JONATHAN SEARY DEVELOPMENT


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2.08.2011

BRUCE NAUMAN NYC MOMA

PhotobucketThe summer just gone I went to NYC with my girlfriend, one of the many things we did while we were out there was go to the MOMA, there were two things that were relevant to the ASFS project, one of which I really loved and the other I liked for about a minute and then it started to annoy me and everyone else...

The one that annoyed me was this installation piece which was in the main hall of the gallery, I am not sure who it was by and cant find it on the internet, however it was basically a microphone at the front of this room and then anyone could go up to it and I think if i remember rightly make any sort of noise they wanted into it, however it mostly consisted of people trying to shout as loud as they could into, which you could hear all over the rest of the gallery. It was quite interesting to see what people would do and how the sound carried throughout the space, but other than that it was just confusing.

The second piece that I thought was fantastic was a piece called DAYS by the artist Bruce Nauman. It was a 'sound sculpture' consisting of a continuos stream of seven voices, that were reciting the days of the week in random order. Fourteen suspended speakers were installed in two rows with one voice emanating from each pair of speakers as the visitor passes between them. There are men’s voices and women’s voices, old and young. Some speak swiftly, others with pause, each with his or her own cadence. The collection of distinctive voices produces a chorus—at times cacophonous, at others, resonant—and creates a sonic cocoon that envelops the visitor. The work invoked both the banality and the profundity of the passing of each day, and invites reflection on how we measure, differentiate, and commemorate time. I thought this was a fantastic way to represent this notion, and it was amazing that when you walked past each one and stood in the middle of the flow of sound it eliminated the other sounds. I think I could take a massive inspiration from this and have started to experiment with my speakers at home. I have also found out he has done this in other locations too, which I think is interesting.