“I’d like to say that in a small way it turns consumers into creative producers,” Byrne explains on his official site, “but that might be a bit too much to claim. However, even if one doesn’t play the thing, it points toward a less mediated kind of cultural experience. It might be an experience in which one begins to reexamine one’s surroundings and to realize that culture — of which sound and music are parts — doesn’t always have to be produced by professionals and packaged in a consumable form. “I’m not suggesting people abandon musical instruments and start playing their cars and apartments,” he adds, “but I do think the reign of music as a commodity made only by professionals might be winding down. The imminent demise of the large record companies as gatekeepers of the world’s popular music is a good thing, for the most part.”
“Simple automatic instruments are constructed from local materials and objects on site. The system learns the sounds it can make by trying out its instruments, and then uses its range of sounds to try to reproduce the rhythmic and melodic qualities of sounds such as the voices of visitors. It then loops and alters these imitative sequences into improvised compositions. (That last part’s not done yet, so you won’t see it in the video.)
In this example, the source audio is a bit of the soundtrack from the movie Citizen Kane, and the noisemakers are a set of found object percussion machines and an electromagnetically fretted electric guitar.”
The tech is pretty basic and the conversion to music is largely straight forward but the presentation of the idea is pretty sharp. I would love to see how well the system works with a high noise to signal ratio. Can it only make “music” in a relatively quiet room of two people talking or can it eliminate some white noise to find the melody of a large conversation.
I am not a music purist or an art hardliner by any stretch of the imagination. I am daily amazed at the fact that the art world thinks advertising is a four letter word and that any ounce of success is met with buckets of scorn. I do have to say though that in all the years that I have kept up with the art business and the advertising business I have rarely if ever seen a mix of art and commerce so off putting and poorly fitting as Vera Wang’s latest blitz for her new clothing line at Kohls.
As you can see and hear in the video below the concept is three women (an asain, a redhead & a blond) are driving across the American west (ala a trip with Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo) with their hair down and feet swaying in the breeze to the tune of…………. America’s “Horse With No Name”. Whether deservingly or not the song has a inherited theme that is about as contrary to the message of the video as is really possible.
It’s as if the writer of the concept was so determined to get the idea of “American” across in the commercial he/she picked the song cause it was written by a band called America and matched his/her use of the barren desert. I can only assume the person went to U2 and tried to get the rights to the song “In God’s Country” and was rightfully told to take a hike and this was their second choice?
To me this is as tasteless as the Sony PSP ad promoting the new “white” player by showing a Aguileraesque white girl death gripping a black girl. Also as mindless as the rightfully humorous perfume ad in Eddie Murphy’s film Boomerang
Vera waits for years to release her budget conscious clothing line to have it played this way? You know someone in that boardroom thought this was dumb but I guess had the sense to keep his/her job and say nothing.
As all die hard fans remember (it took me forever to figure out which episode it was) Duncan was quite taken with what was then a little known song called “What Whtat in the Butt” by Samwell. The year was 2007 almost a year ago today and times were hard. We were at war unlike today, the economy was bad unlike today, oil was at a 60$ a barrel high unlike today & most importantly we gave horns a pitchforks to people like Scott Speh and others unlike today.
So to show how much has changed in a year we now have the song come full circle as a South Park parody. “What, What in the Butters” enjoy and know somewhere in the world Edward Lifson is taking a picture of me and adding horns and tail to balance everything out.
The Art news cycle is not always constant and in the down times you might want to catch up on new or undiscovered music which in today’s climate is seemingly harder then ever. There are many sites though that offer help in different ways to get you in the same virtual place as artists you might like. So for a end of the work week reward to yourself check out one of these great sies and see what you can uncover. Please add your favorite sites that we haven’t mentioned in the comments below.
Coverville
Coverville is a almost daily podcast of established music in new and often very unexpected ways.
It is hosted by Brian Ibbott and gives you focused or themed batches of new music mixed with trivia in ways you will be hard pressed to find anywhere else. Defenetly worth a look. Continue reading »
