11/20

working on a video involving a story about Hawaii and a rare fictional fruit.  Footage so far includes fish, moons, moving jewelry, patterns, and landscape shots. The story is kind of a non-linear narrative outlining the inherent lonliness of some things. The story may be told by the fish, or I may film two people having a conversation. If it is told by fish, it will be in subtitles, which really appeals to me. For the sound I am going to use bits from a cd by my former band, Hroom Hroom, which features my friend and collaborater Blue. I may intersperse some of her lyrics with the story too, b/c i'm finding they fit so nicely.

9/24

I've changed my mind about the above project. I wanted a project that involved the viewer a little more - just walking by and activating a sound isn't really an active role for the viewer. I suppose too that melancholy is not the mental state i wan't to explore - i think compassion and ambivalence are a little more interesting.  I'm also trying to keep the techology as simple as possible (yes, even simpler than above - this is all a challenge for me) and focus on parts of the project i know i can do well.

I think a lot of people experience a conflict b/t living and living consciously - in other words, there is confusion about the unintended consequences of our actions. I donn't know what can be done about it w/o driving yourself crazy. I'm thinking af a character in the novel American Pastoral by Philip Roth. The protagonist  has a daughter who, at a young age, got involved with a radical group and ended up killing people in a protest bombing.  She is found at the end of the novel living intentionally homeless with no needs met - barely any food, shelter, etc. and a belief that even by breathing

she might harm  a living creature (and so wore a veil over her face to avoid breathing in an insect). She also avoided walking - anything potentially harmful to others.

9/24, later

Still experiencing problems with my pico - it just stops after a few minutes and i have to force quit. i feel a little like i don't trust the cricket to actually work when i need it to.

i am on the verge of changing my mind again...basically the same sculpture, only the blocks are with fabric that looks like the night sky instead of faces. So the viewer/builder would be stacking pieces of the sky instead of heads. And instead of chattering, neurotic sounds, movement would trigger the sound on the cricket that is called bloops, i think, but sounds sort of celestial to me. More whimsy and less heaviness. Maybe less substance, but i feel the cricket sound part is a little more relevant and playful.  I am definitely struggling with the feeling that anytime i insert technology it is pretty arbitrary.

9/26 Colleen

Aleta - I feel like you have a really strong sense that sound is the commentary on the sculpture, so that doesn't feel that arbitrary to me.  Perhaps, the process of working with the technology feels arbitrary? 

9/30

 I'm usually not so public about my initial ideas, but I generally do get excited about and then trash several ideas before one sticks. Maybe everyone works this way? 

Colleen is right - the process of using this technology does feel arbitrary. So i decided i should deal with the part of it i'm most comfortable with ( the sounds) and compose what i can with such a limited selection, and then respond to those sounds with something else i feel confident with (drawing).  That way, the possibilities and limitations of the technology itself are integral to the work, but I'm not relying on an aspect of the work i'm unsure of (the pico) to carry it.

I do really want to use the pico. It has occured to me to just forgo it, but i want to find a way to make peace with it instead. That way i open a door and hopefully find the confidence to use it again. 

10/4

  Critique was helpful. One issue raised was that this is not very interactive - the viewer simply walks by and sets it off, and then has something to look at. I am ok with that, in fact, I prefer it.  I like the element of surprise, and not everyone wants to deliberately interact with art.  It  was pointed out that  people would  without a doubt deface the drawing, and that maybe i should leave markers so that people could help with the drawing, with a device to scroll it up every evening so that everyday it could be drawn on agian. And it was brought up that the sounds should be random, rather than composed. So, in a way, it was thought that the hand of the artist should be almost entirely removed, other than setting up the devices for the piece to be made by those who encounter it.

I return to the thought that this should involve action from the viewer, but only on an unintentional basis. WIthout expectations, and without the knowledge that they are about to engage with someone's art piece. And I don't want to simply set up a public drawing, I don't think it would work, even with the most diligent of direction from me.