Cochlea Wrapup and Reviews
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Cochlea was featured on artblog this weekend. Mike and I are very excited about this nice review with photos and video! (photo and video credits: artblog)
Here's the review:
The audio sculptures by McDermott and Murray are charming mash ups of found objects, motors and iPods that play sounds. One of the four pieces wasn't working but the other three tinkled and jangled and one, with boots, which was interactive, sounded like a fog horn. The spinning, found-object piece evokes memories of the boardwalk, wind chimes and merry go rounds. The piece with the boots -- which you pull down to activate -- visualized putting your feet to the fire (or, here, to what looks like a can of worms).
The sounds playing in Little Berlin's rough space with high rafters and peeling paint reminded me of David Byrne's sound piece, Playing the Building (see post). McDermott and Murray's work is more humble and experimental than Byrne's and I enjoyed it immensely. (I'm hoping it was fun making it -- it was fun experiencing the results.) Murray, by the way, is the sculptor. He's also the founder of art@sophi. And here's about McDermott from the LB press release: "McDermott is a Philadelphia based composer, musician, producer and sound designer. He co-founded the label/collective earSnake and has released music as Mikronesia and with his band, Gemini Wolf."
It's been a busy couple of months in Mikronesia land. From my Fringe piece(s) TalkTalk and Assembling Minutiae, to "Tomas" to "Cochlea". It's been a very rewarding time in my development as an artist.
Things will be slowing down in Mikronesia-land for the next couple of weeks as I sort through photos and recordings and try and get my portfolio up to date. I'll still be plenty busy with non-Mikronesia stuff. We're working on a new earSnake Holiday CD/Podcast and show in December. Also Megan and I are busy working on the new Gemini Wolf album. Also we'll be in New York next week performing at Trash Bar on Wednesday December 3 with Lillie Ruth Bussey.
In December and January I'll be taking part in the nexusRadio project. The details are still not 100% clear, but in December I'll be doing a day of recording my (and Gemini Wolf) string quartets and string parts on air. Then in January will be the premier of the "prequel" for my opera Pangaea. The prequel is the back story of the some of the characters of Pangaea. It's called Gorrock and Snakegar and it's a old school Orson Wells style radio drama! More on that later. For now enjoy the Cochlea video and photos. Cochlea is open this Saturday 11/29 and the last day it will be open is Saturday 12/6.
Cochlea was featured on artblog this weekend. Mike and I are very excited about this nice review with photos and video! (photo and video credits: artblog)Here's the review:
The audio sculptures by McDermott and Murray are charming mash ups of found objects, motors and iPods that play sounds. One of the four pieces wasn't working but the other three tinkled and jangled and one, with boots, which was interactive, sounded like a fog horn. The spinning, found-object piece evokes memories of the boardwalk, wind chimes and merry go rounds. The piece with the boots -- which you pull down to activate -- visualized putting your feet to the fire (or, here, to what looks like a can of worms).
It's been a busy couple of months in Mikronesia land. From my Fringe piece(s) TalkTalk and Assembling Minutiae, to "Tomas" to "Cochlea". It's been a very rewarding time in my development as an artist.
Things will be slowing down in Mikronesia-land for the next couple of weeks as I sort through photos and recordings and try and get my portfolio up to date. I'll still be plenty busy with non-Mikronesia stuff. We're working on a new earSnake Holiday CD/Podcast and show in December. Also Megan and I are busy working on the new Gemini Wolf album. Also we'll be in New York next week performing at Trash Bar on Wednesday December 3 with Lillie Ruth Bussey.
In December and January I'll be taking part in the nexusRadio project. The details are still not 100% clear, but in December I'll be doing a day of recording my (and Gemini Wolf) string quartets and string parts on air. Then in January will be the premier of the "prequel" for my opera Pangaea. The prequel is the back story of the some of the characters of Pangaea. It's called Gorrock and Snakegar and it's a old school Orson Wells style radio drama! More on that later. For now enjoy the Cochlea video and photos. Cochlea is open this Saturday 11/29 and the last day it will be open is Saturday 12/6.