oratorio, or attempts at Exhausting a metaphysical space
(RULER PIECE #1)
2014-15
108 days, two mono tape recorders, a crate of cassette tapes, composer’s explanations, iPhone app/museum guide
-commissioned by the carnegie museum of art -
oratorio takes the form of a type of degrading blueprint/wall text through a repetitive daily task. Over the course of the exhibit “Small Prints, Big Artists: Masterpieces from the Renaissance to the Baroque” at the Carnegie Museum of Art, the composer gives the self-imposed task to daily re-record a haphazardly made tape created in the beginning phases of the project. In the tape, the composer arbitrarily and intimately contemplates thoughts, concepts and instructions for the installation.
each day a new recording replaces the previous, which exists as a dubbed recording of the last. Each day's recording is made available to the gallery visitor through the CMOA companion app. Through this daily process an audible change in the quality of the original recording is heard. Any noises or mishaps during each re-recording begin with a small effect but gradually become more present as the dubbing of the tape continues. More so, the audible thoughts by the composer are slowly masked and eventually lost. As a result, the piece gradually takes new shapes through the four-month long process. Questions of place and locality; the role(s) of the composer and listener; and the concepts of situation and failure as artistic tools become examined.
the installation takes its inspiration from the process of etching duplication that Rembrandt and the various other artists included in this exhibition employed. As each duplication was created the original mold was slowly destroyed, leaving only a limited number of copies to be created before being rendered unintelligible.
day 1: 5/31/14
day 2: 6/1/14
day 3: 6/2/14
day 4: 6/3/14
day 5: 6/4/14
day 6: 6/5/14
day 7: 6/6/14
day 8: 6/7/14
day 9: 6/8/14
day 10: 6/9/14
day 11: 6/10/14
day 12: 6/11/14
day 13: 6/12/14
day 14: 6/13/14
day 15: 6/14/14
day 16: 6/15/14
day 17: 6/16/14
day 18: 6/17/14
day 19: 6/18/14
day 20: 6/19/14
day 21: 6/20/14
day 22: 6/21/14
day 23: 6/22/14
day 24: 6/23/14
day 25: 6/24/14
day 26: 6/25/14
day 27: 6/26/14
day 28: 6/27/14
day 29: 6/28/14
day 30: 6/29/14
day 31: 6/30/14
day 32: 7/1/14
day 33: 7/2/14
day 34: 7/3/14
day 35: 7/4/14
day 36: 7/5/14
day 37: 7/6/14
day 38: 7/7/14
day 39: 7/8/14
day 40: 7/9/14
day 41: 7/10/14
day 42: 7/11/14
day 43: 7/12/14
day 44: 7/13/14
day 45: 7/14/14
day 46: 7/15/14
day 47: 7/16/14
day 48: 7/17/14
day 49: 7/18/14
day 50: 7/19/14
day 51: 7/20/14
day 52: 7/21/14
day 53: 7/22/14
day 54: 7/23/14
day 55: 7/24/14
day 56: 7/25/14
day 57: 7/26/14
day 58: 7/27/14
day 59: 7/28/14
day 60: 7/29/14
day 61: 7/30/14
day 62: 7/31/14
day 63: 8/1/14
day 64: 8/2/14
day 65: 8/3/14
day 66: 8/4/14
day 67: 8/5/14
day 68: 8/6/14
day 69: 8/7/14
day 70: 8/8/14
day 71: 8/9/14
day 72: 8/10/14
day 73: 8/11/14
day 74: 8/12/14
day 75: 8/13/14
day 76: 8/14/14
day 77: 8/15/14
day 78: 8/16/14
day 79: 8/17/14
day 80: 8/18/14
day 81: 8/19/14
day 82: 8/20/14
day 83: 8/21/14
day 84: 8/22/14
day 85: 8/23/14
day 86: 8/24/14
day 87: 8/25/14
day 88: 8/26/14
day 89: 8/27/14
day 90: 8/28/14
day 91: 8/29/14
day 92: 8/30/14
day 93: 8/31/14
day 94: 9/1/14
day 95: 9/2/14
day 96: 9/3/14
day 97: 9/4/14
day 98: 9/5/14
day 99: 9/6/14
day 100: 9/7/14
day 101: 9/8/14
day 102: 9/9/14
day 103: 9/10/14
day 104: 9/11/14
day 105: 9/12/14
day 106: 9/13/14
day 107: 9/14/14
day 108: 9/15/14
. . .