Archive for December, 2007
Robot Ballet
In 1924 American composer George Antheil and artist/filmmaker Fernand Léger collaborated on ‘Ballet Mécanique.’ Inspired by the ever-expanding presence of machines in modern life, the two artists reconstituted the dance form with whirring, grinding mechanical parts overseen by human guides. Although the two parts (score and film) were never married in the artists’ lifetimes, both pieces became landmarks in the their respective fields. Léger’s film has been well restored and is a notable chapter in modern art history, and ‘Ballet Mécanique’ remains Antheil’s most famous orchestration. This December, Paul Lehrman and LEMUR (League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots) will present an all-robotic version of Antheil’s score. Originally written for 16 player pianos, four bass drums, three xylophones, a tam-tam, seven electric bells, a siren, and three different-sized airplane propellers, the ‘all robot version’ replaces any and all human participation with pre-programmed robotic knowledge. The piece will play twice a day from December 1-11th at the Wolfsonian Museum at Florida International University, offering rhythmic and evocative respite from the Miami Art Fair shopping season. –Caitlin Jones
http://lemurbots.org/ballet.mov
Originally from Rhizome News
reBlogged by michael on Dec 2, 2007, 10:00PM
Will Self’s “Psychogeographyâ€
“One morning a year ago, author Will Self sucked the life out of a cigarette and – careful not to wake the children – crept down the stairs in his house. Then he plunged out into the gloaming to begin his long walk from London to Manhattan … The author has become one of the leading – and one of the few – practitioners of a science called psychogeography … Self has revived the science and put his own stamp on it. He espouses walks from Point A to a ridiculously distant Point B as a method of reclaiming the in-between landscapes, and of hurtling himself into a pre-industrial sense of time.” From Interview with Will Self by Pagan Kennedy, Boston Globe.
See Psychogeography: Disentangling the Modern Conundrum of Psyche and Place by Will Self (Author) and Ralph Steadman (Illustrator) – Opening with a … 20,000-word essay on walking from London to New York, Psychogeography is a collection of 50 short pieces written over the last four years, together with 50 four-color illustrations by Ralph Steadman. In Psychogeography Self and Steadman explore the relationship between psyche and place in the contemporary world. Self thinks most people have a “wind-screen-based virtuality†on long- and short-distance travel. We drive, take buses and trains, fly. To combat this compromised reality, Will Self walks, relating intimately to place, as pedestrians do. Ranging in subject from swimming the Ganges to motorcycling across the Australian outback, shopping in an Iowa mall to surfing a tsunami, Psychogeography is at once a map of our world and the psychoanalysis of the way we inhabit it. The pieces are serious, humorous, facetious, and rambunctious. Psychogeography, the study of the effects of geographical environment on the emotions and behavior of individuals, has captivated other writers including W. G. Sebald and Peter Ackroyd, but Self and Steadman have their own unique spin on how place shapes people and vice versa.
Originally from Networked_Performance by
reBlogged by michael on Dec 3, 2007, 8:19AM
