Sound Scatter

Installation containing three separate works, Peter, Derek and Hamid. The pieces can work separately but in this installation perform together as a jazz trio. 

Objects mounted to the wall create rhythms as the participate arranges the magnets on the cylinder. 

33 speaker units connect together to form a visual and audio composition. As each speaker spins a metal contact is reached causing temporary activation of the speaker. 

Eight cassette decks act as one. They sing harmoniously with one another until a viewer approaches an individual deck. This deck, wired with an electronic eye, sees the intruder becomes distracted and falls out of tune with its peers. 

Humor is related to power. Whoever is in on the joke has control over others. This is one of the cruel elements of comedy that is rarely acknowledged.

This work takes the concept of a "joke" head on. The homemade looking high-voltage circuitry is designed to frighten the participant. This reaction contrasts with the title because the device looks anything other than "sanity enhancing".

In a way the work does attempt to bring "sanity" back to the maddening nuances of aesthetics though. The Sanity Enhancement Device is not subtle. It makes its presents known with a jolt - no theory required. 

The Critique Machine resembles the surprise and anticipation of musical or theatrical performances. Once activated, the installation recreates the unsettling experience of an artist receiving contradictory criticism.

It speaks to the social interaction that shapes a person's identity. 

This work is an homage to Terry Riley's In C. In his composition the musicians were instructed to progress through the music score repeating each section as many times as they individually wished. In CD takes that element of chance into the mechanical realm. Here four CD players progress through CDs with identical content. Each CD player's "performance" differs however due to scratches in the CDs resulting in randomly repeated sections.

The "score" on each CD is a selection of sine waves in the key of C.

In his book, The Tipping Point, Malcom Gladwell challenges the concept of natural aptitude by asserting that practice is the key component of mastery over any skill. It has gained tremendous popularity by, in a sense, democratizing the attainment of mastery. This echos the Amercian ethos of hard work, above all else, equaling success.

This work examines the relevance of the first minutes, rather than hours of embarking on learning a skill. All the musicians in the video were given an instrument they have never played before and instructed to figure out how to play Row Row Row You Boat at a specific tempo and in a specific key.  

Three tape loops play a sped up simulation of the big bang created by John G. Cramer of The University of Washington.

Multiple loops bring to mind multiple universes, both a weighty concept and an subject of popular imagination. This pop association is suggested by the sci-fi look of the vintage reel to reel players. 

The Seikilos Epitaph is the oldest example of written music. The way it has been interpreted and performed has been debated because of its ancient form of musical notation. It very likely that this performance is the truest and most pure interpretation of the score. 

The music is "read" by running the digital image of the score through software that converted it to audio information.