Sound Walking and 4'33"

Reading about sound walking reminded me of John Cage's 4'33".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gN2zcLBr_VM&feature=related






















Did you hear that? Silence is never truly silent and both John Cage's piece and sound walking intend to raise awareness of this fact.

The hum of the A/C, the typing of fellow editing lab patrons, my own breath. All these sounds are present around me and have been for a while, but it was only after focusing in on them that I even realized they were there.

The Wells article is a picture of the arts through the lens of animation. Wells concisely draws the line between who he sees as “us” and “them”. Wells calls traditional animation “orthodox” as if it’s a religion. From the tone of the piece I feel that he’s an animation atheist and believes that orthodox animation squanders unorthodox pursuits.

It’s interesting to see the ways to subvert conventional animation that Wells lays out. The article is an anarchist cookbook for those that want to experiment. If abstraction, Specific non-continuity, interpretive form, evolution of materiality, multiple styles, presence of artist, and dynamics of musicality were followed, as the article suggests, the product would be the kind of highly personal experimental films that I enjoy.

These techniques can be applied to all art forms when the media is taken into account. The ingredients sound like the trappings of modern art.

I found the article easy to understand and made it clear what many feel an experimental film should be, but I fear having these guidelines might counter intuitively make experimental animation more formulaic.

Cameraless Filmmaking

Cameraless filmmaking is selfish filmmaking. Cameraless filmmakers get to experience the excitement of a film in nearly the same way an audience would. Normally, filmmakers spend hours digitally editing so that they actually become desensitized by the material.

When a cameraless film is first projected, the filmmaker can view it as if for the first time, as if her or she were an audience member. The film can even chip or bump and change with each viewing.

Cut Copy

"Cut Copy's music successfully achieves synesthesia on its own throughout the Aussie quartet’s third full-length."
 via
The AV Club

Here's a track from the album. The whole LP is like a dance party.

I'll be keeping this in mind

when I do my rhythmic editing exercise

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyUf7r_9yNs

Shameless Plug

Here's the Kickstarter for my big project. Pass it around.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1715566906/things-a-short-film?ref=live

The Synesthete

I fooled myself into thinking I had synesthesia. I had read about Carol Sheen and her painting Vision, which is based on what she saw when she closed her eyes during acupuncture.  I was mulling this over in the library, ready to type this blog post. I closed my eyes and leaned my head back. The girl next to me was clicking her mouse over and over. She was probably on Facebook. The “click click clicks” were sporadic but constant. In the center of my vision every single time flashed a pale blue circle.

My heart started to race. Was I special? I mean, beyond the “everyone is a special snowflake” special. Really, supernaturally, impress-my-friends special.

I have always seen colors when I close my eyes- tracers from what I was looking at before closing my eyes, orange from the warm rays of the sun. At night I see colors floating around the room before going to sleep that I’ve learned to ignore. I have a condition called myodesopsia, or floaters. During the day when I stare at the sky or whiteboards I see semi-opaque blobs in my vision. Wiki that.

I rarely talk about any of these eccentricities because no one has ever been impressed. The problems were either too common or too benign for the various audiences I’ve opened up to.

Synesthesia would have combined all these issues into a narrative that I would talk about daily. “Hey, how ‘bout this party? I know we just met… but when I close my eyes and hear a sound it becomes a splash of color. Try it- say something and I’ll tell you what it looks like.”

That’s a freaking superpower. The Synesthete to the rescue! Colorsound Man! Watch as he picks out whodunnit based on the color of voice. Watch as he finds a kid in a well from the shouts. I’d be a less disabled Daredevil.

Alas, I am not a synesthete. I tried it later and the colors behind my eyes did not at all correspond to any sound. So, unless I have a very specific mouse click-based synesthesia I am no superhero. Besides I have tinnitus in one ear, so the application of my synesthetic powers would be limited anyway. Wiki that.