Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Nietzsche Family Circus

Nihilists and non-believers alike, this is definitely worth checking out

Charlotte Moorman


"I am a sculpture and not a concert" 
~ Charlotte Moorman
Charlotte Moorman, performing Nam June Paik's "TV Cello"
Classically trained, Moorman first became exposed to Avant Garde art when a colleague of hers at the Julliard School suggested she perform composer John Cage's "26 Minutes, 1.499 Seconds for a String Player." From there, she became enticed with the Avant Garde art scene, with a particular interest in mixed-media performance art. Moorman met her creative match when she began collaborationg with performance artist Nam June Paik. The two put on a number of ground-breaking works, including "Opera Sextronique," a peice that made history for Moorman's topless performance, and her subsequent arrest on a count of public indecency. Additional noteworthy performances include:

-"Concerto for TV Cello and Videotapes"
-"The Chocolate Cello"
-"Sky Kiss" 
-"TV Bra for Living Sculpture" - featured below

Charlotte Moorman was also responsible for establishing the New York Avant Garde Festival, an annual event that functioned as a platform for experimental artists. Moorman herself participated in the event, which ran for nearly twenty years




Sunday, February 10, 2013

Everything is Music

"Everything we do is music."
~John Cage

 During the fall while I was living in Florence, I was struck by just how noisy the street outside my window was. I felt like I could hear everything: cars and mopeds passing by, intimate conversations and raucous arguments being had, church bells ringing, drunk people vomiting in the alleyway, ext. One evening, I decided to try and record it all. I took about a five minute sample of sound from my open window, and stashed it away for the rest of the term, not anticipating how well that sound clip would fit into this latest Digital Processes assignment. Below is a link to my Soundcloud page, where I mixed two versions of the same clip, one ambient, and one dancey. 

The view from the window I subsequently recorded from