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February 19, 2006
The 4th Wall, Cinema, Sound
So I went to the Sigur Ros show at Calvin last night. Some of you were probably there (we went to the early show). It was very good. My favorite parts were the very beginning and very end. They had a big sheer veil hanging in front of the stage. Colored lights projected silhouettes of the players and equipment on the screen from behind while pulsing, abstract video was projected on it from the front. Different lights would pulse, letting you see through the screen to the people, then back to the silhouettes. It was visually stunning. Effects like these make for a good show, and that's one reason to go to a concert, but I think that what they were doing went beyond eye candy that couldn't fit in the liner notes. By flattening their on-stage image onto a screen they drew attention to the fact that concerts aren't just about music, they’re about spectacle. The people on stage are not just producing the sound, they are also an image. The screen and the video pulled in an appropriate reference to another medium that deals with time, sound, and spectacle: film. There was something really nice about how all the elements seemed really pure. The video was little more than television snow; the words, if they were even real, are in a language almost no one speaks; and the sound, especially the electric guitar played with a violin bow, seemed to be pure energy flowing through the instrument, unmediated by melody. I actually would have liked it if they left the veil in place for the entire show. Not being able to see the performers very well didn't bother me. Sigur Ros seems to have a different sort of rock band identity. The music they make is at once incredibly objective, like a purely modernist exploration of the pure forms of sound and light, and incredibly introspective and personal. They don't relate a personal experience to you, like other bands, instead they provide a conduit through which you have the experience for yourself. It's there that they shift from being artists to artisans, like the way that the individual that painted a medieval icon is unimportant, it's the way you experience it that counts. I'm not trying to degrade them for being artisans instead of artists, in fact I applaud them. We could use more artisans.
This isn't a photo from the show, it's from www.sigur-ros.info, but this is how it looked.
Posted by kevinb at 1:12 AM | Comments (0)
February 15, 2006
What does it do?
I think I've been easing in to this semester, but it's catching up to me now. It seems to be a balancing act between what I want to do and what I'm obliged to do, only everything I do fits in both of those categories. I'm blessed that way I suppose, and I'm certainly not bored. Art making is a hard thing to do, and I think I put a lot of pressure on myself. Actually I know I do, and I want it that way. Anyway, things are progressing, but it's difficult. I'd like to do more video work, but then time is suddenly an issue--what do the images do? Not to mention sound.
An another note, I've been enjoying a podcast called Escape Pod. Each week a new science fiction story is read. Science fiction is the kind of thing I'd love to read if I wasn't a student or wasn't guilting myself into reading art theory or something. But now I can listen to it on my way to school! Everybody wins! I loved a recent story called "The Team-Mate Reference Problem in Final-Stage Demon Confrontation." It reminded me of my adolescent days playing Doom II. In case you're wondering: No, I do not currently play Doom III. I saw a friend play it and it terrified me. The blocky pixels of Doom II seemed to provide a barrier between my impressionable young mind and what was supposed to be a twitching torso on a stake. No such barrier seems to exist in Doom III. Freaky.
Here's a few random images, because a blog post without pictures is like a hamburger without cheese:
Posted by kevinb at 12:37 AM | Comments (2)
February 8, 2006
Leftovers
Today at work I had to type in subtitles for a television show I help produce called Inner Compass, it shows on PBS. After a few hours I had built up a list of words that I exported to Microsoft Word to check the spelling. It sort of turned into an odd poem:
ACCOUNTABILITY
MARRIAGE, MARRIAGE
EUPHEMISTICALLY,
ANONYMOUSLY
In my defense, it turned out that I did spell all the words correctly the first time.
Also, here's a still frame I like from a different educational video we have to subtitle:
Posted by kevinb at 4:48 PM | Comments (0)
February 7, 2006
Armchair Paleontology
My last core class requirement is an intro geology class. It's a bit tedious at times, but I really do enjoy it. The planet is so old, it's crazy! Check out this timeline I found on Wikipedia:
We, along with Genkis Kahn and Jesus Christ, are somewhere in that little pink part all the way to the right. I'm fascinated with this vast swath of mysterious past as a setting for mythology. Not just religious and scientific creation myths, but practical and fantastic myths of all sorts. I'd like to create new myths, or better yet: expose the ones we already believe but don't yet have a language to talk about.
Posted by kevinb at 7:57 PM | Comments (1)
February 3, 2006
Up and Running
I feel like I'm just starting to get into the swing of this semester. I had some time to work in my studio today. It's always hard to get started. When I'm writing a paper it seems like the first sentence is like pulling teeth, then it starts flowing. I'm happy that I was able to make something today, if for nothing else than to start the flow.
Posted by kevinb at 5:44 PM | Comments (0)