Captured: Video Mapping in Orlando

As a kickoff event for Snap! Orlando, the Kress building in downtown was transformed into a piece of moving architecture thanks to some video artist. By using video mapping software, the production company showcased some of the photography pieces that will shown at the programs for Snap!

And here's another projection they did on May 4, 2011:

Snap! Orlando aims to exhibit the beauty of photography by presenting some of today's leading photography masters throughout the city. Programs will be held May 10-13, 2012.

Performance Art Comments

Kim - It was very interesting how the wax was transformed and revealed the phone from hidden, almost like an extension of your being. Also, the painting with a blower idea is really cool and the resulting product is great.

Sabrina - I see your message that man is destroying the earth via oil and pollution, and that the paint was like a 'blood bath,' but I think it would have made a better statement if you had tied them together a little bit better. You were the only one that used music you  made though, and it was great!

Catherine - Using an 'unsafe,' current issue location was definitely the right idea for performance art. I think that the themes you explained in this are a little far stretch, as I don't know that I would have correlated forgiveness if it hadn't been explained, but your performance was the most meaningful out of all and it was amazing.

Erin - Even though you were critiqued for doing it in too safe of a place, I got your message right away. I think that saying people are now too involved in technology to notice their surroundings is however a little overdone as theme.

Michelle - Good for you to going to the casino! I would definitely have been afraid to get thrown out. However, the performance lacked the interaction from audience members. Even if you didn't use them actively, you must remember the ideas from ART 310 where you have to entice the user.

James - I definitely see your idea of the mini city that people destroy, but I could have been a little better if you had actually gone up to people and said, "Hey, wanna help me destroy part of this?"

Juan - I am surprised no one really came up to talk to you. Yes, you did have a camera-person so it was obvious you were doing it for a reason, but, I mean, you were laying on the couch with a pillow! For the video element, I think it would have been better without the voiceover.

Chris - You missed the idea of a performance art piece; it was too scripted and you might argue that there were some elements of improv, but there is no way of knowing it by just presenting a video.

Arielle - You wrapped you friend up in wires to make a statement, but Santiago is right: the dorm hallway is too safe of an area, and you didn't use yourself in the piece, just actors. Your message is also lost I think; all that is being conveyed really is that college students like to go to the beach, and they use their cell phones a lot there.

Cody - Really cool use of the keyboard, sending out sound that is never the same. It definitely added an element to your piece that made it interesting and unlike performances that people have done before.

Nakota - I like that this is akin to the 1950s idea of 'the end of the world' when people had to stockpile their nuclear bomb shelters in case of fallout. You had the technological element, but it wasn't all about the technology and I like that you did this different from others.

Interviews before 12/21/12

A performance art piece inspired by Sheryl Oring's 'I Wish To Say' project. Playing the role of a news reporter, I ask participants what they would be most disappointed to miss if the world were to end on December 21, 2012. Participants gradually veer from the questions as more and more people are interviewed. After only four interviews, we are asked to leave the park, as tables cannot be set up there.

Laurie Spiegel in 'The Hunger Games'

This is not the first time I have heard the name Laurie Spiegel. As one of the pioneer artists of synthesized music, her use of music has been influential enough for her name to be among the likes of John Cage. Although hearing her name may not be the biggest surprise, it is more bewildering that her piece from 1972, "Sediment," is featured in the cornucopia scene of The Hunger Games.

Though many may think this is most interesting part of the article, my mind wraps itself more around how she recorded the piece without having being able to use multitrack the synthesizers. She says, "I had to do the mixing with two stereo reel-to-reel decks...while one deck was playing audio while the other deck was recording the other machine." In the nature of recording sounds, each copy of the sound becomes more and more degraded, ultimately altering the music that the audience hears. In experimentation, this is really nothing wrong with this aside from the fact that the sound might not be what the artist had originally wanted.

Original article: http://www.wired.com/underwire/2012/03/rare-electronic-music-hunger-games/

Synthesizers Gone Wrong

Never before have I touched a synthesizer. I maybe be in a class called 'Electronic & Recording Music,' but all production has been done entirely on the computer. Today we have tools such as Logic and Cubase that allow users to use digital keyboard to make note patterns and modify then using thousands of types of synth plugins. They logic of these programs though weren't created just for digital creation; they are essentially synthesizers that have had their hardware stripped. Below is a look at some of the most influential synthesizers to date.

ROLAND TB-303

The Roland TB-303 was originally designed to be a replacement to having a bassist and to create rough demos, but soon musicians realized that the sounds produced by the machine were nothing like a live player. Do-it-yourself DJs used the 303 to create the genre acid house.

ROLAND TR-808

Again, this synth was discarded by the non-experimental musicians. It sounded like a machine when they wanted real drums, in which case the LinnDrum win out. However, early hip-hop artists found the device and began to use it as in live performances. The timing on the machine slipped from what it was reading, creating a distinct rhythm that was characteristic of its sound. Each machine can also create a unique sound; by opening up the enclosure, adjusting factor-set knobs inside produce different tunes.

TECHNICS SL-1200

This turntable might have been designed to play back records, but artists went to work on it, turning it into a music generating machine that alters the sound waves that it transmits. DJs discovered that they could hold and slide the record without causing the arm to stop, and, that by adjusting the internal knob, could speed up the playback.

NORD LEAD 1 KEYBOARD &

AMEX SYSTEM 9098 EQUALIZER

This keyboard was designed to produce sounds that emulate those of the original analog synthesizers, but techno artist Derrick Mays found out that it doesn't work with actual analog recording equipment. After creating sounds with this, he used the equalizer to increase the amplitude of some selected signals enough that they fell out of phase and created entirely new sounds.

AKAI S950 SAMPLER

Used to create the track "Cosmic Love," the Akai S950 sampler can allow for samples to meld into one another instead of being string together, side by side. Another way to use the sampler is to create fluctuations in the song by changing octaves using the value transpose knob. 

Basically all of these machines have contributed to electronic music because artists have used them in ways they were not supposed to; they experimented until they made appealing sounds that didn't match any other instruments. Now, granted, you can still use synths for production, and plug them right into these programs, but they can function on their own. Originally, it was more reverse; the computer was the amplifier for the synthesizer. However, the genre of electronic music has grown so much that the evolution of music programs was necessary.

Original article: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.05/blackbox_pr.html

The Masses bring Performance Art to the Mainstream

Improv Everywhere: No Pants Subway Ride 2011


With 10,000 RSVP on the Facebook page, Improv Everywhere has mass of people ready to whip their pants off in the spirit of being one in a sea of faces. Their comedic performances don't go along with the more common song-and-dance flash mob types, and their 'missions' are stated to cause 'chaos and joy. A provocative event, and probably one of the most well known, the No Pants Subway Rides have already completed ten performances, since 2002, and, this year, occurred in 50 cities worldwide.

Improv Everywhere: Gotta Share! The Musical

In the spirit of technology-driven corporations, the performance of Improv Everywhere at the GEL conference in 2011 really made the point that people need to be online 24/7. For the presenting company, Twirlr, the troupe definitely left a mark on audience members as performers proclaimed their love of sharing information from their seats in the crowd and extra flowed in from the exits. But lesson learned: don't ask them to turn off their devices, because they might attack you with song.

Downtown Disney Proposal

With over five million hits and at least a dozen remakes, the flash mob proposal is something you might have seen before. The soon-to-be-engaged Jamin takes it upon himself to coordinate a catchy dance proposal for his girlfriend outside of the Rainforest Cafe in Lake Buena Vista to the tune 'Marry You' by Bruno Mars. I know I'm a girl, but this warms my heart just to think about.

Others to Watch (or just Google 'flash mob'):