Composition, Decay, Performance

December 20th, 2005

The last few days have been eventful in solidifying certain parts and pieces of this strange cloud I wish to explore. A piece on display at the ITP Winter Show entitled “Death of Sound” was the beginning of my construction of objects with lifespans. As an introduction into this arena, I felt that I learned a lot about what not to do, and what to explore more fully.

First of all, I really have to think about WHAT and HOW these pieces will be installed, exhibited, or performed. Its one thing to create an object which decays and eventually dies, but in a setting like the ITP Winter Show, its not that simple. People aren’t there to view a performance, nor is a coordinated effort possible for such a task, as people come in at different times, and there’s no large venue for performance in that space. Because of this, the primary concept of my piece was taken away (by myself) for the sake of the listener’s ability to hear a snippet of the sound at large, rather than a glimpse at a performance I would much rather they experienced in full.

Secondly, I need to explore the differences in decay, from physical decay, electronic decay, operational decay, software decay. I barely scratched a rather large surface in exploring decay in this piece. I need to step back, explore decay with simple objects, and then let them decay next to each other, juxtaposing the differences in perception viewers may experience between them.

So, beyond things in regard of decay, I’d like to expand these concepts into my other trains of thought, those primarily revolving around networks of objects with their real counterparts. Not only do these objects need information about their other brothers and sisters, but relationships between the objects and the viewers are crucial to my connection between the life I’m hoping to instill in these objects which hopefully will attach itself to the life of the individuals exploring the devices.

Hopefully, some analogies will be formed that would not be possible otherwise.

Entry Filed under: Concepts and Thoughts, Thesis