Evelina Deicmane

"… let me tell you about SeasonSorrow, which was at the 2009 Venice Biennale. It actually had two parts. One was a video projection in a small room, which had 12 speakers built into the floor. The video showed close ups of a group of people stuck in the snow. But much of the story was told with the sound, which included like ice cracking, and all these kind of cold sounds. The main sound was that of the person’s breathing in the cold. Because the sound of breathing in the cold is very different from the sound when one breathes in the summertime. And I recorded each person, so each of the 12 speakers was very personal. And I used this breath to make the sound of wind. The sound, like, of a very cold wind…” -an excerpt from an interview with the artist, 2011. Link here to see more work and read entire interview.

Dipna Horra

"Sound artist Dipna Horra uses field and voice recordings to create aural environments that simultaneously present a sense of location and dislocation. With Avaaz, Horra recounts a narrative of migration from India to Africa and then Canada, a narrative that undergoes translation and transposition. Horra’s sound installation consists of a central table set for tea, a wheeled tea trolley in the corner, a suspended window pane on the left of the gallery space and an unobtrusive air vent at our feet. Simple furniture, understated architectural features and fine china are the conduits through which the sound artefacts, that tell the artist’s story are emitted. Horra’s kitchen installation is a theatrical space in which the continuity of ancestral memory both reassures and unsettles." Review by Jenny McMaster. Read rest of view here on Fuse Magazine.

Laurie Anderson, Artist

"At the heart of Delusion, an evening of Laurie Anderson's personal meditations on life, language, memory and identity, is the belief that words and stories can create the world, as well as make it disappear. Even if you've had the chance to see Anderson in concert or on screen, her full-scale, live performance art will sweep you away in a stunning collage of visual imagery, electronic soundscape and spoken vignette—the poetic language that has become Laurie Anderson's trademark." Source is Emerson College. Link here.

Lorna Simpson, Artist

Easy To Remember, Video Installation, 2001. Watch the video on Simpson's website. Link here.

"Easy to Remember, which made its debut at the Whitney Biennial in 2002, takes its title from a 1930s Rodgers and Hart song of the same name. (The BMA version is an artist proof, or reference copy made for the artist.) The song is a bittersweet ditty about lost love and remembrance. In the 1960s, it was recorded again by the great jazz saxophonist John Coltrane, whose rendition of it provided the basis for Simpson's work. The artist invited a group of professional singers into a recording studio to hum along with Coltrane's version of the tune as they listened to it through headphones. She photographed the singers' faces with a 16 mm movie camera, then transferred the images to video and digitally edited them to create a grid consisting of 15 uniform rectangles enclosing just the singers' lips. Because the singers were recorded on different occasions, and because each singer took the opportunity to interpret the song personally, their renderings are in synch, yet individually varied. The result is a gentle, flowing meditation on the theme of unity within diversity that has a distinctly elegiac character." Glenn McNatt, Baltimore Sun Art Critic

Link here to see another site of Simpson's work.

Sound Confessions, Assignment Guidelines

Assignment:
This assignment incorporates the medium of audio. Record a confession.  The confession cannot be yours.  The confession can be in the form of a secret or an apology.  You may use your voice, or the voice of someone else, to make the recording.  Before you embark on this journey, listen and watch the sources provided below.  Make a container to house the recording device.  The materials and processes used to construct the container should be reflective of the content of the confession.  No size limit.  Note: the recording device we are using has a button that needs to be pushed to activate the recording.  When planning your design, you will have to account for a space that will incorporate the button.  Use no less than three (3) different materials and no more than five (5) to construct the container.  No size limit.

Objective:
Development of an idea that results in an expressive and meaningful visual and audio experience.

Materials:
There is one required material for this assignment which is a small recording device that can be purchased at the local Radio Shack. You will also need a 9 volt battery.  The recording lasts 20 seconds.  Feel free to purchase another brand/type.  Other materials are your choice.  Remember, no less than 3 and no more than 5.

Listen:
This American Life, 277: Apology, Act Two, Dial "S" For Sorry.  Link here.

"In October of 1980, Bridge plastered thousands of handbills in the streets New York. "Attention criminals: You have wronged people. It is to people that you must apologizeNot the church, not the state. Get your misdeeds of your chest. Call apology. When you call you will be alone with a tape recorder."
They did call. For the next decade and a half, serial killers, battered wives, rapists, thieves, men with a new disease called AIDS, shop lifters, drug addicts, soldiers grappling with their actions in Viet Nam, racists, homophobes, Katherine Hepburn impersonators, animal lovers, queers, messengers of God, hate criminals, war criminals, and many others poured their confessions and declarations into Allan’s downtown loft apartment. Bridge began to play selected material back on his outgoing message." -image and text source is apologyline.com.  Link here to read more.



Watch and listen:
TED Talks, Frank Warren: Half A Million Secrets.  Link here.
"Frank Warren is the creator of The PostSecret Project, a collection of highly personal and artfully decorated postcards mailed anonymously from around the world, displaying the soulful secrets we never voice. Since November 2004, Warren has received more than 500,000 postcards, with secrets that run from sexual taboos and criminal activity to confessions of secret beliefs, hidden acts of kindness, shocking habits and fears. PostSecret is a safe and anonymous "place" where people can hear unheard voices and share untold stories." - source is TED Talks

Link here to see the blog, postsecret.com


Here is what to put on your blog:
1. Process pictures.
2. Written response to This American Life segment
3.  Written response to the TED Talks video.
4. Any notes or sketches (optional).
5. Professional pictures of final solution.
6. A video of the final solution (so audio can be experienced in synthetic time).
7. The three drawings you completed in your sketchbook.

Stacked Paper, Student Work

Abbey

Abbey, Student Work