Find Your Band | Bang on A Can | The Art Assignment
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 10 сен 2024
- Pre-order our book YOU ARE AN ARTIST (which includes new assignments!) here: bit.ly/2kplj2h
This week we meet with experimental musicians Mark Stewart and Julia Wolfe at the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA, an amazing contemporary art museum in North Adams, Massachusetts. They give us the challenge to FIND YOUR BAND.
INSTRUCTIONS - Find Your Band
1. Go through your day and notice all the sounds around you
2. Choose a group of those sounds to be your band
3. Join the band!
4. Record or document what happens and upload to your social media platform of choice with #theartassignment
5. Fame and glory (your work might be in a future episode)
Find out more about The Art Assignment and how to submit your response: theartassignmen...
When he pointed at the dryer and yelled "SOLO!" I completely lost it XDD. This was incredibly inspiring.
Every appliance should have its own solo, at least once :)
My circulation fan would give a freaking awesome solo. That thing definitely has a voice of its own.
Okay, I agree--these people are awesome, and I definitely wouldn't mind The Art Assignment becoming about experimental music!
Spin-off channel!
The Art Experiment?
David Shi
The Music Assignment?
Sonic Dandelions?
The Art Assignment sonic dandelions is a worthy band name.
"Don't neglect the elephant." Wiser words were never spoken.
I thought this one was weird until Mark started singing along with the switchbox. I always sing with the vacuum, so it made total sense to me suddenly.
I'd like to imagine that we're all singing lullabies for the machines in our lives...
David Shi I really like that idea, David. The softer side of the digital age.
"go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep sweet rotary mower…"
"when the gears turn, the chassis will rock…"
Favorite people in my favorite space. I can't get enough Julia Wolfe and Mark Stewart: beautiful beautiful beautiful people.
Pretty sure the Sonic Dandelions is the best band name ever.
What genre of music would that band be? Punk/Heavy Metal? New Wave Funk?
Semi-popular music.
@@davidshi451 Experimental. Or no genre. Like the fad a few decades ago to title photographs "Untitled". Yeah, that's the title.
The laundry room song may be the most beautiful thing ive seen
It's very soothing, isn't it?
@@davidshi451 Not all of the feet of my dryer were touching the floor, so it would rock intune with the drum turning.
I went into that thinking it would be ridiculous (bad), and I've come out thinking it was ridiculous (good!!). What excellent people!!!
your comment is ridiculous. And fully correct.
THESE PEOPLE ARE MY TRIBE! The other day I realized my A/C window unit was playing a pretty solid Bb.I started harmonizing with it and clapping. I can't believe there are other people that do this kind of thing...PROFESSIONALLY! :D
My favorite part was when he gave the dryer the solo. That was hilarious.
As a Californian, the sound of the rain may have been the most beautiful part of this video.
Wow, that really stuck out to me too. We've lived here a little over a year and sometimes I walk outside and think, "Aw man, it's cloudlessly sunny AGAIN today?!?!!" which is crazy talk almost anywhere else.
Can I just say I love these guys! They are so out there in the best way possible. They are so real and so legitimate, I love it.
Agreed.
My brother and I are now pounding on every pan and flicking every light switch while singing..thank you Mark and Julia. It reminds me of the trashing the camp in Tarzan.
I LOVE THESE PEOPLE
They're the kind of people that when you have in your life, it makes the world that much more interesting and a positive place to be.
The kind of people that I want to be, not just 'when I'm their age' but right now. And forever.
Art is play.
This is without a doubt my favorite Art Assignment so far. Oh my gosh. Dibs on the band name Sonic Dandelions, that's freaking brilliant. XD
This has got to be the most inspiring and interesting art assignments yet. Not just a push to experiment with music and art, but also a push to embrace yourself fully.
These people are freaking hilarious. They look like a lot of fun to hang out with.
my favorite moment comes at about 9:00 in, when Julia Wolfe sings a duet with a washing machine. Mark Stewart and the rain is beautiful too. A lot of fun!
"It's clean." I love these two!
This was fantastic. Just smiles throughout. Dryer solo!
Aaaahhhhh! As if I couldn't love The Art Assignment any more...you have warmed this singer's heart! For anyone in the DC area looking to see a little more new music, Great Noise Ensemble is performing Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians at the Atlas Theatre - Saturday, September 20th, at 8PM.
AND, if you want to be a part of the music, come by at 5PM that evening for an hour-long jam session on Terry Riley's In C.
One of my teacher in the obligatory school had what he called a "garden of sounds". It was basically in his big farm and he had made really really big sculptures and installations to allow the kids (us) to play with anything that could make a noise or a sound. In those days (i was maybe 10) I looked at him with great incomprehension but now I am grateful for his idea. Thanks TAA!
They're CRAZY! But they seem like such nice people! I was smiling so broadly through the whole thing, a little from uncertainty and a little from wonder... XD
Sometimes, you gotta take a leap to make art!
I grinned ear to ear the entire video. They are lovely humans.
I think I've just discovered my new favorite people. Lol. So awesome and a great art assignment!
I miss Pete so much. It's so comforting to see his influence around the place.
The Art Assignment really taught me to see the beauty in, well, anything.
Yes, yes, yes, music assignment! I am so excited for this! And for them spreading the idea that anyone can make music.
Also, thank you Sarah for the advice on going to the Art Institute of Chicago. I had a wonderful time! I especially loved the miniature rooms. So much incredible detail. In one of the rooms, there was a tiny desk with a miniscule key that actually turned and locked. Also, if other people are looking to go to the museum, I found the institute's app to be very helpful.
There was another great bit that we had to cut for time where they talk about how everyone can sing, including those who firmly believe or have been told they cannot.
And glad you had a good trip to AIC!
The Art Assignment Everyone can sing, yes! Even Leonard Bernstein, sort of :)
The Art Assignment You should create a compilation of "extras" with content that could not make it into the original videos :)
The Art Assignment
Aw, I wish that had made the cut. Maybe outtakes, like Life of Sky said. Some people's stories about being told they can't sing by music teachers amaze me. I would never flat-out tell a student that they can't sing. Plus, there are ways to work with people to improve singing. You don't just throw up your hands and give up on people.
The Art Assignment I would love to see that clip too. When I was little, I loved to sing, and I asked my mom if she thought I was good and could be a singer one day. She said no. (I'm not sure why - she's generally been very supportive of me.) Anyway, I stopped 'real' singing after that, and would only do 'silly' intentionally bad singing. I'll sing along to songs I like, but only if the music is turned up loud enough to drown me out. Encouragement from people who play with music for a living would be nice. :)
I'm not entirely sure what I just watched but I know I liked it!
Ah, Mark is wearing shoes without socks! Always a sign of creativity, from Hemingway to Einstein.
This was by far the best Art Assignment yet, in my opinion. I'm sure this is because I love music like some people love their Gods. This, to put it plainly, blew my mind. Incredibly inspiring!
Those guys are awesome, they aren't afraid to randomly start singing and that's what I do all the time.
That was so fun to watch! It's really inspiring to see people get to do what they love, so unapologetically and passionately, and to have such a great time doing it!
She had me at "It's clean"
Gonna find myself something unusual to play on.
Best part of the episode: "And don't neglect the elephant."
"SOLO!"
:)
I love this! Thank you for including musicians in The Art Assignment! As a musician who is familiar with "unpopular music" and has studied it, it was so exciting to see Mark Stewart and Julia Wolfe bring awareness to music that exists and is just as important as what's playing on the radio.
The more I watch, the more I realize how perfect The Art Assignment is for kids (and adults, too).
Yay! A music assignment! Looking forward to trying it!
My friends and I used to do this at camp. We'd just sit around the tent making random noises and rhythms for a while. So much fun.
These two musicians seem like they are such wonderful people n_n I'll try to listen today.
They are crazy in the BEST WAY. I LOVE IT
Really enjoyed this music themed art assignment! It was quite different, but still very good! :)
Thank you so much for addressing contemporary music! I'm a composer and have been kind of raised among electroacoustic/acousmatic composers who build their pieces on recorded sounds that are processed and played around with. It may take me a while, but I could attempt my first acousmatic composition for this asignment...
Give it a try, there are no due dates!
I tend to harmonise with unpleasant sounds to make myself less uncomfortable, like when a microphone feedback is too loud, I try to make it sound like someone hitting a high note and I'm just supporting it. it makes life a lot easier. it's very therapeutic.
For the curious: Pete Seeger's banjo has the words "This Machine Surrounds Hate and Forces it to surrender", inspired by the words on Woody Guthrie's guitar, "This Machine Kills Fascists". Check them out!
This is absolutely fantastic! I can only imagine how much more of that interview you might have that didn't get to be shown. This is just... amazing!
I feel like a blooper reel may be in the works sometime soon...
These people can make anything sound professional!
And so can youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu…!
a wonderful video - and so much I learned. I'm so happy that this show allows me a little inside to how the world is seen (and heard) by other people.
And I loved the music session with the dryer and the washing machine - it actually felt like being a part of something very ... intimate. And even though I haven't done any assignement yet I love the show and will participate at some point. Thanks to everyone who joins in and helps me to see glipses of their world.
Great to have you here too. Jump in any time, we'll be listening :)
Don't neglect the elephant. My new motto.
This video. What I will show people when they ask why I'm singing to the switch box.
I love these guys, they're like experimental music hipsters
'it's a hootnanny waiting to happen' has been my motto for 2 years now
oh man i do this all the time! I start singing to the rhythm of the sound of my car's turn signal. Or I listen to the noises in the bathroom and make a montage in my head. Sometimes I hit different parts of my water bottle to get a different sound. Sometimes I hum onto different parts of a table to hear what it sounds like on different sides of it. Definitely have to try this one out!!!
Are you sure you aren't an experimental musician in disguise?
Anyway, looking forward to hearing your composition!
What extraordinary people! That's so cool what they do.
Oh man!!! Pete Seeger is one of my heroes… one of his ideas was that folk music isn't just old traditions, it was something that you had to keep coming up with, in new songs and new interpretations.
I love these people.
Going through an entire day, deliberately noticing all the sounds around me, sounds *extremely* exhausting, since I already have trouble filtering what of my sensory input is "relevant" and not. Intently listening to all ambient sound for short periods of time, on the other hand, sounds very doable and interesting.
It certainly doesn't have to be for the whole day! I guess the point is simply to pay attention to your surroundings, and interact with it...
These people are AWESOME!
this people are hilarious! I love their art
I bet they through the BEST dinner parties.
this is probably my favorite art assignment so far! i think i'll use my cello or my guitar to produce weird sounds combined with the sounds my appartment makes (there are a few - dishwasher, fan, my cat, my doors and windiws, cars outside etc). also, i LOVED the "solo" at 10:32 :D
It really is fun to use conventional instruments in unconventional ways..
yeah that's true, i love doing that!
If anyone's curious, the background music at the beginning is "Sweet Air" by David Lang.
I was wondering about that, thanks for the info!
ah this reminds me of a soundscape installation i made in school. i recorded sounds from places around me, put together the soundscapes and then put them in places where those sounds shouldn't necessarily be heard. (sounds of birds in the woods in a bathroom, overcrowded high school hallway in an elevator) was fun and i miss my sound recorder.
i love what can happen when a sense is ignored or focused on, such as this case, focusing on sounds only.
Your soundscape installation seems really cool!
thanks. loved doing it. i just wish i had the stuff to keep making soundscapes.
The washer and dryer bit was so cool.
Wonderful! I really love this one. We live in a very loud and echoey neighborhood and this is a great perspective changer for me to stop rueing every sound I hear from outside. I like how this and the Quietest Place both emphasize opening our awareness by listening to all the things that normally get drowned out or filtered out or written off. How inspiring.
Absolute best of the entire series!
I love these people
This is fantastic! I think I might get a group of guys in my dorm to harmonize in the laundry room with the machines. I would love to see more videos with those two haha.
Oh man. A laundry machine quartet. A laundry room a cappella group!!!
Such cool people and an awesome assignment! Looking forward to doing it. I hope I'll have time
I always used to dance to the sound of our old printer. Similar to that washing machine, it did have a good rhythm ;)
Are there any machines that don't have great rhythm? :)
Also relevant: Yo Yo Ma talking about diversity and the edge effect: The "Edge Effect": The Place Where Innovation Happens
David, you are a curator of some really great online video! Thanks for sharing these links!
No problem, I'm happy to help :)
I can't even about how amazing this episode is. It's just... awesome. =D
These people have such an awesome energy! I've never (on purpose) made music before, but now I really want to!
I love the nail file sound, it reminds me of those sproingy stopper things that go on doors...those are fun, my cats love those too.
That was awesome, how have I never heard of experimental musicians before
Because they specialize in unpopular music! :)
augh! i did the water drop noise ONE TIME and couldn't do it again! now my cheek hurts from trying! XD
"Sonic dandelions" sounds awesome.
These people are seriously my new idols!
I absolutely loved these folks. But I'm sure this project is not going to be as effortless as it looks!
Wow! Pretty high profile choice! And a very excellent one at that!
I'm SO excited for this project ^-^
That is just too much awesomeness! Lots of love all the way from Brazil :)
Just for the record, The Sonic Dandy Lions is a brilliant band name.
Damn, that washing machine has better rhythm than I do...
What great people.
Nice opening with Mark Stewart and Julia Wolfe :)
That made me smile!
Such fun people. :)
Okay, that was incredibly cool.
I love the weed/rose metaphor--very apt!
It is a good thing that they did demonstrations -- I would be clueless otherwise.
I love these people!
I have a question: what is "risk", artistically speaking? I know people say you have to take risks when creating art, but I don't think I've ever fully understood what that means. What exactly should be at risk in order for your art to be worthwhile?
Perhaps it means stretching what society perceives as art? Or better yet, it refers to what Had Abumrad calls "gut churn", that feeling you get when you try something new and unconventional: 99u.com/videos/7278/jad-abumrad-why-gut-churn-is-an-essential-part-of-the-creative-process
I would say another aspect of risk in art is more personal...creating something far from your comfort zone deliberately. Of course to do this you should figure out what your comfort zone is first. =)
I think all of these replies are valid. I agree that the issue is entirely personal, as what is risky for some is not at all for another. Part of that is what you think other people want from art, and how and why you care to deviate from that. But it can also be risky to give people exactly what they want!
The Art Assignment In that case, is there anything that ISN'T a risk? There are all kinds of books, movies, TV shows, songs, artworks, etc. that "play it safe" but often they end up failing. I think anything that has the potential to fail is taking a risk. And since anything can fail, we are always taking risks when we create.
The reason I ask on this particular video is because Mark and Julia show their unironic enthusiasm for their work so... enthusiastically that they do not seem to care what anyone thinks. That, I think, is a huge risk.
I write songs sometimes and even though almost no one is listening, sometimes I am afraid of saying the things I really feel, or writing the things I really want to write. I am afraid of difficult truths, even though I know they make the best songs. I am afraid of what my mother will say, you know? That's the risk for me. And sometimes I don't do the things I most want to do. And sometimes it turns out that holding back was a good idea.
I did a similar project earlier this year based on the percussive sounds I was hearing in the studio. It certainly qualifies as "experimental" Sounds of the Studio 2
SOLO!
Unpopular and not popular are two entirely different things. One has been heard, the other has not.
Laundry band - I could square dance to that. Anything with a walking beat can be square danced.
A caller told me he pulled into a gas station and started putting gas into his tank. A low rider pulled up next to him with an unmuffled engine, running rough at idle. The caller looked over and said "Hey, I could call to that!" The kid said "You could WHAT?" The caller said "I could call a square dance to that." The kid said "Naw, no way!" So the caller called a tip.
I was getting ready to sleep on the deck of my dad's sailboat and suddenly became aware of the sound of the diesel engines running the refrigeration units on the freighter docked next to us. I heard it as music in its most fundamental form, pure tone, rather than a distracting noise to be ignored. After that I heard music differently, experiencing each note as pure tone. John Cage ran an aircraft engine onstage, which I thought was a bad idea, engine exhaust in an enclosed space is dangerous. Music as pure tone is like an all white canvas; presentation of a fundamental unit of expression in its purest form.
This video is awesome and inspiring and I'm going to do this all the time now.
lets go look for sonic dandelions
Mine! This is my assignment! Thank you
Sounds like something Hank would do!
I love these guys "Solo!! XDD)" This reminds me of this Swedish movie on Netflix instant (and other places) called "Sound of Noise" about this anarchist group committing music related crimes and the tone deaf cop who's after them. Although I don't think Sara, Mark or Julia would support you guys robbing banks. I think you should only rob metaphorical banks. Money 4 U Honey - Sound of Noise
Sonic Dandelion is an excellent band name.
I can't wait to see the responses to this on theartassignmentresponses tumblr.