The Site - Artomatic 2007

Thursday April 19 I volunteered at Artomatic, greeting people as they entered the building and working in the store where they sell t-shirts, CDs, buttons, stickers, and posters. Before reporting for my shift, I walked around the site and took a few pictures to post here.





The building itself is quite large and is used by one or more corporations - 2121 Crystal Drive in Crystal City, Virginia. Artomatic is held on the 6th and 8th floors of the building. While greeting people Thursday evening, I talked with a couple people who work in the building - hopefully they will take the elevator up and check out the exhibits (Wednesday nights there are wine tastings!).



The 6th floor contains two performance spaces and many individual rooms that feature the visual art of one or more artists. Variety is a remarkable feature of Artomatic, and wandering from room to room one really gets the sense that there is a lively and diverse art scene in the DC metro area. The artists were allowed to paint the rooms themselves, and in some cases the interior of the rooms are as striking as the "invididual" art works.

There are also a few "open-space" areas that feature art interspersed with seating. The network of hallways help to enhance the sort of "enclosed" feeling that adds a nice layer to the overall "surrounded by art" effect. This will be a great space for performances of this composition - the narrow hallways and small rooms will likely isolate performances to specific areas, but force the "audience" to experience the performance when encountered.



The 8th floor is open and juxtaposes art created by many individuals (interestingly, some artists have created barries to frame their exhibit). The overall "integrative" nature of the 8th floor is echoed by a small bar that serves beer, wine, juice, etc. and a corner that contains a number of couches (there is significant seating and beverage service on the 6th floor, but only during performances). I think that performances of this piece will be more expansive, the perception of these events will extend further in the space because of its openness. The two floors of Artomatic are very different in this way, and I think that the performances and perception of performances of Becoming will reflect this.

May 4 is "meet the artist" night (Friday) - I am trying to organize a more large-scale performance for that evening.

Look for future posts documenting actual performances!

Artomatic 2007

This piece is currently being performed at this year's Artomatic (www.artomatic.org).

Artomatic is a Washington DC-based multimedia art festival that is usually held in the spring. Typically annual, this year's is the first Artomatic since 2004. The current Artomatic is being held from April 13 to May 20 on the 6th and 8th floors of 2121 Crystal Drive in Crystal City, Virginia - there are more than 600 regional artists participating!


My wife and I visited Artomatic on Saturday April 14th to look at the visual art. We were both immediately struck by the volume of participating artists (there are many) and the diversity of art. One of the interesting aspects of this festival is that there is no jury process to determine what will be displayed; rather artists register on a first-come basis, truly opening it up the community. The result is a collection of art from a variety of aesthetic impulses. I thought that some of it was extremely interesting and found some it rather banal, a probable reaction when the work of so many artists is gathered into a single building - but I really feel that the variety is the real strong point of Artomatic in that there will be at least a few artists that resonate with each visitor.

It seems that live music performances are held throughout Artomatic on two different stages. Both spaces are on the small side, so the audience will be able to see and hear the performers quite well (along those lines, I highly suggest ear plugs if you are planning on hearing any of the bands as they can be very loud). I will be performing twice with The Bay Players, an experimental music collective that specializes in music of the mid 20th-century and beyond - our concerts will be April 27 and May 18 (Fridays) at 8PM and will feature music by myself, Stephen Lilly, Steve Wanna, Phil Schuessler, and others. Stephen Lilly will also perform a concert of his own music at 8PM on May 11 (also a Friday). All three performances will be at the Cabaret Stage (won't be so loud that you need ear plugs).

I will post some pictures of the site on Friday after I volunteer Thursday evening.

Sonic Event Blog Post

Kristian Twombly created a post on his blog, Sonic Event, about this composition and his experience performing it. Kristian is an excellent composer and new music scholar who is a new media/electronic music/pop music professor at St. Cloud State University. His other posts discuss many new approaches to making art and music, including public space art, and may be of interest to those reading this.

His blog's address is www.sonicevent.blogspot.com, and the post I am referencing can be found in the April 2007 portion of the blog's archive.

Here's a quote of the post from Twombly's Sonic Event:

Monday, April 16, 2007

New Blog
Becoming...Everything Else is a new blog written by composer Michael Boyd. Mike began the piece in 2004 during a composition seminar that we were both taking at the time. He had begun working in a highly improvisational style that requires/allows performers to take an active role in the compositional realization of the finished performance. Becoming...Everything Else is an attempt by Mike to rectify his interest in this style with an effort to incorporate a public art element. I was fortunate to have participated in two different performances of this interesting work, one in College Park, MD and the other in Catonsville, MD.

On the blog you'll see examples of the graphical notation that each performer must interpret, relaying the "essence" of each card. One of the most appealing aspects of Mike's work is that it is highly visually suggestive, and sometimes even required. For example, in another work, "Bit of Nostalgia...", Mike requires the performer to set up a grid with a limited number of sound-producing stations within. The performer then moves about the space, and is encouraged to use visual elements to assist in the portrayal of the essence of the page of score. In my own performance I found myself choosing events that had both a visual and sonic element or adding a visual element to the sonic performance. In the end, I find this music both fun to participate in as well as listen to - the creativity that Mike is able to coax out of the performers is always amazing.

The Piece Itself

Becoming...everything else is a performance-based installation that I composed in 2004. My recent compositions have been focused on (re)integrating performers into the creative process of making music through graphic scores that facilitate a rethinking of the performance process. When originally thinking about creating an installation, as a composer I immediately thought of something electro-acoustic (the more typical route). Through discussions in the composition seminar that I was part of with Thomas DeLio at the time, it seemed interesting to try to merge my indeterminate compositional approach with my desire to make public space art.

The result was this composition. It is for three or more performers from any discipline, and occurs within a single building (or subsection of a building) over a fairly long timeframe that is chosen by the performers (day, week, month, etc.). Within the macro timeframe that bounds the entire performance, individual events occur at times of each performer's choosing.

Individual performances are the result of a performer's interpretation of one of sixty-seven performance cards. These cards are the "score" of the composition, and feature graphic notation - they are indeterminate with regard to performance, meaning that the score does not completely determine a performer's output. There are four pieces of data on each card. At the top are "starting" and "ending" cues that tell the performer when to begin and end interpreting the rest of the data found on the card. These cues are sights, sounds, and behaviors that one might encounter in the space. Examples include being near an elevator, occupying a space with seven or more people, hearing singing, and so forth.

Once the starting criteria has been met, a performer interprets concurrently the rest of the card's data - a graphic and three verbs. The graphics variously contain lines, dots, and networks, and the verbs include imitate, oppose, disturb, influence, punctuate, isolate, engulf, radiate, penetrate, balance, extract, and integrate.

Here are a couple sample cards:





Here's how a performance would progress:
-Each performer receives 7 cards, which they shuffle
-Performers work through the cards one at a time, and reshuffle after performing all seven (pacing is determined by starting/ending cues)
-Performers may stop and restart as needed
-Performers occupying the same space should coordinate in some way
-Performers can trade cards between 7-card cycles and can add new performers by giving them cards

A piece like this is difficult to document, so I've created this blog for that purpose. Obviously a sound recording or film would be nearly impossible to capture (short of utilizing many security cameras, and that would erase the unique temporal nature of the piece or make a really long film). I hope that this blog will allow many different types of ongoing documentation including photos, sound files, performer and audience write-ups, and short films.

I'll post more later on previous and current performances. Currently the piece is happening at Artomatic (www.artomatic.org) in Crystal City, VA from April 13 - May 20, 2007. Through the end of May this blog will focus on that performance.

If you are interested in performing or programming this composition, please contact me!