Collage is an old art, as old as the invention of paper in China, but it was not until the expansion of printed material -- particularly ephemera such as illustrated newspapers, fliers, handbills, magazines, and brochures -- that it gained enough raw material to really find its place. It was one of the favorite techniques of the Dada and surrealist movements, as it easily allowed strange juxtapositions of dissonant elements.
The translation of the concept of collage from the world of art to that of sound was propelled by the artist Kurt Schwitters. Schwitters, who worked in paper and then in wood, resculpting his homes with sweeping armatures and angled surfaces, began his sound collage work in 1922 with Ursonate, a "primeval sonata" performed in his own voice, which quoted and juxtaposed all manner of seemingly natural and unnatural sounds, scraps of melody and birdcalls, and twisted verbalizations. What we'll hear in class was only one small part of the whole, which can be heard in its entirety on Ubuweb.
The second movement came from concrete composers such as Walter Ruttmann, who was known for his sound collages of Berlin. For these artists, there was no point in scoring the human voice; nothing possessed the immediacy and immaculate truth of the "found sounds" of the metropolis itself (though it should be noted that Ruttmann's works were carefully edited and arranged -- they were far from random). A similar sort of surreal built from the real marked the music of Spike Jones, particularly his late works such as "Frantic Freeway."
The third movement came with William S. Burroughs and Brian Gyson (pictured), who transferred Burroughs's cut-up method from text to tape. Affordable home tape-recording machines were not available until the 1950's; when they arrived, they at once made possible at home what had, until then, been impossible outside of the studio. As with the print cut-ups, Burroughs and Gyson experimented with various ways to mix up the sound on a monaural tape, including randomly rewinding and 'dropping in' new bits, as well as actually cutting up the tape physically and re-splicing it. The results can be heard here and here -- and judge for yourself whether 'when you cut up the present, the future leaks out.'
The shift to video seems the most logical outgrowth of these experiments, but again the technology was slow in coming. The original industry standard of U-Matic tape required costly editing machines, and early VCR's had only a very limited capacity for editing of any kind. It really wasn't until the dawn of digital video that artists such as RISD's own EBN (Emergency Broadcast Network) could fully re-edit and recombine video elements. Check out their videos "Get Down," "We Will Rock You," and "Don't Back Down." They even did some of the earliest splitscreen and multiscreen videos -- all edited on a 1st-generation iMac -- such as "Hello." With a machine that featured a 233 MHz processor, 32 MB of RAM, and a 4 GB hard drive, they assembled videos that took weeks to edit and 2-3 days to render!
Today, of course, video mashups are as 'easy as pie' though potentially time-consuming. We have the Internet Symphony, DJ Earworm's top-25 autotuned hits, and (one of my faves) the multi-framed "Chocolate Evolution."
I find this blog entry interesting, since until this point, I had never considered musical or video mash-ups as another form of collage. I am familiar with collage arts such as Hannah Hoch, dada, and surrealism. Yet, exploring these concepts though a digital media like video and audio does not change the concepts of collage. By sourcing materials and images, cutting them out, and layering them, an artist is able to provide the viewer a window into their mind, while obtaining a new experience. These mash-ups follow these same guidelines and ask the viewer to experience something that is unique and personal to the creator. Regardless of the reason for the creation, an experience has been created, by collage group sound, video, or both.
ReplyDeleteThe written artist statement is a way from viewers to understand an artists visual work, and is a means for further self interpretation by the viewer. Visual collages typically include an artists statement similar to the one noted above. However, video and musical collages tell the story in most cases on their own. Mashing, splicing, and composing are a way to tell a story that is to exist only within the collage being created. This in a reinvention of the wheel and a new experience to be had when two or more very different works are pieced together to create one. The media, while reproduced, takes on a new life, and a new meaning to the viewer. The artist statement would not tell the story as well as the media itself does. Collaging takes on may forms, and creates different meaning based on the final product. It is interesting to consider the idea that many who do I fact collage are not aware that they are doing it. Video and audio collaging should be represented as a form of collage, and taught in comparison to tactile collaging processes.
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