"LINES OF SIGHT #5" (AN ORCHID IN THE LAND OF TECHNOLOGY), a sound program curated by Barbara Held and Pilar Subirá at Radio Web MACBA
NOTE: You can listen and download the podcast and information about the sound pieces in PDF format.
"The recording can be a reflection of the thoughts and emotions of a human being (Arthur Russell), memory (see Brandon LaBelle's project, Phantom Music – Radio, Memory, and Narratives from Auditory Life), or museum (Edgard Varèse used recordings of the Holy Week procession of the Catalan village of Verges, presented every year since the middle ages, in his soundtrack for a film on Miró). A studio production records one perfect performance, its presence in time and space similar to that of a film. Destructive noise can be transposed into delicate vibrations of a transparent membrane (Juan Matos Capote)."
(Excerpt from "Lines of Sight #5 - An Orchid in the Land of Technology -" by Barbara Held and Pilar Subirá)
PROGRAM:
01 Edgar Varèse "La procesión de Verges", 1955 2'54''
02 Anne Wellmer, "needle", 2003 3'
03 Brandon LaBelle, "Dirty Ear" 2007 8'42''
04 Richard Garet, "Précis", 2007 6'
05 Octante, "Untitled" 2008 8'15''
06 Arthur Russell, "Home Away from Home", 1986 5'12''
07 Juan Matos Capote, "The trembling of my Williamsburg art studio while they were constructing outside", 2008 6'55'' (Note: Please cover your speakers with a thin sheet of paper or acetate film to better appreciate the vibrations)
08 Roscoe Mitchell, "Parched Plain", 2006 13'06''
09 John Bischoff, "Override", 2002 3'51''
10 Andres Lewin-Richter, "Study 1", 1964. 3'35''
11 Matt Davis "Rain", 2007. 8'55''
The Trembling of my Williamsburg Art Studio While They Were Constructing Outside, 2008, 6'55"
by Juan Matos Capote.
NOTE: While listening to the piece, please place small pieces of paper with different geometrical forms inside of the cone of the speaker (placing the speaker horizontally on a table). The papers will move and vibrate inside the speaker due to the low frequency vibrations.
"The trembling of my Williamsburg art studio while they were constructing outside is a piece with one part that is visual (see image above) and the other sound. The sound is an edited recording of the sounds produced by construction on various buildings near the studio where I lived and worked in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, during my last year in New York. It is a manifestation of the huge and rapid growth of real estate development in that part of the city. The recording consists of the noise of construction machinery, trucks, cement trucks, drills, etc.
These daily sounds, constant and irritating, kept me from being able to work properly in my studio, and woke me up in the early morning. During this period I was working on some paintings with geometric shapes, for which I needed precision and a steady hand. The construction machinery produced, in addition to the noise that invaded silence, vibrations in the building where I was working that made my hand tremble.
In order to take advantage of the adverse circumstances, I decided to record the surroundings in which I was destined to work, and to take advantage of it. My latest works (visual and/or sound) have to do with a reformulating of the experience of place or personal space. This is how the idea of this piece came about.
The visual part happens in the home or in the place where the listener is located. The listener can place a piece of thin acetate or some other similar material (sheet of thin plastic or paper), over the cones of the speakers without their protective covering, so that the low frequency sounds makes the acetate, or other similar material, vibrates. The more powerful the speakers, the more the effect of vibration is perceived, and a subwoofer works even better. In this way, the vibrations that attacked my building in Williamsburg, where I was trying to paint in silence and with a steady hand, are reflected. A variation of the visual element of this piece is to place small pieces of paper with different geometrical forms inside of the cone of the speaker (placing the speaker horizontally on a table). The papers move and vibrate inside the speaker due to the low frequency
vibrations.” (by the artist)
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