PREVIEW
Jockel Liess
green meadow, 2014 non-durational live generative quadraphonic sound and video installation
Jockel Liess ‘Green meadow’ is a generative audio-visual work modelled on the behavioural patterns and progression of physical environments and their unpredictable self-similarity. The often soothing and hypnotic sensory power of naturally occurring systems, such as the repe-
titive crashing of waves on a shoreline, the rhythmic drumming of rain on varying surfaces or the simultaneous rustling and creaking of trees in the midst of a forest, are aesthetic variations of the same underlying chaotic structures. The reoccurring of the micro event in succession or seeming parallel, however never as a repro-
a video stills from ‘green meadow’
duction of the preceding but rather as an adaptation of the same, thus determines the organic attractiveness of such environmental sound cluster or visual spectacles. Systems like these, can, with the increase in energy, freely vary from the soft and soothing to the overwhelming and daunting. They are however tightly confined within the structural boundaries of the underlying physicality producing the event itself. A tree can be motionless, sway or break in response to outside force, and while it can produce an infinite number of variables within the boundaries of its behavioural pattern, it cannot sit down and play the harp. Progression or change are rather produced by the improvisational freedom of the system itself to respond to its own variables, resembling a dialogue between the increasing or diminishing force of the system and its structure. ‘Green meadow’, in its compositional variation, concerns itself with the texture and density of the moment, rather then the arrangement of its past or future. Like its natural prototypes the artistic construct is non-durational, or without a time line. Individual events, progression and change within the work are stimulated by the interplay and cross-influence of its individual components. This means, the currently occurring audio-visual events interact continuously to determine their own future. As an abstraction of reality ‘green meadow’ thereby strives to represent the improvisational freedom of nature, and can be seen as a form of organic compositions.
The works acoustic properties are based on the recorded sample of a breath of air, chosen for its representational properties of almost inaudible airflow as well as its organic similarities in texture and frequency distribution to white noise. Both of these attributes are synonymous with potential and possibility. The movement of air, however subtle in times, is one of the predominant forces of life in any ecosystem. Representational in its largest scale for the existence of an atmosphere, down to the simple disclosure of presents through movement, airflow is an indicator of existence. Through its acoustic correlation to white noise, the breath of air bares within its subtle consistency the possibility of all audible frequencies. The prospect of extracting these at will, lends it the invaluable property of a raw material containing a multitude of possibilities. Like the prime tool of evolution, the error, or in this case digital glitch, is used as a deliberate tool to extract frequencies out of the pool of ‘noise’. The delicately changing properties of the breath immediately surrounding the glitch, thereby lend an ever-changing uncertainty to the audible grain of the frequencies extracted. The single events responsible for the glitch frequencies get triggered in a manner defying the detection of perceivable rhythmic structure. Far from random however the prompting of these acoustic events is determined by the intersection of parameters within the underlying structure of the work. The overall cyclical nature of the piece thereby ensures that the history of past events within its overall structure determine the potential of its own future.
An interview with
Jockel Liess Your video installation Green meadow reveals a remarkable synesthetic approach, which is no doubt a fundamental aspect of your artistic research. You studied electronic music as well as fine art, however, it would be more appropriate in your case to say that the starting point is not music itself, but musical thinking, which is at the same time philosophical and architectonic, just think of Ligeti's textures or Luigi Nono's works. Could you introduce our readers to the multidisciplinary nature of your art? Musical thinking underwent a seismic shift in the middle of the 20th century, in doing so it instigated some of the most radical thoughts in art and music. The ability to produce music electronically has contributed to this shift, as in Ligeti’s case. His flirtation with electronic music, in the late 50’s, influenced the move in his orchestral music, away from rhythm, melody and harmony, and towards timbre and interwoven sonic texture.
allow for the introduction of indeterminacy into the work itself. While the piece is fixed, the outcome or individual experience of the work is fluid, dependent on circumstances, interaction, interpretation or improvisation.
At the same time, the philosophy and teachings of John Cage prised open any previously existing limitations in music. For anyone engaging in Post-Cagean aesthetics all creative or artistic boundaries were removed. Not only the boundaries inside any one artistic discipline like music, but also boundaries between artistic disciplines. The medium, if writing, sculpture, performance, music or film became exchangeable for art movements like Fluxus, with the emphasis in their work shifting towards conceptual thought.
My emphasis is not primarily on the discipline or medium, but on the method, and with this, the introduction of fluidity into the structure of the artwork itself. Both art and music can be treated in this way, and in my case I strive to achieve this fluidity by building improvising computer systems, functioning within a territory of possibilities.
Musical scores like La Monte Yourng’s Composition 1960 #10 ‘Draw a straight line and follow it.’ can in equal terms be seen as conceptual art and conceptual score. Its most eccentric performance is probably Nam June Paik’s ‘Zen for Head’, whereby Paik dips his head into ink and tomato juice and draws a straight line with it on a roll of paper. The important contribution of scores like this however is the idea that music or art can be entirely composed of rules. In varying comprehensiveness, rules like these
Starting a new project is always difficult for me and begins with several very vague ideas or notions going round in my mind, sometimes for month before I actually start actively working on it. When I finally do my head tends to go blank.
Could you take us through your creative process when starting a new project?
Projects can start with thoughts or ideas about visual aspects, but more often now, with a fascination about a certain quality in a musical piece, or simply a sound, like the drop of a needle.
Usually there are several parallel developments, figuring out a control mechanism for a particular piece and the aesthetics that I want to explore. In a way I start every piece by trying to build an ‘instrument’ and a ‘performer’ for the instrument at the same time. When I begin to construct a project in Max/MSP, the software environment that I use, I work from several corners inwards till the ideas actually meet in the middle. This is often a slow process, as a lot of things don’t at all do what I imagined they would. But my inability to do what I wanted initially, often gives the piece a particular direction, and sometimes I’m almost a bit disappointed if things just work. I guess a project that naturally develops through momentary local frustrations is more interes-ting then anything that I can imagine in advance.
Jockel Liess: an artist's statement
Jockel Liess creates generative sound and video installations, which in its form and structure derive from and build on artistic traditions of visual and musical minimalism. In his mainly abstract work, he explores ideas of microtonality, structural composition, synesthesia and interconnected sound/image relations.
systems, by incorporating the underlying principles of chaos theory and swarm intelligence into the audiovisual decision-making process. The mimicking of nature, by the artistic construct, is thus a further move away from a static representation of the artistic vision and towards a fluid and organic model.
As a fundamental principle, the non-durational installations employ the notion of a continuous audio/visual environment. The time-based work thereby has no clear beginning, end, or in the traditional sense, progression, but rather relies on the listener’s focus of attention. In its internal structure, the works refers to the organic flexibility of nature, and can in its implementation be seen as a form of organic composition. The tightly controlled theoretical concepts of the individual pieces, thus allow for the surrender of artistic decision making to chance and indeterminacy, as a basis of any visual and acoustic development.
Sculptural characteristics of the often sitespecific works are composed to enhance and focus the experience of the time-based components into the surrounding environment, and to invite the viewer into the work, by eroding the boundaries between the audience and the installation.
In his most recent interest and research focus, Jockel aims is the creation of live improvising
a video stills from ‘green meadow’
We have said that your art is influenced by experimental music from the last decades: in a sense, your interest and research into Chaos Theory remind us of Gyorgy Ligeti's effort to insert similar concepts in his early works like Clocks and Clouds (1972) and Ramifications for 12 solo strings (1968-69). What do you think of these attempts by the Hungarian composer? Ligeti started to shift his attention towards natural phenomena, and environmental and evolutionary science as an alternative model for compositional structures. His compositions are very organic, and his use of sound clusters and clouds moving towards the listener in varying intensities were revolutionary and important for the development of 20th century music.
While I very much appreciate Ligeti, I am quintessentially more interested in composers who incorporate natural processes into their compositions rather then representing them through their compositions. Ligeti’s work is fixed by the time it is performed, and he stays in overall control of the work at any time. It is composers like Richard Maxfield, in the late 50’s, who placed stronger emphasis on uncertainty in the performance of music. In one of the only interviews with Maxfield on Kpfa Radio he says: ‘Chance could be involved in the composition, indeterminacy must be involved in the performance.’ What he means is that each performance of music must be unique, and he achieves this by integrating performative freedom into the composition itself. Choices in his
a video stills from ‘green meadow’
work are deliberately left open, for the performer to exercise judgement. This becomes fundamental in early minimalism with composers like La Monte Young or Pauline Oliveros, who place significant importance on improvisation. Like nature, compositions of this kind evolve organically. Musical decisions are made in the moment of the performance through the performers active engagement with the composition, fellow performers and the environment. Since the first time we have watched Green meadow, we have been struck by the "organic" feeling of this work. How did you achieve this effect? Green meadow is an audio-visual environment,
and as such modelled on natural environments. It focuses on the fact that nature is self-similar, and repetition in nature is never an exact replica. Natural systems are chaotic and unpredictable, but nonetheless function within given boundaries and according to specific rules. If you isolate a natural system, like a meadow for example, it will look unified from a great distance. Long grass swaying in gusts of wind, look homogeneous, until close observation re-veals a myriad of variations. This functions in scale and time. To imitate this you need to try to replicate the system that is responsible for the variation. Green Meadow exists as three recorded samples of human breath, four photographs of light shining through seaweed, and a live generative
computer system that uses and manipulates this initial material on a momentary basis. The system thus fulfils two functions. It outlines the territory of the work by determining what is possible visually and acoustically, and then exercises these possibilities by playing the work if you would like to call it that. What the system can do is determinate, when single events happen, or the extend to which they do, is indeterminate. The system improvises its own progression and thereby simulates organic behaviour. We find that your art is rich of references. Apart from contemporary composers, can you tell us your biggest influences in art and how they have affected your work? I think my biggest single influence in art was discovering Fluxus. I did this when I was sixteen, and thoroughly frustrated by the art history education that I had the benefit of receiving up till then. We started with cave paintings, and within two years made it across the ancient Greek and Roman plains, barely past the Renaissance. As I did not see the relevance of being subjected to this, at least not to such an extend, when I came across Ben Vautier’s Total Art Matchbox, stating: USE THESE MATCHES TO DESTROY ALL ART – MUSEUMS ART LIBRARY’S – READY – MADES POP – ART AND AS I BEN SIGNED EVERYTHING WORK OF ART – BURN – ANYTHING – KEEP LAST MATCH FOR THIS MATCH – I was quite frankly exhilarated. Similarly, encountering Philip Corner’s Piano Activities, performed at Fluxus Internationale Festspiele Neuester Musik, Weisbaden 1962, where five prominent Fluxus artist take hammers, saws and not-what to an rather unfortunate grand piano, I fell in love with the movement as a whole. It gave me hope that there was a world out there past the gothic and baroque pillars. But Fluxus is not only about destruction or breaking taboos; it can be incredibly aesthetic, humorous, political, and as I talked about earlier, interdisciplinary. It introduced me to a lot of conceptual ideas, and was the first art movements with a considerable proportion of prominent women. Even its very name is taken from the Latin for flow, flux, flowing and fluid. There are others as well. The beautiful simplicity of the minimal light sculptures by James Turrell and Dan Flavin, or early Andy Warhol films. The overwhelming obsessive installations by Yayoi
a video stills from ‘green meadow’
Kusama, Pipeloti Rist’s incredibly successful immersive video environments, or Helen Chadwick’s playful imagination. I mean who could resist a chocolate fountain? Thanks for sharing your time and thoughts with us, Jockel. What’s next for Jockel Liess? Are there any new projects on the horizon? At the moment I’m working on a new piece for a
project by the digital interactive artists Genetic Moo. It’s called Microworld, and in their own words is ‘an experiment in creating a living digital ecosystem where many different art works interact with the audience, the space and each other.’ This incarnation of it will be installed in October at Kinetica Art Fair 2014 in London. Genetic Moo has actually been another influence on my work, over the years that I have known
them and their work, especially in the area of live digital art. Right now they have put the thumbscrews on me to actually produce an interactive piece of work for this show, something that I have never done successfully. So, crossed fingers. It is altogether still in the more infantry stages, but somewhat referring to pianos and rivers I think.