3 - Staking   2023 by Dan Senn	Pains 4k Video with Stereo Sound (See sample video) Duration = 3:50   -> Read "RKM Interviews Dan Senn"
Staking Pains (2023) was filmed in mid-May at St Paul's Episcopal Church near Studio FMEra in Watertown, Wisconsin. This is the 3rd of three works derived from the St Paul's stain glass windows. There are similarities in the shooting and editing of these works and yet they are disparate. In contrast to the first work, Taking Pains, where the edit breaks/rhythms float over the sound track, and then the second, Pain Staking, where the synchronizations between the video and sound track are a mix of methods, this work is tightly connected to where the video appears hammered by the sound. All the works have free improvised soundtracks using instruments/objects of my own. The sound for this work is made from two blond clay bricks and a worn wooden kitchen spoon. The bricks were special-order Watertown Brick mined and fired maybe 2 miles from St Pauls in about 1847. These were obtained as a result of new construction on the church in 1932, piled up unceremoniously in the back yard of the rectory for 80 years—a gift to me when in need of extra bricks to make repairs to this house also built in about 1847, albeit from cheaper grade bricks.	This work was preceded and followed by two related videos, 1 - Taking Pains and then 2 - Pain Staking, all collected under the title of Three Panes. As the previous work in this set tips toward an unintended C-major tonality. This work hints of F-minor, also a little sharp, a triviality that rocks the subconcious of a former teacher of solfege in the 1970s at the University of Illinois-Urbana. That'd be me. If experiencing this work before its two predecessors in this set/collection, I would advise that you ease up and, at a minimum, read the program notes for all the pieces/sections, and/or, perhaps, curb your enthusiasm enough to look-listen to the videos even out of order as you risk ending up ill-informed and aesthetically skewed opposite a higher appreciation. Then, again, as I really just need some text padding to fill out this column, and you are probably no longer reading anyways, if indeed you read any of these scribblings, it doesn't make much difference. DS 060923.	Dan Senn (Prague-Watertown) is an intermedia/fluxus 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 media 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 festivals in Prague. (read more).