Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Brian Eno Documentary



I just finished watching the Brian Eno Video. A lot of what he said about going outside of the box, for example having a drum solo played by someone who never learned drums, really resonated with me. My problem is, in addition to the fact that I've never learned to play an instrument, that I'm a perfectionist in my creative outlets. I rarely take creative license. I want things to be symmetrical and or at least have symmetry to the asymmetry. A great example is the project I'm working on for both the Seminar and this class about the comfort women. I'm using Isadora to create a visual / sound scape highlighting the atrocities in WWII. I set out to make this a creative exploration and yet I find myself spending hours on the most minute of details rather than letting it evolve in to its own piece. Micro-managing really stunts the creative process.

Another thing I enjoyed about Eno was the brief discussion about his light installations on the Opera House in Sydney. I really enjoy the environment created with light and sound installations. It reminds of two such installations I have seen. The first was on the show the L-Word, a Showtime series about the lives of lesbians. In the video, Marlee Matlin (Tony and Academy Award winning Actress) is revealing her light/sound installation after having been betrayed by her girlfriend, Jennifer Beals (from Flashdance). I love how the audio, at first, is indistinct and slowly changes into recognizable speech.



Another installation I enjoyed was the light show that happened every night on the hour in Seoul. The Namsan Tower, which is similar to the space needle, had different images and videos projected onto its torso. There was also a laser show at the base of the tower. One thing that would have made the show more dynamic is if it was motion sensor activated, although that created a logistical problem considering the mass quantities of people that are there at any given time.





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