“Sound and visual artist Alyce Santoro has created Sonic Fabric, a cloth made from pre-recorded, recycled cassette tape combined with other fibers. Using a minimally hacked Walkman, the fabric becomes an audible reminder of its musical past. Sonic Fabric feels a bit like flexible plastic tarp, and is durable and hand-washable.” Of course, that’s no why it’s getting attention: if you run a specially mounted head from a cassette player over the fabric, it will literally play the music embedded in the tape. “[Santoro’s] latest creations play 20 tracks at once. She creates sound collages on a four-track, and the reader picks up five strands at a time.”
Blog
Alsop In Baltimore: You Can’t Hear The Controversy Over The Music
For the first time since her appointment as music director designate of the Baltimore Symphony and the subsequent controversy that erupted when the BSO’s musicians complained that they had been shut out of the appointment process, Marin Alsop has taken the stage to conduct what will become her orchestra in 2007. Since those difficult days, Alsop and the musicians have been taking pains to demonstrate that there are no hard feelings, and “last night, the orchestra continued signaling its intention to work with Alsop, this time in the best possible way – giving her a strong, attentive performance of a program that very much reflected the kind of tastes she is going to bring to the organization.”
Zukerman: NACO’s “Rotten Apples” Must Be Eradicated
Following a week of bad publicity and press revelations about his behavior as music director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Pinchas Zukerman has as much as admitted that it wasn’t physical exhaustion that caused him to take a last-minute leave of absence from the ensemble for the remainder of the current season. Zukerman has been quoted saying that the NACO has some “rotten apples” who have created a divisive atmosphere within the organization that “has to be eradicated.” Representatives of the NACO’s musicians have shot back that Zukerman’s single-mindedness and unwillingness to hear dissent is the real problem, and the orchestra’s manager is backpedaling in an attempt to ratchet the rhetoric down a few notches.
Is It A Hijacking If No One Notices They’re Being Hijacked?
A group of Danish artists last month attempted to “culturally hijack” the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which has been the subject of much controversy as a holding site for suspected terrorists who, under Bush administration policy, are frequently denied the right to a court hearing or access to legal representation. “The artists hoped a blast of Beethoven’s Eroica [Symphony] from a boat moored offshore would send the American forces fleeing in terror and that they and their crew could occupy the military base and ‘have a great party’.” Shockingly enough, soldiers armed with automatic weapons operating a prison camp behind fortified walls and rows of razor wire turn out not to be frightened of classical music.
A Culture Of Prizes And Awards
“In the realm of literature and the arts, honors have been pullulating like kudzu. Worldwide, the number of movie prizes handed out each year – about 9,000 – is more than double the number of full-length movies produced, and literary prizes are being hatched at a faster rate than new books. The rise of prizes over the last century, and especially their feverish proliferation in recent decades, is one of the more glaring symptoms of a consumer society run rampant, a society that can conceive of artistic achievement only in terms of stardom and success.”
Everything (And More) Tango
Robert Farris Thompson’s gargantuan new critical study, “Tango: The Art History of Love,” argues that African rhythms are at the root of Argentina’s most alluring export.
Marin Theatre Director Moves On
Lee Sankowich is quitting as director of the Marin Theatre Company after 16 years. “His tenure at Marin has been marked by improvements in general production quality as the budget has grown from about $800,000 to $2 million. He also attracted some national recognition with a commitment to developing new works.”
Canadian Actors To Pols: What About Culture?
Where do Canada’s leaders stand on culture? The country’s artists want to know: “With less than two weeks left in the election campaign, we know very little about the parties’ plans on cultural issues. Canadians deserve to see the parties’ cultural planks before we let them lead us down a path of no return. We’re asking Canadians to vote for the candidates most committed to taking action to give our country a strong, vibrant and independent culture.”
Wanted: Gadgets That Can Talk To One Another
Last week’s Consumer Electronics Show offered lots of whiz-bang ways to get electronic entertainment. A utopia? Or a maze of tech problems? Tech heavyweights such as Intel, Panasonic, Samsung and Sharp all showed off networking systems, but none of those systems are designed to work together. The resulting problems are similar to miscommunication between people who speak the same language but different dialects — sometimes they might understand each other perfectly well, but at other times they might not.
Wanted: Better Canadian Cultural Support
Canadian actors are lobbying for a more aggressive support of culture from federal politicians who are about to face the electorate. “We are facing cultural integration with the U.S. and our next government needs to take immediate action. Our own broadcasters are more interested in simulcasting U.S. programming than they are showing Canadian programs.”