the beauty of chaos

i started my job at the beginning of a two-week stint of craziness known as Machine Project. they are a group out of L.A. who invaded the Walker with all kinds of fun and excitement. i sort of wish it could be like that all the time, yet it would be difficult to get things done. but it’s made these first two weeks an awesome place to work

a sampling of what i caught:

car theft for kids – a workshop teaching kids how to break into, hotwire and break out of the trunk of a car.

music for parking garages – the occasional car alarm really added to the atmosphere

the tragedy of the sea nymph: a dog opera – a silent film staring dogs, accompanied by live opera singers

opera listens to you – probably my favorite piece – a person would sit in the middle of 8 opera singers and talk about anything. the singers would listen and then respond in song, sometimes more traditional opera, sometimes musical sounds, sometimes pop songs. always amazing.

electric melon workshop – participants could solder their own amplified microphone and place it in a melon, which could then be used to drum on and make sounds. after, people could eat the melons or bring them to the pickling workshop nearby to make pickled watermelon rinds (which were quite tasty!)

sheep mowers – a part of series on how you can cut your lawn. the sheep were amplified, mm the sound of chewing grass. other parts of this series included a push lawnmower bell orchestra (didn’t manage to stay for that).

earbees – they brought a whole bunch of these devices that can record and playback a loop. with enough of them, it’s easy to create interesting songs and sound experiments. i wish i had a bunch!

fol chen verbal algorithm composer-free song generator – for this project, participants took a survey based on a piece of art at the Walker. Based on the boxes they checked, a song was composed specifically for them, made from loops that were recorded by other participants the previous day.

here is the song created for me, based on the Earbees:
01 EarBees for Cali by starfive