Hi Elisabet my mail address is: benjamin.vossler@hotmail.de
Hi Ben my email address is: elisabetcurbelo@gmail.com
"Medium is the message"
a quote of Marshall McLuhan
Bens' thoughts:
- the medium influences the way we interact and communicate
- there's a difference between writing by using a typewriter, a laptop or a pencil
- „Unser Schreibzeug arbeitet mit an unseren Gedanken / Our writing tools are also working on our thoughts“ Friedrich Nietzsche
- the structure of a medium influences the understanding on the receivers' site
in our transcontinental context
- our communication media and devices influence the quality of our communication
- misunderstanding leads to new interpretation of the submitted content
- the quality of the connection affects the esthetic of the experience -> a "glitchy memory"
- the latency forces to slow down (if a Hi-Fi perception of San Diego is wanted -> need the upload on a video hoster)
-> creates new "space" -> virtual Space
If I will remember San Diego, while a realtime connection via internet, I only have a destructive image in memory.
Ideas to work with
- using the latency time as a metronome
-> waves from Weimar to San Diego - using the artifacts of the sound-transmission for the esthetic of an impulse response
-> Live-Electronic improvisation - collect sound spaces
-> sending claps to open spaces in San Diego and use them to convole with sounds of Weimar and vice versa
Elisabets' thoughts:
As a composer I think that there are two different ways of creating: The message is the primary element and we should find the best medium to create it. The medium is limited and we have to be creative using it in a way that the message could be interesting.
I think that the sentence "Medium is the message" refers to the second way of creating I wrote above. It makes sense to use the characteristics of the tools as inspiration to create a message in our transcontinental context because we are using a limited medium. I think It does not make sense for us to try to improve some that seems impossible in 3 month but we can create a message using the defects of the medium as part of the message .
Updated Elisabets' and Bens' thoughts after the Skype discussion:
- How does the sentence “The medium is the message” by Marshall McLuhan applies to your practice? Comment on this quote in the context of your own work and in regards to this transcontinental collaboration, etc.
-> The medium influences and changes the content that is submitted. It also offers a new way of watching/hearing. For example if there is an error in the medium the message will be distorted. Another example is when we read a book or a music score we are reading and interpreting the medium which might give us a different message than the author wanted to. - American sound artist Bill Fontana made several pieces in which he transfers sound from one location to another. How does this locational switch change our understanding of a the space(s) in question? What new aspects of a sonic environment might emerge? What happens to our perception of a location once it is stripped from its original sounds and these are replaced by sounds from another location?
Normally we associate images with sounds, we know that we cannot hear the sound of a city in a forest. Although if you don't know the place you can accept certain sounds in that space. For example we can have an image of a big city and the sound of another big city and we accept it but of we know the city and we know in this city people speak Spanish and we are hearing Italian then we realize that the sound does not correspond with the image. - How does an instrument through which sound is transmitted shape our expectation and the perception of it (loudspeaker, telephone, alarm-clock), in other words, what if the expectation is not met, what impact can this have on our perception?
An example of this is when I used one salsa song that I liked so much as a ring tone then I got use it hear that music as a ring tone and when one day in a Club I heard the song I felt I didn´t like the song anymore to dance it. The same experience could be applied to an alarm-clock. Once we are familiar with the function of a sound it is hard to accept it in another context. Here there is an interesting song that uses the sound of an alarm-clock. Fred Frith-Morning Song <viedoflash type="youtube">Kx5RPHoR0A4</videoflash>
Also we can consider the cognitive prototypes (helmut rösing) -> As a child you learn to assemble an image with a sound and vice versa, to interact in your environment without distraction.
-> We can make the difference between nature sounds and reproduced sounds (e.g. in a concert piece).
Video Documentation
<videoflash type="vimeo">65038191</videoflash> San Weigo Diemar
<videoflash type="vimeo">64954955</videoflash> Weimar Soundscape
<videoflash type="vimeo">65006956</videoflash> San Diego Soundscape
<videoflash type="vimeo">65063662</videoflash> WeimarSound-SDVideo