ART 450 Projecto Presento

http://www.mediafire.com/?qcf2d70j3wn44lt

That’s it for now. The whole idea in one place, 3 movements within the context of a larger composition.

I hope to add length to each, maybe make a few new ones, and scrub and polish everything in the coming months. Learning how best to perform this kind of stuff live so it’s interesting to watch will be a fun challenge. Projected images maybe?

What I’ve accomplished during the course has been purely digital, although I hope to have it evolve into a larger real space/digital thing. The music was all made using Ableton Live and Reason, and my Akai MPK49 midi controller/keyboard. As usual, I used a combination of trial and error along with studying artists in the field for inspiration. I’ve been able to learn quite a bit about how synths work; I can now somewhat achieve the sounds I’m after every now and again — before the course I was blindly turning knobs and flipping switches. I’m still struggling with learning how to use the hardware and software to perform the songs live. I hope to gain a mentor soon that can teach me a few things about how to pull off a live electronic set.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the “creative team” approach although I can see where it would make sense. Not everyone in the room has the same ideas about what they consider “good” art, especially considering that we didn’t come together on voluntary grounds — we’re more or less a semi-random assortment of people. Unlike in a real (non-college) situation where people would either voluntarily come together under a common vision, or be selected out of the community by someone (basically the business approach of hiring the best help for the job.)

I personally didn’t feel comfortable critiquing someone else’s work when I felt like I didn’t have the credentials to do so, which was most, if not all of the time. The fact that some people were so ready and willing to proffer their ‘advice’ as if they had some sort of authority on the subject kind of put me off. I can understand however that getting feedback can be an invaluable part of a lot of people’s processes. Knowledge-based advice a lot of times is very helpful, and additional ideas thrown around sometimes stick and start to grow. I just don’t see the point when we start giving value judgements about what we ‘like’ or what we think looks or sounds ‘good’.

To be honest I think I came up short on my proposed project. I never got around to learning Flash or whatever it is I would have had to use to animate over my music video. And as far as the composition, well, its just not done. Its done enough to present, sure, but it doesn’t hold up to my standards of being finished. But that’s what the next few weeks/months are for I suppose.