Here’s a documentary about John Cage, courtesy of UbuWeb.
October 30th, 2009
John Cage _quotes
John Cage (1912-1992) was a composer, poet, graphic artist and teacher. I would like to share some quotes from his book Silence: Lectures and Writings.
John Cage (1968). Silence: Lectures and Writings. (Reprint 2009). London: Marion Boyers Publishers.
The Future of Music: Credo
I BELIEVE THAT THE USE OF NOISE
Wherever we are, what we hear is mostly noise. When we ignore it, it disturbs us. When we listen to it, we find it fascinating. The sound of a truck at fifty miles per hour. Static between the stations. Rain. We want to capture and control these sounds, to use them not as sound effects but as musical instruments. Every film studio has a library of “sound effects” recorded on film. With a film phonograph it is now possible to control the amplitude and frequency of any one of these sounds and to give to it rhythms within or beyond the reach of the imagination. Given four film phonographs, we can compose and perform a quartet for explosive motor, wind, heartbeat, and landslide.
TO MAKE MUSIC
If this word “music” is sacred and reserved for eighteenth- and nineteenth-century instruments, we can substitute a more meaningful term: organization of sound.
WILL CONTINUE AND INCREASE UNTIL WE REACH A MUSIC PRODUCED THROUGH THE AID OF ELECTRICAL INSTRUMENTS.
Experimental Music
For in this new music nothing takes place but sounds: those that are notated and those that are not. Those that are not notated appear in the written music as silences, opening the doors of the music to the sounds that happen in the environment.
III. Communication
Contemporary music
is not the music of the future
nor the music of the past
but simply
music present with us:
this moment,
now,
this now moment.
(…)
There is no such thing as silence. Get thee to an anechoic chamber and hear there thy nervous system in operation and hear thy blood in circulation.
Forerunners of Modern Music
Definitions
Structure in music is its divisibility into successive parts from phrases to long sections. Form is content, the continuity. Method is the means of controlling the continuity from note to note. The material of music is sound and silence. Integrating these is composing.
(…)
A finished work is exactly that, requires resurrection.
October 29th, 2009
John Cage’s “First Construction in Metal”
And here’s a nice piece by John Cage: “First Construction in Metal”. Unfortunately the audio is a bit on the crappy side, but you get the point:
October 29th, 2009
Cohn Cage’s “Dialogue” – Visualization
Here’s a nice visualization of John Cage’s “Dialogue”:
Dialogue with John Cage from Namoo Kim on Vimeo.
October 20th, 2009
Cross-media Promotion
Here’s a nice example of cross-media promotion of SONY BRAVIA called “Colour Tokyo”:
Some more information can be found here.
October 8th, 2009
Visualization _ noise translated
I am currently looking into visualizing sound and music as part of my installation project. Whether any of my work during these couple of weeks make it into the final installation remains to be seen, but at least it serves as a sensitizing towards visual representations of sound and music.
I have found that my main focus lays with the dynamics and contrasts of any given musical piece. I try to find the “feel” of the music, through it’s dynamics, contrasts and intensity and translate this “feel” into visual representations.
As a part of my work I have made a short animation in two versions: Black on white and white on black. The two versions both inhabit the same use of dynamics and contrast, but still convey slightly different “feels”.
Black on white:
Noise translated from Kjetil Austvoll-Dahlgren on Vimeo.
White on black:
Noise translated _ inverted from Kjetil Austvoll-Dahlgren on Vimeo.