well the opera went down this evening, and I have to say, it was really beautiful. an ambient sound cloud was formed it had peaks and valleys and then dissipated. each singer was in her/his own world and yet linked to everyone else, we walked amongst the audience--some standing with eyes closed--so everyone in a way drifting. wonderfully this was another instance where we found ourselves going in slow circles, thereby ensuring that the circle be inexorably and yet dreamily linked with Berlin and art in my mind (see previous posts on "landreform" and Schwerbelastungskörper).
this is a rehearsal shot, I have to wait for Franck and wooloo to post images from the actual performance. we are looking forward to working with Franck again in the fall when he comes to NYC.
the last few days have consisted of:
seeing a lot of contemporary art. we did the entire berlin biennial exhibition as well as galleries along brunnenstrasse. Brittany I have collected so much information about women artists it is staggering! I am very excited. so many new people and practices for all of us to investigate. I am thinking of only referencing eastern european artists this semester.
slow but steady progress on the meaning machines. in a few days I will post about this in particular
opera practice
getting to know the u-bahn because Tom's foot is injured
thinking about the overwhelming presence that strawberries have right now--both here and in Czech Republic. it is strawberry season. everyone everywhere in the city seems to be carrying bags or boxes of strawberries. and when I see a smashed strawberry on the street it is like finding a blue bird's egg on the pavement. such a shocking color and fragility against the stone.
thinking about the impact of socialism.
learning more German by reading Asterix comics
2 comments:
as i'm reading all these happenings, i'm thinking a lot about circles and the way sound informs space. hitler's gargantuan construction forcing an experience in the round--and i imagine the acoustics were pretty interesting inside. and outside! that idea of a huge amount of concrete sinking into the ground makes me imagine a certain sound (which i'm positive doesn't actually happen, but if you sped the sinking up and did a time lapse with sound recordings...what would that be like?) and then all of the merry-go-round of BMW's all forced into going the same speed probably made for a nice chorus with guthrie as soprano.
i wonder how the space changed during the opera performance, as when you rehearsed? was it more difficult to achieve the collective sound cloud? did it feel more individualized? sounds haunting...
it all seems to all make a lot of sense when you're talking about ephemeral constructions...isn't sound a sort of ephemeral construction?
i'm getting so much out of what you posted, i've been thinking less...or rather, letting my hands do more of the thinking.
i love the repaired street lamp. it's beautiful. your descriptions of what your bringing in are incredible.
circles, circles, circles....
i found much info about circles in "Visionary Architecture" - what a great book.
the swirls of the opera and spiral of the bmws are a very nice thought in my head. i keep thinking though if you could break these circles into arcs and place these in different moments. how would these line up or make sense (whatever sense means?)
like maybe only hearing form one side of your head. and once the arc is singular how would the direction being oriented? harmonic architecture
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