It isn't visual art, but I was going through some videos and came across one here from some composers I appreciate. In the interview they are asked about their creation for their opera. You'll find some similarities in how they gather ideas and craft them into musical metaphor and how you could apply this to your own creative endeavors. Listen to the video interview and offer up any thoughtful conversation.
A Roundtable Conversation on Tomorrow, In A Year from The Knife on Vimeo.
Before I saw this, I didn't know about Darwin's family life. As students, we are told to be focused, quiet, and productive in rigid and sterile settings. But the revelation of this detail about his children being allowed to play in his study while he worked on such tedious and intense examination of the world around him can lead one to believe that creativity stems from chaos. I also liked how the music and visuals meshed. The images were somewhat familiar (trees, feathers, water) but they were re-presented back to the viewer in a way that they were only vaguely recognizable and the music did the same thing (human voice representing natural phenomena and animal noises).
ReplyDeleteOnce, long ago, a neighbor introduced me to some Bjork music. That was the first time I even heard of her. Coming from an R&B/Urban Hip Hop background, I had no basis for appreciation of her type of music so I didn’t “get it”. That moment then, is this moment now. Although my appreciation for different genre of music has grown and broaden considerably since then, I don’t quite particular care for this type of music. However, I did like the portion where there was percussion poured into it along with the video of dark liquid poured into water. Then it went back to the Bjork sounding stuff. As for the visuals itself, I kept getting the feeling that I was being subliminally hypnotized (arf, arf) because I begin having cravings for treats by Purina and wanting my belly rubbed.
ReplyDeleteThe information about Charles Darwin’s interaction with his family was refreshing. For an atheist who married a Christian woman and who had such an obvious love for his children that he wanted to spend a lot of time with them, it’s hard to believe that he believed that he evolved from some form of educated chimp. The rest of the interview began to become a bit too technical for me. But I’m glad to know that there was a lot of thought put into it.
I quite liked the music, its definantly new to me but nice and interesting. Some of the visuals were like visual bombardment which made me unhappy but the dream state type images were really fascinating. especially the trees and wild flowers. The inspiration that they got from Darwin was really cool, and I love the way they incorporated it. Not literal at all and still very clear. Also what they were talking about being nonrepresentational, I think its great that they took that all the way into the interview. they didn't show themselves or use their natural voices. They kept the focus on the opera itself, and didn't let the images of themselves. we don't know what they look like so the only way we know them is by their music. that is what really grabs my attention is when people let their work take the credit and not their vanity.
ReplyDeleteI think that the idea of doing an opera about Darwin is interesting. I enjoyed the idea of merging something as beautiful as opera and something as mysterious and scientific as Darwin's teachings. I love the music I think its really beautiful and love visuals of nature. I like the control in the tempo and how it slows down and speeds up depending on the visual at the time. I was impressed by their ability to imitate nature with sounds, but without using actual animals vocals to emulate birds. Such as putting different things on drums and recording the sounds of pouring water over the instruments to obtain the feel and noises heard in nature. Also how the used the vocals to give the idea of birds flying was interesting.
ReplyDeleteI actually enjoyed the music. I've never really been into opera music, but I think it was really cool how they combined music and Darwin together. When you think of things coming together, science and music isn't the first thing that pops in my head so that was interesting. I thought the images they showed enhanced the music, and they were very intriguing to look at. I like how they went to different places in nature to get ideas, and it shows up in their music. Art can be incorporated into anything. You can definitely tell that nature was a big influence of this opera. I enjoyed that Darwin's family was a part of this work also, and I thought that was interesting. All you have to do is explore into something new and you could get a spectacular outcome as they did.
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