the light from the cameras to create surreal and confusing video documentation. During the hunt for like sounds, I played a wall of baffling and jarring music taken from creative commons-licensed sounds of flutes, kazoos, and rattles. This served the purpose of misleading the blind performers.
Ingredients: 12 ties, 4 rattles, 4 kazoos, 4 recorders, 3 cameras with tapes, 12 flashlights, 36+ amazing ACTLabbies, one large dark studio
Results: After a short peroid of disorientation people moved towards one another and began playing in tandem. Afterwards, they said it felt very satisfying and "safe" once they found their "people." The distractions of noise, light, and motion proved no match for the human ear's ability to recognize and discern one small chosen sound within the din.
Video documentation:
Although I know that any attempt to boil any subject, person, concept, or thing down to its essence is basically doomed for failure, I'm glad I had this chance to enact what, for me, was a very important and deep urge towards simplification of identity that's been occuring on many levels of my life in recent months. In a sense the performance banished this feeling and left me more accepting of the din, chaos, lights, and motion than about the simple sounds. After all, if perfection is heaven you've gotta be dead to achieve it. I'm grateful for oppositional forces in life and contradictions... and most grateful to Soundscapes and the ACTLabbies for the chance to find the voice to sing this song.