SoundLab AN ELSEWHERE MEDIA EXPERIMENT / Fall 2012
Inside Q&A................................................................................................................4-6 with Elizabeth Thompson and Chris Kennedy 5 Ways to Re-Think Obsolete Technology as Art...........................8-10 with Mark Dixon and Bart Trotman of Invisible SoundLAB Composition..............................................................................12-27 a curriculum companion developed by Elsewhere
SoundLab an elsewhere media experiment / FALL 2012
AbOUT SoundLab is the second installment of CoLab, a youth-led platform for digital storytelling and collaborative media experiments at Elsewhere—a living museum in downtown Greensboro, NC. SoundLab was co-led by Mark Dixon and Bart Trotman from artist group Invisible and Elsewhere, with support from the North Carolina Arts Council Arts Council, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources. The project brought together Invisible, students from Weaver Academy and Guilford College to build mobile sculptures, and video works using obsolete technology.
i colab.goelsewhere.org/soundlab e soundlabelsewhere.tumblr.com
Collaborators Invisible: Mark Dixon and Bart Trotman Weaver Academy: Lisa Woods, and her students Ana Maria Sticea, Paisley Sellick, Anthony Pfohl, Katherine Mitchell, Ellen Marion, Emery Kiefer, Jade Griffin, Erin Greenwood, Destini Foster, Imani Brown, Rebekah Richardson, Joanna Cox, Gabrielle Russillo, Micaela Strickland, Kevin Walser, Bernel Westbrook Elsewhere: Documentarian Paula Damasceno, Storyteller Elizabeth Thompson, Education Curator Christopher Kennedy Guilford College: Ben Cheney, Tara Funicello, Karla McDonald, Ryan James, Emily Stamey, Raina Martens, D’vorah Nadel, Keita Tsutsumi, Alexandria Smith, Nick VanDervort
606 S. Elm Street Greensboro, NC 27406 goelsewhere.org SoundLab | 3
Q&A
With SoundLab Organizers, Christopher Kennedy and Elizabeth Thompson
Elizabeth: Where did the idea to work with obsolete technology within a collaborative art project come from? Chris: We approached a local art group called Invisible—mainly composed of Mark Dixon and Bart Trotman—who have been doing work here in Greensboro for nearly ten years. They use obsolete technology and all kinds of music and media production to create instruments and live performances in various spaces around the Triad. So, I said, “Hey Mark, would you guys be interested in doing this project if we get some Art’s Council funding?” And that’s where the conversation started, then we brought in Lisa Woods, who is a teacher at Weaver Academy and had our first conversation here at the Green Bean. We proposed a loose framework to the Arts Council called Soundlab, with the idea that we were going to make an instrument with a group of high school youth and have Invisible come in and do a residency. Elizabeth: In student’s process of working collaboratively, where did you see points of both connection and disconnection—and why do you suppose this was the case? Chris: We had so many different layers involved in this project. In a very basic way, Soundlab was a one-month residency with this art group Invisible, at a local high school in Greensboro, and we added on the extra layer of involving Guilford College as collaborators. So we had all of these different parties coming together to explore the idea of technology and obsolescence in
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the process of making sculptures together, and imagining how the sculptures could be used for performance. And, throughout there is a language of storytelling because the sculptures housed television monitors that students produced media for, using a script that Mark and Bart (Invisible) came up with. It was curious to watch Weaver students come up with designs and have to submit them to another group of folks, and to see that some of their initial designs had been tweaked and changed. There was a lot of trepidation at first but everybody ended up coming together in the end because there was a sense of accountability between the groups. We built these eight sculptures, and made these eight videos, and brought them outside. That, to me, is remarkable. Elizabeth: So, what does obsolete technology mean within your own life and art practice? Chris: I have a really tenuous relationship with technology. I really enjoy the visceral, tactile, embodied encounters—just being with people. There’s a sense of presentness by being physically in a space with another person that you can’t really achieve with Skype. So I think of technology as this mediating object that serves as a tool to communicate in various ways, but it can also isolate us in unintended ways. I really think we need to be critical in analyzing the ways in which technology serves a role in whatever we do. Digital storytelling is such a buzzword and I really question our blind race towards technology as a solution for
Fundamentally, it’s the way that we’re teaching and that we’re approaching learning that’s really going to address the problem at its root. I think at Elsewhere, we’re trying to be smart in using digital technology as a tool, and not as the only means of learning - to structure experiences in the world that are meaningful. But old technology is really curious, old typewriters and cameras. I think there is a sense of permanence…Do you know what I’m talking about? Elizabeth: Yeah. Chris: Do you have a typewriter? Elizabeth: I do. Chris: When you type on a typewriter, it can’t be deleted. Elizabeth: My typewriter is really old, but it’s not like there’s a new software for a new typewriter model that’s going to make my typewriter go out of existence. Chris: When you’re making the gesture of typing a letter to somebody on a typewriter as opposed to a computer, you’re almost in a different realm of experience and knowledge creation. I think this became evident in the process of working with students. They realized by using these old VHS cameras that it’s not easy to just delete something or edit it in a smooth way. They actually had to think very carefully about setting up a shot, figuring out what’s going to happen in the next step. I think they were very frustrated at times in a way that they had to slow down. Elizabeth: It’s interesting to think about that, too. How new technology influences the way we react. How quickly everything moves, like high speed internet. This generation is really impatient. There’s this drive toward immediate gratification. Previously, there was a different way of looking, a different way of seeing, more thinking through the process itself.
school in the year—let me check my watch here, it’s 2012—that they had never been challenged to intimately collaborate with each other. Elizabeth: It seems like they still have the myth of the individual artist genius, which I think is really driven by our economic model. So, you have these artists working by themselves to create something to go into a gallery to sell. It’s never about society and creating something together that could really create a sense of community in the process. But a lot of students have that and it just needed to come out somehow. I think it did. Chris: Totally. I mean, really having to retrieve objects from their lives for these projects—old TVs, VCRs, and cameras. Explaining to them that they couldn’t just go to the Home Depot and buy what they need I think was a really interesting challenge. They had to think about, “Ok, what do I have in my life that could be used as a tool for art making?” Elizabeth: I thought it was really interesting watching the students going from a place of throwing an image down on a piece of paper, but then working through that and trying to tie it to our theme of obsolescence. Gabrielle and Destini did the greenhouse, and they started thinking about the clash between nature and technology. Kevin and Anthony did the bookshelf, and I could see them working through the idea that books are moving into a space of digitization. Just seeing them think about how they could turn their art into a story was really interesting for me. Chris: The objects we collect tell stories, which is what Elsewhere is all about. I think it’s really cool that that came through. It was really difficult at first to ask the students what they were interested
Chris: Totally, and this is evident in the idea of collaboration…It was really surprising to me that in a performance magnet public
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they were interested in and having a lot of blank stares. Or asking them what they wanted to title their sculptures, and a lot of people were just like, “I don’t know…” Elizabeth: I think that’s part of the storying process; knowing what you’re going to title something shows that you’ve thought about what it means. I did see a change in their approach to that; I saw them move from a space of having random thoughts to having ideas. But what do you think happened in the process of bringing sculptures out into the world for our performance? Chris: That was one of my favorite parts. Pushing the carts through downtown Greensboro created a sense of disruption in everyday routine, in how people navigate urban space. There was a sense of play and whimsy, and frustration—pushing these things, having trouble navigating the sidewalks, and having the sculptures in a public realm recontextualized them as something tied to a particular place and to a set of meanings—the ownership piece came into play there. That was really cool. I think that public art in connection to schools was super important; for it not to just be a sculpture or a mural, but to actually have it be a part of a longer process. Elizabeth: I like your idea of disruption. That’s what it really does. It takes people out of their everyday routine and gives them something interesting to look at or something to think about. Chris: There’s the opportunity for confrontation and dialogue. People are like, “What the hell is that thing?” You have to be like, “It’s this and this is what we did.” Conversations that wouldn’t normally happen happened, which is what art is really all about. Elizabeth: In thinking about process, where could have this project gone given
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different circumstances? What creative ingredients would have pushed the process to other places? Chris: The key ingredient for a really good educational art project is allowing for a moment of un-schooling. We need to strip away the veneers, we need to be vulnerable. We need to tell our stories, and we need to express frustrations. We actually need to get into a place where we are understanding art, education, and learning as something related to many contexts. It’s a process of critical pedagogy. It’s a moment of saying, “Actually, most of what you’re being taught is pretty terrible. Sorry to tell you that, but that’s how it is.” What we need to do is re-script how people interact with each other. That requires playing games, going outside, telling stories, and actually having some really uncomfortable moments where we confront a lot. Saying, “Having faith in capitalism and following the rules and doing what you’re told is actually leading you down a path that’s pretty destructive.” Elizabeth: But here, everybody came together in a great way, lending their skills. Chris: I think we were able to facilitate some amazing experiences, drawing a lot of connections to real world contexts. There was a sense of autonomy that was constructed in the process and students realized art can be much more than a product. I think for Mark and Bart, they’ll approach community-based initiatives and collaborations in different ways. And for Elsewhere, it was a way for us to solidify our education initiative as something that can provide an adaptable framework for other teachers.. The keyword being laboratory—unending creations.
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Ways to Re-Think Obsolete Technology as art
Mark Dixon and Bart Trotman of Invisible
5.
MARK DIXON
Turn an object back into a material.
For this example we’ll use a toaster. Take it far from the kitchen, perhaps to the top of a mountain or into an abandoned grain silo. Say its name continuously for thirty minutes: say it fast, say it slow. Say it until it sounds like a foreign set of syllables. Keep talking. Spell it. Sing it to the tune of your favorite song. Now take it with you to the bank. Wear it as a shoe and run a mile. Exhausted, curl up with it for a long nap. Remove one of its shiny panels and write a note on it. Nail the note on a phone pole that the intended recipient passes whilst walking the dog. Take it apart and paint all the pieces in bright colors. Invent a game using the pieces, wear your favorite piece as a medallion. Continue on until the very concept of toast is unimaginable.
4.
Become a guru. Go to a public place where you can establish a regular presence. Bring a single example of bygone technology and keep it close to you. Do nothing. People will begin to talk to you about injuries, secrets, dilemmas and desires. Listen and keep the object close. Don’t offer advice. Your visitors will return regularly to sort through their stories and make revisions. Now and then they will offer you food. Occasionally they will ask about your object. Politely decline to give details. They will understand. They know you are a magic person because you are present and you have an object. As your relationships grow, your needs will be increasingly met by small gifts and you can extend your hours. The importance of your object will become clear with time.
3.
Make dangerous lists. Make two long lists: technologies that are passé, and activities that are either thrilling or scary (dig deep!) Randomly select one item from each list. Invent a daily practice that combines them: for example, if you picked “rotary dial telephone” and “public speaking” you might walk through the streets for one hour a day having a loud conversation into a disconnected desktop phone. Keep up with your regimen for four weeks. Keep a journal of your experiences and interactions.
2.
Anagram. Select one or more intriguing objects that are so old that they are out of conventional use, yet not old enough to have accumulated antique value. They are at the nadir of the lifecycle of things. Take them apart piece for piece and reconstruct a new object using all parts. If your objects are a vacuum cleaner and a slide projector make an third object with an apparent use that is in the heretofore uncharted territory between projection and suction. To brainstorm scramble the words e.g. “A slide vacuum clean projector” or scramble the letters, e.g. “a jolted corn mecca up River Slue” or “a jurist overruled complacence.”
1.
Remix. Take two or more exact duplicates of the same obsolete consumer product and perform DJ operations using parts in an altered sequence or arrangement. What happens when you “scratch” microwaves? What happens when you “beat juggle” dead microscopes? What happens when you play an air popper backwards? SoundLab | 9
BART TROTMAN
5.
Refix Remix. Find a physical recording of a song or by an artist that you can’t stand. A recording artist that you think is the complete pits. The worst. You’d rather be dead than be stuck in a car with this on the stereo. Once you have a tape, CD, 8-track or vinyl LP of the schlock you despise, go ahead and try to destroy it. Hit it with your best shot. Well, actually, try to leave it functionally intact. Once it’s been treated like the true trash it is, play it and listen to your remix. Do you like more or less than the original?
4.
Become a One-of-a-Kind Rare Records Dealer . Find a vinyl LP of an
artist you have never heard before. You’ve never seen its cover art. You have no idea what it sounds like.
Before listening to it, check the integrity of the each side of vinyl. Are there scratches? Is there mold? Is it covered in dust? Look really really closely – can you see grains of dirt in the individual grooves? Now, that it’s been inspected. Give it a grade based on your findings. Here’s a helpful rating system: o M – (Mint Minus) means it’s basically like new, with the understanding that no opened record can be completely new, unless it is SS (Still Sealed.) o VG+, VG, VG- Very Good Plus, means it has just a tiny bit of wear that will most likely not affect playback. Very Good means playback might have some popping or some unwanted noise. Very Good Minus means there could be some noise and maybe a few subtle needle skips. o G (Good) Good means bad.
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Now, look up its value on the internet. This can be achieved by studying the record’s label, then searching Ebay and Discogs for matches. Take notes on a piece of paper. What year was it released? Who released it? Where was it pressed? Is there a secret handwritten stamping in the runout tracks? Take notes. After giving your record a grade, and establishing a ballpark monetary value, find a knife or other sharp object. Make some scratches on its service. Draw a picture, write your name. Maybe dent it or try to warp it. Now play it. While listening to your creation, do a creative writing session in response to what you hear.
3.
Become Your Own Record Label. Go to the RFJ stores (Retailers of
Future Junk, i.e. Best Buy, Target?) and do a DJ set with the TVs, computers and stereos that are playing on the shelves. Inspect the technology first. Give yourself a quick tutorial. Know where the volume is. Know how to change channels or data, as the case may be. Record the session on your smartphone. Now go to a second hand store and do the same. Create a Facebook page promoting your new DJ identity. Produce an album. Now distribute that album yourself. With your own hands, put your CD (or other media) on the shelf at an RFJ. Make sure every Goodwill in town is selling your jams.
2.
The End is Nigh! Find a current piece of technology that you truly believe will be obsolete in the future. Write a story outlining its imminent demise. What newer, faster, more magical idea might supplant it? Now make a wearable placard and stand on the street warning passer-bys of the fate of this technology. Should they try to change the outcome? Or embrace the fate of the future you speak of? Make literature, such as pamphlets, or flyers stating the facts about this history-yet-to-be. Make a website. Make a video. Spread the word. This is serious.
1.
Get Famous. Provide programming for your local cable public access channel.
Soundlab
curriculum
INTRODUCTION
Getting Started SoundLAB is a collaborative project to design and build a mobile visual artwork and instrument composed of obsolete technology. Participants were asked to integrate a television monitor that will broadcast videos for a performance in downtown Greensboro, NC. Process THE GIST
A mobile sculpture made of obsolete technologies - old TV’s, VCRs, etc.
Sculpture
WHO’S INVOLVED
Design by Weaver Academy; Fabrication by Guilford College
A collection of videos exploring personal ideas of technology, digital storytelling and obsolescence
Video
Videos created by Weaver Academy; Recorded by INVISIBLE
A collaborative performance that will activate downtown Greensboro with our mobile sculpture and videos
Performance
Everyone
Project Goals x Explore, reflect, and question the role of contemporary art, and social practice x To use and investigate obsolete technology and media as tools for art making x To share both individually and collectively important ideas, stories, and personal experiences x To learn from and work with experienced artists using alternative practices
Lines of Inquiry x What roles do technology, and obsolete technology, play in your everyday life? In what ways can art communicate in both individual and collective ways; and in public and private realms? How does collaboration shape and frame the use of media and sculpture? x How has the idea of “participation” in art practice, or “participatory art”, changed throughout the 20th century - what are these movements responding to - socially, culturally and economically? x What role has video played in contemporary art? How does it communicate an idea differently than a sculpture, photography, painting or drawing?
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Week One
Brainstorm
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Studio Visit
Weaver students joined Mark and Bart of Invisible in their studio in downtown Greensboro
Unit 1: Participatory Art
Artist Profile: Invisible Line of Inquiry x How does INVISIBLE communicate ideas using different forms of media - video, sound, performance - to create an experience or tell a story? x INVISIBLE call themselves a “mechanical music museum” and a “reverse engineered folk science daydream” - what do you think this means, and what other ways would you describe their art practice, form and work?
Goals x To consider INVISIBLE’s interdisciplinary approach and art practice x To understand how INVISIBLE communicates ideas, tells a story, and creates an experience for an audience or viewer x To better comprehend the use of obsolete technology in their artworks
Resources Videos of past INVISIBLE Performances: http://soundsinvisible.com/videos
Activity/Lesson 1. DISCUSSION: Describe the video performances of INVISIBLE - what do you see and notice? 2. THINKTANK: Analyze the relationships between the different instruments, media forms and movements created for the performance. What are the relationships between the audience, artwork and artists? How is your experience of this different by viewing it on video, rather than seeing it in person? 3. DESIGN LAB: What does this performance mean to you? Interpret the meanings, statement and ideas being communicated in the performance. Create an interpretation using collage, drawing or sketching. Try to tease out some of the overall messages of the performance - if you think there are any - and use your own personal reaction to create this representation.
Get to know the artists INVISIBLE is a mechanical music museum. INVISIBLE is dance music for your brain. INVISIBLE is a reverse engineered folk science daydream. INVISIBLE’s creative core is Mark Dixon and Bart Trotman, but often features a colorful cast of characters and contributors. http://soundsinvisible.com/
Unit 1: Participatory Art
Historical & Contemporary Art Movements Line of Inquiry: x How have historical movements in contemporary art influenced relationships between artwork, audience and artist? x How has the idea of “participation” in art practice, or “participatory art”, changed throughout the 20th century - what are these movements responding to - socially, culturally and economically? Resources Slideshow of Contemporary Art Movements Lesson/Activity 1. DISCUSSION: Describe the images viewed in the slideshow. What did you notice? 2. THINKTANK: Analyze one particular artwork with a partner or in small groups. What different meanings can you gather from the work? How does their potential presentation outside of a gallery or museum change their context and meaning? 3. DESIGN LAB: Interpret the role of the artist, artwork and audience in the examples shown Keywords Art for Networks, Art in Context, Community Art, Connective Aesthetics, Dialogical Art, Engaged Practice, Happenings, Network Art. Post-Studio, Public Art, Service Works, Situationism, Social Aesthetics, Total Art, Social Practice, Dialogic Art, Connective Aesthetics
Selected Art Movements in the 20th Century Futurism (1900s - 1920s) Proletkult (1910s - 1920s) Dada (1920s) Pop Art (1950s) Fluxus (early 1960s - late-1970s) Performance art (1960s - ) Happenings (1957 -) Conceptual art (1960s)
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Graffiti (1960s-) Land Art (late-1960s - early 1970s) Installation Art (1970s –) Mail art (1970s – ) Digital Art (1990 – present) Situationism (1960s - ) Relational Aesthetics (1970s – ) Social Practice (2000s - )
Week Two
Design Lab
Challenge: Design a mobile structure on wheels to house a television monitor and VCR, made of aluminum/ steel for indoor and outdoor use that must fit through standard door (36 inches)
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Unit 2: Sculpture & technology
Technology in Art Line of Inquiry: x How can technology be used as medium for art making? What forms does this take? x What roles do technology, and obsolete technology, play in your everyday life?
Resources Images of artworks by: x Nam June Paik - Magnet TV, 1965; Participation TV, 1963,1969; Random Access Music, 1963,1978 x Max Neuhaus - Public Supply I, 1966 x Marta Minujin - Minucode, 1968 x Dan Graham - Performer/Audience/Mirror, 1977 x Peter Campus - dor, 1975 x Robert Adrian X - The World in 24 Hours, 1982 x Herbert Schuhmacher - Documenta der Leute (People’s Documents), 1972 x Josh On - They Rule, 2004 - present x George Legrady - Pockets Full of Memories, 2001-7
Activity/Lesson 1. DISCUSSION: Describe work by some of the artists using technology in their artwork and practice. What do you notice? How is technology used aesthetically and conceptually? 2. THINKTANK: Analyze a selected artwork and discuss your thoughts in small groups. Imagine a time before the interwebs, mobile phones and technology we’re used to today. How does this context change the meaning of the artwork? 3. DESIGN LAB: Interpret and explore your own ideas about technology and art - what are some projects you would imagine investigating? How could technology be integrated into your past work or future ideas? Sketch ideas for projects that would use or explore the meaning of digital communication, technology and information in your own life. x Surveying obsolete technology - list the limitations and benefits of new technology versus ones that are now considered too old or obsolete. What makes them obsolete? x Dissect pieces of obsolete technology that no longer work. Take them a part and use the components to make a sculpture or artwork.
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Unit 2: Sculpture & technology
Public & Participatory Sculpture Line of Inquiry:
x How can sculpture be used to define or communicate in public spaces? x What does it mean for a sculpture to be participatory with a particular space, or audience?
Resources x Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz - Hole-in-Space, 1980; Electronic Cafe, 1984 x Future Farmers - Victory Gardens, 2009; Soil Kitchen, 2011 x Allen Kaprow x Jon Rubin - FREEmobile, 2003 x Ant Farm - Cadillac Ranch, 1974 x Gordon Matta-Clark, Food, 1971-73; Fresh Air Cart, 1972 x Lygia Clark - Mascaras sensoriais, 1967
Activity/Lesson 1. DISCUSSION: Describe what you notice about the artists work you’ve just seen. 2. THINKTANK: Analyze one of the artworks and consider how the idea of sculpture is being stretched to include site specific contexts, and people. How does this change your idea of what a sculpture could be? 3. DESIGN LAB: Interpret how these sculptures are ‘enacted’ or used by the artist or intended audience. Map out diagrams that consider how the artwork, artist and audience are interacting in some way. How are ideas of authorship in the artwork negotiated when there are multiple people involved in the making and activation of the artwork? What are some challenges and benefits of collaborative art making.
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Week Three
Media Production
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Video Production Make a short video using a VHS camera and a Template created by Invisible
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Video Scavenger Hunt Template by INVISIBLE 1. STUDENT A: Self-Portrait. Headshot. Start shot before stepping in front of camera. Step infront of camera. Have a staring contest with the camera for exactly one minute. Step out of shot before hitting stop. (30 seconds) 2. STUDENT B: Self-Portrait. Headshot. Start shot before stepping in front of camera. Step infront of camera. Have a staring contest with the camera for exactly one minute. Step out of shot before hitting stop. (30 seconds) 2. STUDENT A: I Can’t Focus. Close-up of your hand, holding marker. Write: I cannot focus on ------------. Make the word you choose LARGE and CLEAR. When you finish writing, unfocus the camera. 3. STUDENT B: Focus. This shot begins out of focus. Bring it into focus to show a pre-written sentence: I can focus on -------------. Make the word you choose LARGE and CLEAR. 4. STUDENT A: Your Phone and Your Tone. Low angle, close-up of hand holding cellphone. Include ceiling lights or sky or other bright light in overhead background. Have a friend call your cellphone. Let it ring for 5 seconds. 5. STUDENT B: Your Phone and Your Tone. Low angle, close-up of hand holding cellphone. Include ceiling lights or sky or other bright light in overhead background. Have a friend call your cellphone. Let it ring for 5 seconds. 6. A Beacon. Shoot a close-up of a blinking light. (10 seconds) 7. We Live With Others. Close-up (or as close as possible) of some non-human animal lifeform doing whatever it does. This doesn’t have to be a mammal. Each group should have a different animal, if possible. (10 seconds) 8. We Live With Noise. Find the source of a noise and shoot it for 10 seconds. This could be a noise you like or dislike or one you normally ignore, or block out of your attention. (10 seconds) 9. STUDENT A: Nurturing Things. Hold a piece of outdated technology, that you brought from home, like it is a small animal or child. Waist to shoulder shot; the shot should focus on the object. (Cannot be video equipment – VCR, TV, VHS tape) (10 seconds) 10. Student B: Unraveling Things. Waist to shoulder shot. Unwrap a VHS tape (that you yourself wrapped up). Open cassette, pull out tape for 20 seconds. 11. Student A: In the Future. Tripod. Begin shot on TV video feedback loop with monitor, then enter shot. Headshot. Say: “In the future ________. ” Move your head out of the frame in any direction, while camera is still on. Once out of the shot, hit stop/cut.
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Video Experimentation Weaver Academy students use Invisible’s template to make short video works
12. Hopeful and Beautiful. Any kind of shot (close-up, wide shot, handheld) of something you think is very beautiful and hopeful. (10 seconds) 13. STUDENT B: In the Past. Tripod. Begin shot on TV video feedback loop with monitor, then enter shot. Headshot. Say: “In the past ________.” Move your head out of the frame in any direction, while camera is still on. Once out of shot, cut. 14. Ugly and Depressing. Any kind of shot (close-up, wide shot, handheld) of something you think is very ugly, or depressing. (10 seconds) 15. STUDENT A: In the Present. Tripod. Begin shot on TV video feedback loop with monitor, then enter shot. Headshot. Say: “Right now _______.” Move your head out of the frame in any direction, while camera is still on. Once out of shot, cut. 16. STUDENT B: Your Art. Any kind of shot (close-up, wide shot, handheld) of your artwork. (10 seconds) 17. STUDENT A: Your Art. Any kind of shot (close-up, wide shot, handheld) of your artwork. (10 seconds) 18. Twelve stills. (10 seconds each) a. A word that holds significance to you, pre-written on white paper. Say the word when you record the shot. b. a solid color or pattern in your environment. Sound a single note/tone/pitch when you record the shot c. a word d. a solid color or pattern with note e. a word f. a solid color or pattern with note g. a word h. a solid color or pattern with note i. a word j. a solid color or pattern with note k. a word l. a solid color or pattern with note 19. The End. Turn the camera on and walk to a trash can or dumpster. Put the camera in while it is running then turn it off.
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Unit 3: Media, Art & Storytelling
Introduction to Media in Art Making Line of Inquiry
x What role has video played in contemporary art? How does it communicate an idea differently than a sculpture, photography, painting or drawing?
Resources Images/videos from following artworks: x Janet Cardiff - The Telephone Call, 2001 x Yes Men - Yes Men Change the World, 2010 x Group Frontera - Itinerary of Experience, 1970 x Adrian Piper, Cornered, 1988 x Valie Export, Split Reality, 1967-69 x Bruce Nauman
Lesson/Activity: 1. DISCUSSION: Describe the artworks viewed. What do you notice, what did you see and hear? How does it relate to the video works of INVISIBLE viewed earlier? 2. THINKTANK: Analyze the works viewed in small groups. Consider the use of video in your own work. What is the difference between using video/film as a primary medium versus using it to document a project or process? What does it mean to be using obsolete forms of video/film? 3. DESIGN LAB: Interpret and explore the concepts brought up in your discussions while making your own video for this project. Use INVISIBLE’s video template to create a digital story of obsolete technology - how does it relate to your everyday life? How does it limit or encourage communication in novel ways?
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Week Four
Performance
Performance Sculptures brought out into Greensboro for a live performance in Festival Park (10/5/2012)
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Unit 4: Performance Art
Performing in the Public Sphere Line of Inquiry What does it mean to participate in an artwork or process? How does the idea of ‘performance’ change according to environment, audience and other contexts?
Resources x Marina Abramovic - Imponderabilia, 1977 x Barbara T. Smith - Feed Me, 1973 x Yoko Ono - Cut Piece, x Adrian Piper - Catalysis IV, 1970-71 x Vito Acconci - Proximity Piece, 1970 x Sharon Hayes, Revolutionary Love, 2009
Activity/Lesson 1. DISCUSSION: Describe the performances by selected artists. How do they use their body and surroundings in their work? How is performance different, if at all, from theater? 2. THINKTANK: Interpret one of the performances in a small group or individually. What meanings can you derive from the actions? 3. DESIGN LAB: Analyze some of the major elements of the performances viewed. What were successful about these particular performances? What didn’t work? x Gesture Walkthrough: Work in small groups to create gestures for obsolete technology - what kinds of movements can you imagine representing an old cell phone, video camera or computer? Test them out with your group. x Group it Up: Combine your gestures with other groups. Keep things simple and repeat gestures that help communicate a story. x Perform: Refine your group dynamics and create a performance to complement the sculpture designed.
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Screening at Elsewhere
8 video works 8 collaborative sculptures To view visit colab.goelsewhere.org/soundlab
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SoundLab is the second installment of CoLAB, a youth-led platform for digital storytelling and collaborative media experiments at Elsewhere, a living museum in downtown Greensboro, NC. The project brought together artist group Invisible and youth from Weaver Academy and Guilford College to build a mobile visual artwork and instrument made from obsolete technology. SoundLAB was co-led by Mark Dixon and Bart Trotman (Invisible), and Elsewhere, with support from the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources.
colab.goelsewhere.org
606 S. Elm Street Greensboro, NC 27406 goelsewhere.org
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