TRAVEL DIARY

A weblog regularly updated by Jodi Rose.

Wednesday, October 15, 2003

7:27 PM
Posted by jodi rose

ahhh the joys of sound art. I went to hear something tonight, which promised to be a sonic reconstruction of 3 cities in the gallery space.... but sounded a lot like fairly average electronica with lots of mike noise and tape hiss. very disappointing. and that oh-so-serious art rent-a-crowd who all look the same from sydney to new york to berlin to melbourne. not making any new friends here, I know. it reminds me that I really need to get out and do more stuff - of course I appreciate the work people are doing, but some of it makes for more engaging listening than others. I loved the fruit playing boys at dienst bar in 24 stunden neukolln. and ed's work and miss kittin, she rocked with fun sexy feisty dj and singing. but the boys in black hunched over laptops really don't do it for me. if you're going to get up and perform in public, I think you need to give something more of yourself than that. rant rant rant. and as for the sonic reconstruction, it was a darkened room - because it's sound art, apparently you have to be in the dark to appreciate it (see this months 'contemporary' art magazine for a discussion on the problems of exhibiting sound art in the gallery/museum) - with a video screen of blue fuzz and some random experimental electronica. which has it's place, don't get me wrong, but bill fontana was doing incredible stuff with sonic relocation in the 70's and plenty of other people since then.
at least my critical faculties are still working. going to another gig tomorrow night at loop, with legs for fish playing, I hope that will be more exciting and fun for the ears.