Research Pt.1
People:
Francis Alys
Marina Abramovic
Joesph Beuys
Hiroshi Sugimoto
Christian Marclay
Tehching Hsieh
Marina Abramovic's The Artist is Present 2010
Notes on the documentary
- Performance has always been the alternative form of art (09:00)
- The hardest thing is to actually do something that is close to nothing (the idea of pure presence)
- Blaine vs Abramovic, Blaine is an illusionist and what he does in reality is not what we perceive, Abramovic is real, but both of them rely on the audience to sustain their art
- performance is knife and it's your blood, and acting is ketchup and you don't cut yourself
- Ulay participating in the show at Moma, mirrors the performance he did with Abramovic for Nightsea Crossing
- Touching because Ulay gave up due to health pains, and here he is again and they share a tender moment (1:03)
- Maybe the reason why people chose to sit opposite her is to reflect on themselves, because Abramovic is nothing, she acts like a mirror and allows for contemplation, despite having completely different facial features
- Visualised time as a weight on Abramovic's shoulders, and it takes an intense amount of effort to move it
It's easy to dismiss this performance as trivial because "anybody can do it", whereas in actuality the complexity and arduousness is hidden by Abramovic's skill as an artist.
The 716 hours didn't serve much as a purpose, if the exhibition was shorter or longer it would change too; she treated an already overwhelming chunk of time as a massive blob already, it's what she did with that amount of time that matters.
Francis Alys Paradox of Praxis 1 1997
- Sometimes making something leads to nothing
- Similar to Abramovic, the task is a very physical one and requires a lot of commitment
- Usually something that is so tasking should leave something behind but Alys just filmed it
- The apparent futility of this task baffles the audience, "why is he doing something so useless?"
- "As if Alÿs were making a point about the futility of art. And yet this is not merely art about art. The routines of manual workers are just as much of a praxis and must at most times feel just as paradoxical"
- Interpretations vary across the spectrum from political to almost "art for arts sake", and it's normal to have diverse thoughts because this video defies ideas we grow up by:
- hard work pays off, minimal effort maximum result (principle of least effort)
- Similar to David Hammon's Blizaard Ball Sale 1983, where a photographer took photos of Hammon selling snowballs of various sizes on a rug in NYC
- Both objects ultimately melt away and can't help the person in any useful way (utilitarian)
https://aphelis.net/bliz-aard-ball-sale-david-hammons-1983/
Joesph Beuys I Like America and America Likes Me 1973
- Title takes a jab at Americans, it's supposed to be the land where all races get along but there are still schisms between races an attitudes towards the Vietnam War
- One of his Actions, the moment he got out of the airport, he was wrapped in felt and put on a stretcher then ambulance then transported to a room with just a coyote
- Felt's a recurring object in his shows, as he was wrapped up in it when his plane crashed during WWII
- Coyote because " he saw the debasement of the coyote as a symbol of the damage done by white men to the American continent and its native cultures"
- Unlike his latter counterparts Beuys is highly symbolic and imbues his Actions with objects that has significant meaning to them
- I wouldn't agree his works are more 2 dimensional compared Alys or Abramovic's, just because it has metaphors and "it's easier to understand", but Beuys has a rather comprehensible/graspable goal that he wants to achieve
Christian Marclay The Clock 2010
- Upcoming show at Tate on the 14th Sep, combines clips from the past century of cinema history
- Masterpiece and iconic, the trick was the sound editing, the blending before the next scene cuts in is done like one movie
- I can only watch snippets, and can't imagine how 24 hours of this would feel
- In the end, Marclay and his crew did not create anything new, it's essentially all lacework of film, something usually elementary and trivial, but Marclay here took it to new heights by extending it and carefully splicing the audio and the action in each scene
Hiroshi Sugimoto Theaters 1976~2015
- Visited over 100 theaters, using a large format (so that means photographic paper) camera he set the exposure to the movie's length
- technically, the fstop must be quite high to accommodate the amount of light over the time
- conceptually, this whole idea came from him asking what happens if he shoots an entire movie on one frame, and in this case he knew exactly what he had visualised
- Not so much as futile this time, as the results are way more than enough, all very structured and ultimately, nice photos
- Ironic because what he wanted to photograph is the only thing we can't see, well not see it in the way we normally do
Tehching Hsieh
- A Taiwanese who jumped ship and stayed in NYC as an illegal immigrant for 14 years
- Total of 6 performances:
- 78-79 confined in a cage, nobody to talk to and did everything in a cage
- 80-81 every hour he needed to punch a time clock, depriving him of any significant activity and sleep
- 81-82 wandered in NYC and not entering any shelter, actually got arrested but the judge allowed him to go because he is an artist
- 83-84 tied a 8 ft rope with fellow performance artist Linda Montano, set some rules
- must be in same room
- cannot touch
- 85-86 didn't do any form of art and not be affiliated by it
- 86-99 he created some art but never showed it, then at the start of 2000 he stopped creating art all together
- “I don’t want to say ‘my work is about that’ because then it won’t be about another thing,” Hsieh says. “It needs to be open. I want for people to feel like this is a universal conversation. My work always touches on time and life.”
- His works deal with ideas about life, and it deals with time
- time is like the medium that Hsieh 'paints' or 'fills' in
- what he decides to do is essentially how he marks the medium, or time with
We need to strip away the physicality of movement, and embrace what is not being seen. Movements with intentions done for a reason shouldn't be viewed as sub par to painting or sculptures, sure they might not physically be in after the performance, but the memory will and sometimes documentation serve just to remind and not completely recreate that experience.
Works citied:
https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/964
http://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-modern/display/performer-and-participant/tehching-hsieh
http://www.skny.com/artists/tehching-hsieh?view=slider
http://francisalys.com/sometimes-making-something-leads-to-nothing/
https://vimeo.com/5904032 (Beuys's video)
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-joseph-beuys-locked-room-live-coyote
https://www.kidsofdada.com/blogs/magazine/35963521-joseph-beuys-i-like-america-and-america-likes-me
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/is-the-clock-worth-the-time
http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/christian-marclay-clock
https://newrepublic.com/article/90530/christian-marclay-the-clock-new-york
http://museemagazine.com/culture/2016/9/27/review-theaters-by-hiroshi-sugimoto
Pt.2
John Cage
Known for incorporating music into realms that were not typically associated with it (back then). Famous pieces were the Theater piece and 4'33'' both in '52. Chance is an important factor in his compositions. Cage didn't invent graphic notation, he did popularise it.
Corenlius Cardew's Treatise '63-67
The Sistine Chapel of all graphic notations out there, there are constant bars at the bottom for pacing I'm guessing, but majority of the piece consists of geometric shapes. This piece is completely open to interpretation and any instruments can be used. Breaking it down visually, there is a combination of traditional treble/bass clefs with more 'abstract' shapes like circles that are split in straight lines. It is black and white and all the lines are the same intensity. Very rarely the piece would include inoragnic shapes, most of the time it would have sharp or slightly curvy lines to indicate size, mass or just volume.
From Notation 21 by Theresa Sauer:
Britton is originally an architect, then became a music producer and composer, what interests me is how incomprehensible this initially looks like. To make his piece he experimented with the banjo and electronic representations of it; specifically how the effects of the sounding box affects the strings. The stave and arrows in the middle indicate that the piece is read from left to right, and the notes are actually "transcription of partial modulations caused by the drum skin on harmonic notes"; being the only two recognised musical symbols in the entire piece, this composition looks more like a diagram than anything. The stark simplicity in the lines, coupled with the scribbles at the bottom challenged my interpretation of what a graphic notation could look like.
Jorgensen's piece is colourful and actually readable. It's colour and varied shapes reminds of Kandinsky's compositions, however Jorgensen is actually composing whereas Kandinsky is making an interpretation of it. The varying angles of lines can mean pitch or volume, the other shapes can mean multiple instruments playing at once, and each section could mean a break in the entire composition. Despite being a graphic piece, I admire how Jorgensen made it so easy to read--which is astonishing because there hasn't been a language for reading graphic notation at all, and yet he makes it so easy.
This could possibly be because of the repeated use of limited shapes and colours, or how some shapes might look like musical symbols. I realised that legibility can depends on how often a symbol/subject is repeated, and like language, repeated symbols are like components of a word.
Brown's December '52 is another famous piece in graphic notation history. According to Brown himself,
"“Time is the actual dimension in which music exists when performed and is by nature an infinitely divisible continuum. No metric system or notation based on metrics is able to indicate all of the possible points in the continuum, yet sound may begin or end anywhere along this dimension.”
-Similar to performance art, time can be seen as a dimension or medium in which something can be performed in
-We made up time and ways to calculate it, and there are limitations to it, but sound has this quality that allows it to transcend them all
"Similarly, all of the other characteristics of a sound — frequency, intensity, timbre, modes of attack-continuation-decay — are infinitely divisible continua and unmeasurable. The imposition of approximate scalar-systems is obviously possible and efficacious, but to deal directly with the experience of a continuum on its own unknown terms seems to imply that the unmeasuring eye and ear are their own terms and experiential justification and compatible with unmeasured experience. An ambiguous but implicitly inclusive graphic “notation,” and alert, sympathetic performers, are conceivable catalysts for activating this “process” within continua. "
"to produce graphic situations, the implications of which would involve the performer’s response as a factor leading to multiple “characteristic” realizations of the piece as an audible event;...to extend and intensify the ambiguity inherent in any graphic representation and possible composer, performer, and audience response to it; a work, and any one performance of it, as “process” rather than as static and conclusive. "
-First of all, woah
-Because of our current ways to define sounds are false, or just incorrect, graphic notation is important
-It is ambiguous but the performers carrying out their version of the sound unlocks what the sound really sounds like
(I think this is what Brown is saying)
Brown takes a rather philosophical and yet scientific approach to what sound means, and how to 100% capture it. Sound is not just a mixture of frequencies, and it needs a performer to subjectively digest the 'sheet music' and play it to unlock the real sound (?).
Here's what I have done so far:
A rendition of the sounds, ideas and words from BBC radio 3 at around 1200~0100. I was exploring what drawing without sight, and tapping into that raw energy in drawing when the only input is sound. It was difficult to pry away from words that have meanings and to translate it into lines.
On a side note, temperature is important in developing film, because I over developed my shots and everything is now over exposed.
I decided to make another one, however after my tutorial that idea all went out the window.
Sources:
https://medias.ircam.fr/xd7ef40_junkspace-sam-britton (mp3 version of Britton's piece)
http://www.differance.org/scores/Junkspace.pdf (Britton's explanation of what and why he did)
http://www.earle-brown.org/works/view/12 (quotes from Brown himself)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMzIXxlwuCs&list=RDJMzIXxlwuCs#t=180 (Cornelius's piece by a pianist, flutist and violinist)
http://www.theartstory.org/artist-cage-john-artworks.htm#pnt_2 (bio on Cage)
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/john-cage-about-the-composer/471/ (bio on Cage)
https://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2014/01/03/composing-silence-john-cage-and-black-mountain-college-3/ (Cage and this theatre piece)
40 Hours Pt.1
I've decided to try out graphic notation because I find the idea of visualising sound intriguing, especially in a way that captures the tonality and emotion, rather than formal musical elements about specific frequencies and time. I remember back in year 3 my music teacher told us to recreate noises from the Blitz, making our graphic notations into little comic doodles.
Radio surfing is also something I enjoy doing, because whenever I go back to Taiwan the family car can only play the radio, and I would often surf on it and scour for stations I enjoy. So combining these two ideas of mine really makes this project a personal one for me.
Looking at the result from day 1, which lasted for 4 hours, I immediately feel that it lacked any real energy to it. The lines were mostly uniform (despite coming from various radio stations), they were not confident and the mix of materials made it a big mess. I feel however, that it can only get better, as everyday I can continuing researching on composers like John Cage and others and see how that notate composition, and at the same time listen to them. I also realised that by purposely making it dark I cannot draw properly (duh), so this evening I would see and draw at the same time.
I was also a bit too optimistic to think I will draw for 6 hours straight; instead I will break it into 2 chunks, 3 hours right after I wake up and 3 before I sleep.
It is important to not just jump the gun and get carried away from stray ideas, instead I need to hunker down and evaluate before I experiment. I need to ask how can I develop or change the project's trajectory from the current point.
40 Hours Pt.2
28 hours done, 12 more to go. Total 4 pages worth of notations.
I moved from lines of various thickness and opaqueness to focusing on drawing shapes that capture the tonality. I focused on using just makers to create more concrete lines. I find it getting increasingly harder to focus just on the music and translating that into drawings, as in a way this is like inventing a new language.
I set out in this project to explore what I can learn about graphic notation, so I figured going out and walking around town doesn't affect my goal. The only restrictions I have are only listening to the radio and drawing out what I hear.
Currently at day 4, I noticed that my drawings are getting more 3D, as opposed to lines and colours from the first day. The shapes now have form, there are shadows which made the sound more like a solid entity, rather than lines and geometric shapes scattered around the page. I find it interesting that as I develop this new 'language', it turns into a drawing that resembles form. However, sometimes I'm not sure whether if I am translating the sound directly, or I am drawing from memory with is influenced by the music. This also makes me wonder how Kandinsky could translate music into a painting; he believes music is the truest form of art, and it has the power to transcend any boundaries and get straight into the soul. His Composition VII for instance, is an explosion of colour, shapes and little symbols, just like one would expect from an emotional piece of music.
I'm not too happy with how I use my time to do this piece--I feel like I am not imposing enough rules to make it more arduous for me. I know the goal isn't to make it a physical challenge, however I'm not stressing as much as my previous projects, and that feels a little off. My next step is dividing the last 12 hours into six 2 hours intervals, so I can maintain that level of intensity in drawing.
40 Hours Conclusion
Main takeaway lessons:
I need to alter my method of working. Sounds obvious but I shouldn't start when my outcome of my goal is not clear. In this project I'm not even sure I had to begin with, because I believed I could learn and pick up as I went along. My presentation felt painful because I thought it was an immense waste of mine (and maybe everybody's) time, especially when I just strolled up and thought I could simply say out what I wanted to achieve. It was a good idea that I messed up explaining and showing.
Here are the questions given to us on the projects:
1) how effective is the context introduced?
-Not at all hahaha... What I produced were numerous sheets of interpretations of music/voices from the radio and some classical pieces from my computer. They were A2 sized newsprint paper. They are good for a start, but not when presenting. They are thin and I had lots so I could've used them as sketch paper, then progressed to something more 'premium' feeling as an end product. Even a canvas or a drawing done on a thick card would have been more presentable and show cumulative of knowledge and practice over the 40 hours.
2) chose an interesting metaphor or original metaphor to work with?
-Not even close to a metaphor, I did not choose anything. Looking back at the tutorial, I realised I am lazy to think for myself. If somebody presented me an idea (like what Michelle did) I would simply go with it. I always needed somebody to diagnose me, tell me, or just point me in the direction they think I ought to go(in fact I think that's how I ended up in photography).
3) how well did I capture/communicate the 40 hours duration
-Actually this aspect isn't as horrible as the other ones. It definitely still sucks, but because it is a series of work it does show that it took some time. Looking at other people's works, I can see myself doing a time lapse of all the drawings, then presenting a final piece.
4) does the works successfully document the experience and gave the audience a meaningful experience
-It could have, it could have truly been if I had simply worked on it longer. I could have made the class into a performance art piece by arranging the seats and doing a little lesson in graphic notation or something similar.
5) what did I learn from this experience
-Have an original idea that really means something to me, and evaluate whether it will work
-before I get carried away from my random ideas and succumb to my impulses, I need to stop and consider if it's a good idea or not
-set rules before I proceed
-I've always said stuff about time management, but this is a serious one. I completely neglected the timesheet Tim gave us, and I feel awful for wasting my time.
-It's difficult to do work without the urge to do something else after focusing for a good solid 3~5 minutes
-A timetable could help, but honestly it's all in the head.
Last few things to accomplish:
Write a manifesto, a set of rules for what should be the better version of this project
Complete a proper 2 hour piece, then ask participants to draw also (a solid 20 minutes of drawing while listening to music of my choice)
By taking on as a role of a facilitator, it's not just me learning how to make this new language, but I have given this idea to others; I am giving others a another way to perceive with their senses, and it just adds another dimension and deepen their appreciation to music and sound.