dear all
best wishes for a creative and peaceful new year!
On January 1, Alan posted a commentary, see at bottom, on a piece called
"box-with-the-sound-of-its-own-making"
and he gave us a link. I had a look at the box, and at another Morris piece called
"Site" [1964] which I found even more interesting.
http://www.wikiart.org/en/robert-morris/site-1964
the description..:
<<{...} Morris maneuvered the boards around the stage, until finally
using them to again conceal Schneemann, all the while the sound of a
jackhammer played repeatedly in the background. Site recalls Box with
the Sound of Its Own Making through its use of an audio recording and
focus on the banal (de)construction of a wooden structure, but here the
situation is more complex and ambiguous; it is unclear whether the
anonymous masked Morris or the nude Schneemann, whose pale skin and
white backdrop discourage attention, is the focal point of the
performance-an ambiguity that prompts the viewer to consider the
relative importance of the artistic process versus the resulting artwork
itself...]>>
that's interesting, but I remember a disgruntled Carolee Schneemann
telling me once that she detested that piece.
What I wanted to ask Alan, or everyone, is whether we could discuss the
provocative comment made in the post, namely that
conceptual works of this nature are an easy and also conventional trap..
realize that it's easy to produce _conceptual
traps_ of this sort, rather than otherwise, and that such traps
in fact constitute the very nature of art and its mappings
within the framework or aegis of the digital>>
I may not fully undestand what you are after, Alan. Please elaborate.
ps.
As I write this, I remember a visit to Houston's Contemporary Art Museum
and the exhibit "Compilation" by Jennie C. Jones, an artist who mixes
sculpture, painting and sound
in remarkable ways (>>the act of listening, as well as the modes thereof,
become in and of themselves
part of her practice, which has evolved from literal references to music in
early drawings and collages
to more nuanced and multifaceted installations that engage the viewer visually and
aurally>>)
do you know her work?
regards
Johannes Birringer
________________________________________
From: [email protected]
[[email protected]] on behalf of Alan Sondheim
[[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, January 01, 2016 8:57 PM
As if it were Robert Morris'
http://www.alansondheim.org/clicks.png
and the box w/ the sounds of its own making, whereas in this
case, registration of computer clicks producing the image
measuring the registration or the image registering the
production of its (digital, imaginary) needle sway or spectral
imaginary of the registration of computer clicks; since the
digital is always conceptual, always conceived along code and
protocol lines; realize that it's easy to produce _conceptual
traps_ of this sort, rather than otherwise, and that such traps
in fact constitute the very nature of art and its mappings
within the framework or aegis of the digital; all that remains
to be done here is to acknowledge the entities that produced the
(linux) operating system and its (now and current) attendant
apps; so it's as if it were Robert Morris but without the labor,
the physicality of the world, which has been replaced by the
coupling of finger-strokes within the closed apparatus of the
computer, just as the Morris box, if I remember correctly, was
constituted by a taped recording within it, the sounds evident
through a speaker, to one and all, the audience within a gallery
somewhere on a street in a city in the world, people milling
about, wars, holocausts, nations, in the midst of what would be,
at best, a relatively quiet sound, a moment away, within, of
silence, even, something thought, something dwelling, among
you, something _there._ *
* but among the slaughters as well, the sounds of their own
making as well, and just as well
----------------------------------
http://www.wikiart.org/en/robert-morris/box-with-the-sound-of-its-own-making-1961
Artist: Robert Morris
Completion Date: 1961
Style: Minimalism, Conceptual Art
Genre: installation
As its title indicates, Morris's "Box with the Sound of Its Own
Making" consists of an unadorned wooden cube, accompanied by a
recording of the sounds produced during its construction.
Lasting for three-and-a-half hours, the audio component of the
piece denies the air of romantic mystery surrounding the
creation of the art object, presenting it as a time-consuming
and perhaps even tedious endeavor. In so doing, the piece also
combines the resulting artwork with the process of artmaking,
transferring the focus from one to the other. Fittingly, the
first person in New York Morris invited to see the piece was
John Cage-whose silent 1952 composition 4'33" is famously
composed of the sounds heard in the background while it is being
performed. Cage was reportedly transfixed by Box with the Sound
of Its Own Making, as Morris later recalled: "When Cage came, I
turned it on... and he wouldn't listen to me. He sat and
listened to it for three hours and that was really impressive to
me. He just sat there."
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