Artist Statement:

I saw the triptych project as a possibility for social commentary on the matter of cellphones and our absurd preoccupation with technology. It isn't a rare phenomenon the sheer amount of college students wandering around with their faces in their cellphones. Often times these people run into objects and, although not intentionally, hysterically curse the object as if it were the object's fault and not their own. Every element in making this triptych was concerned with our preoccupation with cellphones and 'distractor' technology. It was filmed on a mobile phone and the participants are seen "colliding" with the frames of the video insinuating a real-life collision. Upon each hit the participant curses and the proceeds to turn the other direction only to inevitably collide with the other side glimpsing at the inevitability of 'distractor' technology itself placing its users in peril at each instance of operation. The overall mood is comic in nature, lighthearted and playful, but this feeling simply underscores the growing issue of cellphone distraction; it is not taken seriously.

COMBINED TRIPTYCH

Midterm

Artist Instrument:
I began my project in pursuit of a cheap-readily-made instrument to further a discussion I had began posing about the nature of music itself. Wherein the popular world highlights a relatively specific range of euphonic compositions with expensive and finely crafted instruments, I sought to answer my own question of "Why"? How bad could it get if I did not confine to these popular parameters including luxury and finely crafted instruments and the pleasant range of music they produce? percussive instruments were limited in these very ways as well as stringed and wind instruments as they exemplified the norm I wished to counteract in this project. Circuit-bending provided a convenient solution to this problem. The very nature of electronic art is alienated from traditional music notions; alien in form, function, and performance. Bill T. Miller expresses this concept more eloquently in his analysis of circuit-bending encouraging universal applications and creative expansion of the medium. As mentioned by Miller, I began small and expanded my instrument from my basic starting point using cheap Wal-Mart kids' toy materials as a commentary on the limited and exclusive nature of what are deemed "common" and "popular" instruments. After piecing together a cell-phone and princess-wand in an abomination of wire and solder set-up I realized my instrument was finally ready. In the performance of my piece I attempted to stay true to my own question of the musical world and Miller's as well; why is circuit bending not commonly accepted as popular instrument material? the only relatable connection I made in my performance was the 'play-ability' of my instrument which involved a performance-like routine of circuit-bending the cellphone connection and moving a part of the wand attachment to link the circuit. My intention for this piece was to let it, in all its unabashed hideousness, serve as commentary on the exclusivity of instruments in the art world and to perhaps reconsider the qualities of what is euphonious in today's popular culture.

2D Score:
I developed my score for Jessie with careful consideration to Cornelius Cardew's Treatise. I took into account her incorporation of a music stand as the core structure of her instrument along with shower curtain rings, metal bands of the music stand, a container of paperclips giving a relatively steady beat when flicked, and a tape measure that could be extended and moved back in. Cardew never gave explicit instructions for his Treatise, instead preferring it to be open to interpretation in hopes to foster discussion about the nature of musical composition. I kept my design to a 9x11.5 sheet of paper aptly fitting Jessie's instrument in its own vague relation to traditional music (ie music stand) and also kept the composition black and white like traditional sheet music to maintain this relation. Similar to Cardew I gave Jessie no explicit instructions instead preferring to see/hear her interpretation of my piece. However, I designed it with specific relations to the capabilities of her instruments from left to right. The intricate array of lines were considered with the metal bands of the music stand in mind, all small dots and 'sprout-like' dots veering off of lines were slight inflexions on her paper-clip container attachment. The larger circles were intended to align with the playing of the shower rings and the tape measure was intended to correlate to the thicker lines. The organization of the composition, as before stated, was intended to run from left to right moving from an intense cacophony of chaos in the first major movement of the piece to a calmer more intimate and unified performance during the second half of the piece.

2D Score I Played:
The score I played was also designed intentionally for my instrument with full knowledge of the bi-tonal capabilities of my cellphone/wand piece. With this in mind the score was also done in black and white to be interpreted for each of my two sounds. I chose to accompany the white empty space as belonging to the lighter 'wand' sound of my piece and conversely, the dark areas, were attributed to the cellphone sounds of my piece which I reasoned was the darker of the two. each shape, black or white, had very distinct curved edges which I interpreted with the assistance of my composer to pertain to the tone/pitch inflexions and variations capable on the soundboard. Similarly, the darker section of the 'black' areas were interpreted as a more intense and quicker tempo of the cellphone sound. The entire composition is arranged in a singular point emanating outward in gradually thicker and larger shapes. Played as a gradual crescendo between the two alternating tones the end result climaxes to an intensive, spotty, loud variation of tones reflecting the large bands of the shapes as they leave the paper. Collaboration with my composer was essential to the understanding and organization of this piece; an interesting juxtaposition to the composer-musician relationship when compared to the lack of direction given to my own musician partner with the score I composed.