Comments on Currently Hanging

Somebody forgot to close their teeny-font tag and now all of Slog is micro.

Close your tags girl- You done shrunk the Slog!

yet she did go back into the world shortly after saying that. it was possible because she never left it.

I was fortunate enough to "see" an exhibit by Janet Cardiff at the Carnegie in Pittsburgh some years ago. It was amazing.

HULK SMASH TINY SLOG

I saw an almost identical (looking) exhibit at the Tate Liverpool in 2003. Same setup -- many loudspeakers on stands around a room, voice tape loop. I wonder if that was Janet Cardiff as well. Hmm, it looks like it was: http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/exhibitions/janetcardiff/

What a lovely story.

FIX YOUR TAG, MIZ GRAVES.

No, I changed my mind, I like Slog shrunk. Put it back.

How old is philip glass' "music for parabolas" setup? A bunch of speakers in a loose circle pointed towards each other (er, I guess actually away from each other since the speakers were pointed at the parabolas).

This piece has been making the rounds. Last I checked, it was on permanent install at MOMA, with its own room. I made a special pilgrimage last year.

The aural experience is really similar to what you'd get if you were actually singing the piece, which is an amazing thing to be able to extend to the public. It's not just that each speaker carries a single voice, it's that each speaker carries a single perspective -- the nearest singer's voice loudest, with the singers close around them next, the whole piece next and the room noise after that.

So glad this work is getting even more exposure. (BTW, this is the second recent SLOG reference to this particular piece of music. Someone else recently linked to a Terry Pratchett article where he talks about believing in God and hearing Spem in Alium for the first time.)

“I can’t possibly go back to the world now”

My god Graves, I thought you were going to tell us the old lady fell over dead then. Whew!

I really love the fact you are describing the art now, and sharing a critical viewpoint I know you to have. I might even haul my ass -- which is rapidly fusing to the upholstery of this chair -- to Tacoma for this.

My only question about your writing: what is a unified audience? While a chorus is a generally unified entity, don't audiences assemble with all manner of motivations, backgrounds, reactions, etc? Don't some people read their Blackberries while others listen? Don't some sleep? Just wondering...

@6, the Tate WHAT?!?!?!? With all those craven thieves in that city, I'm sure they have the world's most sophisticated alarm system.

The use of "unified" perplexes me a little as well. The origins of this piece seem to strike out against the unity found in the voices and experiences of other choral works of the time, and I'm not sure why it's such a novelty she capitalizes on this.

However, I would really like to see the piece. Every time I've seen work by Cardiff and/or Miller I've at least been intrigued. More often than not I've been a little turned off by the gimmick, but there has always been enough there to justify the trek out.

Pete Townshend devised a speaker system along these lines for some string synthesizer pieces he was writing and recording - in 1982.

5 gets you 10 that most people doing this stuff now know all about that (either on their own, or from somebody else who did.)

this was at the edmonton art gallery in 2004; totally worth the drive down to tacoma.

@12, the Tate Liverpool is one of the top modern art museums in the world. And, unlike the museums in Manchester, there are actually people visiting them. Liverpool is a charming city, full of the loveliest people in the world. True, you want to keep a sharp lookout at all times. But your average Scallie isn't really about defeating complicated alarms; they're more the smash-and-grab sort. And, you know, you can get fantastic deals on gently-used car stereos there.

@16, And they've mastered the fine art of dipping into all the bins for all manner of things. I'm surprised they haven't stolen the Mersey itself!

Now, if it's a museum you're wanting...http://www.manutd.com/default.sps?pagegid={3B206E90-CB32-403F-BC82-DEBB730837FE}§ion=museum

See you there, fnarf! I'll buy you a pressie in the gift shop :-)

Please imagine the sound of vomiting, Jube.

There is a lovely museum not far from there called The Lowry, though. I'll grant you that. Manchester's far from all bad, whatever my Scouser friends may think. They even have an attractive local football club. They play in light blue.

I have seen this installation at both P.S.1 and MoMA. The work is indeed one of the most powerful, moving, and emotional experiences I've had in a museum.