making things
Yesterday I spent most of the day assembling the sound installation that Seamus Cater and I have made for the 66 East opening tonight in Amsterdam. We've made it such that we have a great sound room, with speakers on both sides on (handmade) podiums, and a big metal Indonesia kenong drum in the middle, with a single microphone hanging over it, and various mallets hanging on industrial metal cables around the drum. The sounds are a crazy mix of feedback fed back WAY too many times, chopped up samples of played metallic drum sound that collect and morph over the evening, and picked up snippets of requisite arty-farty-gallery-opening-conversation, fueled by cheap wine. Physical labor was put into this: waking up this morning, I feel about 95 years old... It sounds good though! I hope people will just walk in, absorb the sound, play, and listen(!). That's what it's about, people will get it if they give it a little time.
Comments
So, how did it go? Were the sounds more interesting during the cheap wine-fueled opening, or after, when there's much less poseurs?
Posted by: Remi | May 1, 2004 4:14 PM
Other than one point where a gang of children ran in off the street and dismantled part of the installation (we were able to fix it), it went surprisingly well, attended by a collection of squat subculture types, architects with geometric eyeglasses, and artsy folk. It was the first time I've seen such a mixing of the scenes in Amsterdam.
Posted by: roddy | May 2, 2004 7:10 PM
sounds like a total creative and wonderful scene; wich I had been there to experience it. The rabble of kids? i would have pulled out my pocket audio recorder and digitally recorded their sound inside and within the space and used it for a future sound project! If you need any .wav or .mp3 bits (audio vocal or outdoor sounds), let me know...I've got tons and would love to freely share them with you; someone who is actually doing the WORK. Some samples I have are: the aural sounds of Hollywood Boulevard near Grauman's Chinese theatre, the top of a hill in San Pedro, CA, the commons of UCLA, etc. Thanks for the wonderful blogs!
Posted by: Sweet Kali | May 10, 2004 7:16 AM
"The rabble of kids? i would have pulled out my pocket audio recorder and digitally recorded their sound inside and within the space and used it for a future sound project!"
That's a great idea, but I have to confess, after hearing them beat away at anything and everything in sight for about five minutes, I was sooo ready for them to move on. There's a picture of one of the troublemakers here: http://www.66east.org/index2.html
I would be interested in hearing some of the sounds near the Chinese Theater.
Posted by: roddy | May 11, 2004 12:52 PM