Like 2018 by Dan Senn |
Family (see video) Use
headphones for full sound spectrum. Video with the Prague Gamelyde duration 4:48 |
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"Like Family" was
filmed in October of 2018 at Waterhouse Studio in Watetown, Wisconsin.
The concept for this work arrived while observing that these water
plastic bottles, when turned on end,
were unusually stable even when blown. I had to try recording this...
Within an hour the stage was set and well lit in my recording room, but
it soon became clear that it needed to be
further populated and so a retrieved two eggs from the kitchen.
Pleased with this, I commenced shooting several hours of experimenting
(playing) with
the objects as they moved like dancers across the mini stage and
interacted with each other. I was probably already
anthropomorphizing the objects though not so consciously from the start. Both the eggs and the plastic bottles exhibit a curious type of unstable-stability. A measured resiliency. The eggs are filled with fluid, a yoke, the surrounding egg white plus a pocket of "air", which gives weight as well as unpredictability in motion. And this movement is easily interpreted as human-like especially when there is more than one egg, a perception was further enhanced by interactions with the two plastic bottles likewise stochastically active. |
After recording hours of improvisations
with this quartet of dancing
objects, a sat with my video segments and for the first time realized
the human-like interactions that were occurring that, perhaps, had been
channeled from my sub-concious. This work, "Like Family", was further
processed using simple editing techniques in Final Cut Pro X. The sound track for this work was improvised via Ableton Live on the Prague Gamelyde in my Smichov studio, The Czech Republic, a few weeks after the video was recorded. A high resolution and full sized video is available for download from the artist. |
Biography Dan Senn (Prague-Watertown) is an intermedia artist working in music composition and production, kinetic sound sculpture, experimental and documentary film. He has been a professor of music and art in the United States and Australia and travels internationally as a lecturer, performer and installation artist. He lives in Prague where he directs the Echofluxx festivals, and Watertown, Wisconsin, the USA, with his partner-collaborator, Caroline Senn. Dan's work moves freely between expressive extremes and languages depending upon the aesthetic joust at hand. Dan is cofounder of Roulette Intermedium in New York City, Cascadia Composers of Portland Oregon, and the Echofluxx media festivals in Prague. (read more). |