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Re: [microsound] Sound installations



At 8:25 PM -0800 1/23/03, ph!L @ c e n t i b e l wrote:

>I'm specifically wondering how people dealt with the visual element 
>or lack thereor. Did you do a pure sound installation with nothing 
>but speakers/headphones around? Or did you integrate a deliberate 
>visual element as well.

I've done quite a few performance pieces that had a balance between 
visual and sonic elements, but one in particular was what I refer to 
as a "performance installation." This piece, a collaboration with 
Jill Neff and Marty Malkani and titled "The Board Room," was part of 
an evening of music and visual art at the San Francisco Museum of 
Modern Art in 1985. It lasted four and a half hours and was divided 
into three "movements" separated by short concert programs that took 
place in another part of the museum.

The piece was held in the Board Room of the museum, a long 
rectangular room with windows along one side and a long board room 
table running down the center. The room was entered through a small 
vestibule with as pair of heavy wooden doors. At the beginning of the 
piece the doors were closed and were secured by a heavy chain looped 
around the door handles. Throughout the span of the first movement 
the chain was gradually loosened so that viewers could peak through 
the crack at the tableau within. There was no artificial light in the 
room at first; it was illuminated by natural light coming through the 
windows, and this light diminished with the setting of the sun. There 
was a progression of sonic and visual elements throughout this 
movement: the board room table was flanked by chairs and the chairs 
had white and black balloons attached to represent human head; trays 
of warm water with chunks of dry ice sat on the window sills so that 
fog spilled into the room; as the room grew darker a pair of slide 
projectors were turned on, spilling beams of patterned light along 
the table and illuminating a glass globe that was slide slowly down 
the table toward the doorway; a tortoise with a flashlight taped to 
its shell ran (yes!) around the room; finally a costumed figure 
performed a slow motion dance through the room (this was one of my 
two collaborators, Marty Malkani - the costume was of a bald and 
heavily muscled female figure walking on her hands; Marty's legs were 
in the arms and her arms were in the legs). The sound was a 
combination of syntheizer sequences, looped voices (Vito Acconci and 
Laurie Anderson were prominent) along with a mix of music ranging 
from pygmies to Luigi Nono.

For the second movement a rear projection screen was erected in the 
doorway. Slide projections of colored washes, stripes, and other 
patterns were cast on the screen, together with shadow play. Most of 
the shadows were of toy soldiers, dinosaurs and zoo animals. These 
were placed on a set of boards on the floor so that they could be 
slide slowly past the light sources, causing the shadows to have 
varying relationships on the screen. The shadows were cast by a set 
of strobe lights, so the shadow play had a disjunct and flickering 
quality. Again, towards the end of the movement a costumed performer 
(Marty again) moved through the space. This was an ancient angel with 
a gnarled staff and broken wings. She moved slowly back and forth 
through the projection beams, casting a life-size shadow on the 
screen. Her final pass was made on the audience's side of the screen. 
Again the music was a sound collage, this time supplemented by live 
saxophone.

For the third movement the screen was removed and a bubbling cauldron 
was placed near the doorway. Dry ice fog was made to rise by using an 
electric fan. Deeper within the room black and white helium-filled 
balloons floated gently with a variety of images projected on them. A 
projection was also cast on the rising fog, so that images seemed to 
hang in the air. The sound for this movement was a meditative 
electronic tinkling sound, like wind chimes. Marty's performance 
element was kept outside of the board room space for this movement - 
the costume was of a three-legged heavily-tatooed figure that crawled 
slowly and lizard-like on the floor of the gallery.

>What were people's responses to the  piece? How did you feel about 
>the effectiveness of the work? What would you have done differently? 
>Other comments?

The audience response was what I had hoped. During the first hour, 
when the room was visible only through a crack between the doors, a 
great deal of curiosity developed and people would take turns peering 
through the opening. As the evening progressed there was a constant 
but changing crowd of viewers crowding the tiny vestibule. During the 
last movement (the only one during which I could personally come out 
to watch) there was a small group sitting and standing quietly for a 
long period while the images gradually changed and the balloons and 
fog slowly drifted.

The success of this piece probably had a lot to do with its 
appropriateness to the situation. The overall program of which it was 
part was a collection of small performances conducted throughout the 
various galleries of the museum. The live performances ranged from 
chamber music to readings of Dylan Thomas, and the audience came 
prepared for an unusual and festive experience.

-- 

______________________________________________________________
Richard Zvonar, PhD
(818) 788-2202
http://www.zvonar.com
http://RZCybernetics.com

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