PROCESS: It Just Could Be Done

A BUCHLA/SYNTHI COLLUSION

CIBO: HOMEMADE BREAD PUDDING W/ VANILLA ICE CREAM & FRESH FIGS

We have an abundance of figs right now so why not use them to make this wonderful bread pudding even more delicious?

SYNTHI

MORE MAIL ART

                         T H E L O G I C O F P R O P O S I T I O N ?

OSCILLATIONS: THE LAST POETS/THIS IS MADNESS by the Last Poets

These two albums by the Last Poets form a kind of late sixties exorcism of the African-American struggle for human,  social,  and economic rights during a time of great turbulence and cultural ignorance.  The cover artwork for THIS IS MADNESS (1971) was the clinker for me.  Its painting by Abdul Mati Klarwein may be familiar to those who hadn't given up on Miles Davis' radical period (BITCHES BREW 1970,  LIVE-EVIL 1971,  etc.) as he embraced both the Last Poets' and Davis' quest for a language that illuminated the freedoms they sought during this period.  Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. were surely influences on these revolutionaries,  but for a conservative white populace (Nixon and the FBI were "fans") the imagery and language were pure Black Panther,  with fear trumping understanding.  Ironically,  they lambasted white racism ("White Man Got A God Complex"),  as well as black complacency ("Niggers Are Scared of Revolution").  If you're looking for the real roots of rap before it degenerated into street boasts about crack and hos,  look no further.

SCRIM AT LENGTH

SOMEONE SOMEWHERE IN BROOKLYN #2

THE ART OF NOISES: SOUNDINGS AT MOMA

One of the great things about living close to NYC is one's proximity to cultural events that may resonate with a good number of artists in the area.  In this case the word "resonate" should be taken literally,  as this is billed as MOMA's first exhibition of sound art and is subtitled "A Contemporary Score".  The irony here is that this kind of stuff has been around for nearly a century (see Luigi Russolo's Intonarumori from 1917),  and is certainly part of a vernacular that my be little heard consciously,  but has exerted a profound influence over the arts,  sound design and advertising. Sound art should be understood as a hybrid form,  one that combines noise,  the visual arts,  psychoacoustics,  electronics,  field recordings,  and the list goes on.  Perception, immersion, acceptance and understanding of this type of work certainly comes from a wide range of perspectives including  conceptual art,  visual scores and performance,  sculpture,  dada,  circuit bending,  installation and process art.  Those who expected a "musical" experience were surely disappointed,  as this was a liminal journey where one stepped through  audio and visual cues.  The problem that I encountered at this exhibition was crowd noise,  which made subtle listening an impossibility.  I must say that I quite enjoyed  Tristan  Perich's "Microtonal Wall"(bottom) which combined 1500 tiny speakers arranged in a lovely minimalist grid whose frequencies changed as viewers moved around it, creating their own "composition".  In most pieces there was a balance between materiality and non-materiality,  culminating in Camille Norment's "Triplight" (top),  a piece that made no sound at all.  It implied place through shadowed shapes suggesting a ribcage,  the primal origin of our sounds.  I enjoyed its visual pun too,  as in "John Cage".  I think he'd have liked it too.