Reflections on My Artist Meetings
My talk with Jason was really productive. I met him at my studio and explained my work and the space in which it would take place on the way over to the photo studio, where I had the space set up with pairs of headphones on stands. I gave him the correct headphones to listen to each piece and split the signal so I could listen along on the incorrect headphones and we discussed them each as we listened to them.
Jason had a lot of similar experiences to me in terms of science/art connections, and overall he had a lot of really useful insights. I felt really comfortable receiving critique from him because he reminded me so much of the researchers I collaborate with in the Space Science department and the Barmada Lab. He seemed to appreciate that I sourced my questions from things he speaks on in his artist statement. Towards the end he offered some insights on a goal we have in common, which is of hijacking scientific processes for artistic purposes. Here are some of the insights I took note of.
Insight 1: There is no visual by design, so instead of “attracting” someone to your piece (which would use a visual, which would detract from the piece) I have to limit the amount of steps a person has to take to “get inside” the audio. This (in an ideal world) would mean speakers running on loops in a quiet room, but there is definitely a necessity for headphones and tents in this setting.
Insight 2: I don’t have to drown the audio in voiceover, sometimes the audio needs space for interpretation (some pieces need more space than others, like Titan).
Insight 3: Prime, but don’t over explain (a sentiment I remember from Holly’s comments as well). He said that people have limited attention spans, but in this case they need to know what they’re listening to. I need to provide an extremely concise explanation in the form of text before a listener puts the headphones on.
I’ve since reached out to Jason to say thank you for his comments, and he’s gotten back to me and offered to talk further.
My Talk with Erin was also really productive. She had some insights for me that I definitely haven’t gotten before and I found some of them very helpful. The photo studio was booked out for another critique, so we walked across the street to a multimedia workroom where I had my headphones and splitters set up.
I am a big fan of Erin’s vocal performance, especially in the introduction of A Ride on the Irish Crème, so I asked her for strategies for holding an audience with only audio and vocals (as she did so incredibly in Irish Crème) and asked her to tear apart my performance on the Io and Escalades tracks. She took a bit of an issue with my straightforward delivery and mildly cautioned me against the intentionality it could imply. She encouraged me to gather many different vocal takes with varying inflections, and unknowingly repeated Andrea’s comments about embroidering the sounds of the words with the physical events they were describing.
Like Jason, Erin seemed to respond to the fact that my inspiration for this project came from a compensatory strategy for disability.