The Arts in New York City
As I listened to the music played by the Tokyo String Quartet in 92nd Street Y, I could not help but remember the class discussion about lip-synching. I remembered the question of whether or not musical lyrics reflected a person’s mood at the moment when he/she lip-syncs. At that time, I was not sure whether to agree or disagree, mainly because I do not lip-sync, but instead, I hum. However, the Tokyo String Quartet performance provided me with an answer to the question. When one listens to music, the melody, not the lyrics, evokes emotions and often reflects a person’s mood.
As a former active pianist, the speed of the music is written in Italian and can often foreshadow the mood of the music piece. Here I will translate some of the Italian (in the order in which they appeared in the booklet) that I recognized from experience:
Lento: slow
Poco: little
Allegro: fast
Vivace: increase tempo
Molto: very
Adagio: slow
Scherzando: playfully
Presto: very fast
Andante: moderately slow
Musical pieces played in allegro or in presto were often joyful sounding. In fact, allegro is translated to “joyful” in Italian. However, pieces played in lento or in adagio sounded depressing and dark. The transition of lento/adagio to allegro/presto created a dramatic effect and sometimes created a sense of being chased. In addition, in the beginning of the performance, I noticed that each instrument created its own separate “voice,” producing a chaotic effect. However, towards the end of the entire performance, the instruments were played in-sync and produced a harmonic effect. That harmonic effect created a playful tone in combination with the speed (allegro). To me, that melody evoked a sense of joyfulness in my thoughts, whereas the pieces played in lento or in adagio evoked depressing/angry thoughts.
For some, “I don’t believe in outer space” was a random, confused dance performance. Grey rocks scattered around the floor. Dancers were freely dancing as if they had no control over their bodies. There were different scenes and random actions. However, to me, I found it soothing with a surreal mix of life and fantasy. In fact, I considered the entire dance performance as three different stories: the atomic world, the human mind, and New York City (Yes, Nietzsche would probably smack me thrice for this).
The Atomic World
I was not sure how I began to think of the entire dance as the atomic world. Possibly because the Chemistry lecture that day was about internal energy? However, to me, it did make some sense. Atoms move randomly, occasionally colliding to other atoms, thus forming a compound. Likewise, the dancers moved around randomly, and some even attached to each other for a while. Some bonds collapsed, while others did not. The scatter grey rocks represented sub-particles (more specifically the electrons), which, like atoms, are scattered around. What about the chatting and occasional background voices? Well, even atoms communicate with each other, whether they are vicious to bond with other bonds or remain alone like a noble gas element.
The Human Mind
As I listened to the words coming from the “bipolar” dancer in black, I began to consider the entire dance in an existential point of view. At the end, the dancer spoke about her lover, in which she loved him and hoped he would come back “from outer space.” This could indicate a sense of withdrawal or even insanity brought about by the lover’s death. Could the dance be the entire thoughts of that “bipolar” dancer in black? Maybe her state of mind is in “outer space?”
New York City
A dancer in a blue hoodie was playing ping-pong. Occasional dancers sat by the corners of the stage as if they were poor. A Japanese acrobatics instructor was jumping around. Dancers grabbed onto each other as they were fighting. Does the randomness reminded you of New York City, or even captured an essence of the city life? I even considered the references of Hamlet (“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” and “I Will Survive” (by Gloria Gaynor) as satires, which could reflect society’s view on such literature or music. It was also difficult to notice every single dancer’s actions. Likewise, in the city, we do not notice every single movement in the crowd of people. We do see movement as a whole, but to notice what each person is doing, we have to focus our attention on one person at a time.
Overall, out of the entire dance, I considered the ending of the performance as my favorite. No, not because it was the end of a random, confused dance performance. The voice combined with the choice of words (for example, the repetition of “no more…”) created a poetic, dream-like tone. Therefore, the tone created a soothing ending (a feeling of serenity) to a random dance performance.
My initial reaction to “I don’t believe in outer space” was confusion. It took awhile to realize that it was the same actress portraying both the meek woman and the snaring more demanding voice. I thought it was two separate individuals until I realized that she was the only woman on stage. Perhaps, it’s because I’m not use to seeing one actress portraying multiple roles. Also, I found that it was hard to focus on just one aspect of the play because there were so many things going on at the same time. There were too many visual and auditory stimuli assaulting my senses all at once. For example, at the start of the play there was the actress portraying two roles, a guy creeping around the stage, two men doing ballet with each other and a man lying on the floor on stage simultaneously. Since there were so many scenes going on at the same time, by focusing on one scene I end up getting lost in another. If I focused my attention on the ballet dancers, I ended up losing track of the words that the woman was saying. Throughout the whole play, I found myself trying to find a way to connect these seemingly random scenes to no avail. But, I think that the ending summed up the whole play. I thought that perhaps the random events represented life, one filled with constant activity and energy. But, when a person dies it all disappears like the voice of the woman and the light at the end of the play.
I thought that the film had a Fluxus aspect to it. It was a deviation from the traditional ballet performances and plays. It didn’t have a clear-cut plot line that the audience can follow and had multiple scenes occurring on stage at the same time. Even the ballet dances were a deviation from the norm. For example, in the beginning of the play there were two males dancing together, with one of them performing the role of a female. In another instance, one of the ballet dancers stuffed balls in his pant before continuing to dance. It was quite an odd action. I would think that while performing, no dancer would want unnecessarily cumbersome objects on the body. Wouldn’t those balls in his pants hinder or make his movements awkward? Was there a purpose for it? Perhaps, he wanted to enhance his assets (for the particulars of his piece) or simply to provide comic relief.
One particular scene that stood out to me was when the man clothed in all black came onto the stage. It was partly due to his clothes, which was different from the other actors and actresses. But the main point that stood out was that his speech had rhyme. I thought that it was interesting that among the seemingly random events, his speech was the only thing that had a form of structure or order to it.
To watch four men fueled by a deep commitment to chamber music perform with intense conviction and emotion was awe-inspiring and evoked internally hidden feelings to physically manifest. An ensemble comprising solely of string instruments, with one member wielding a cello, two members wielding violins and another member wielding a viola, the strokes, down-bow and up-bow, were moving in an orchestrated manner to produce melodies dictated by particular paces. At certain points, the melody being played was in allegro (fast) or adagio (slow) or in some other tempo. The passion infused into the music can easily be seen from the swaying motion of their bodies.
Nowadays, choreographed music videos rid the accompanying background music of its “authenticity” because these videos cannot capture the true feelings experienced by the singers / musicians at the time of composition. Formerly a cello player, I was intrigued at the quality of the music due to the long duration of the pieces before any rosin was applied to the bows to maintain the coarse horse hairs’ firm grips on the strings of the instruments. I did not question the tuning of the instruments, for usually high temperatures are the main cause of the strings becoming out of tune in a smaller interval of time. Although the music reminded me of the scenarios in Looney Tunes cartoons in which Elmer Fudd would creep towards Bugs Bunny, visual animations would have distracted audience members from the “audial” roller coaster ride they can only be understood through rhythm and tempo, not by flashy lights or unreal situations seen in contemporary music videos. Being born in a generation that does not appreciate music the way older generations do, this event exposed me to the clearly-evident distinct difference between the “young people’s” perception and the “old people’s” perception of chamber music.
1. Responsible Use
In putting together your film, you may find yourself wanting to incorporate images or music that you didn’t create. It is easy to find images and music all over the internet, but it is harder to locate images and music that you can legally use in your own projects. To learn about where to go on the internet to find resources you can use without incident, read this post written by Jenny Kijowski, another ITF here at Brooklyn College. Of particular use for you will likely be sites like Jamendo and dig.ccmixter that allow you to search through Creative Commons-licensed music. To educate yourself more on the topics of copyright, fair use, and public domain, peruse the Teaching Copyright resources page, which also contains a number of links that may help you rightfully obtain material for your videos.
2. Film Equipment
Naturally, to make a video, you will likely need equipment more robust than the camera that’s built in to your MacBook Pro. You can find the form to request audio-visual (A/V) material from Macaulay here. At the end of the form, you will find a visual catalog of the available equipment. Also to note is that the standard rental period is 1 week, but this period can be extended with permission.
Here is a link to a YouTube clip of Ferruccio Furlanetto, generally regarded as one of the best Leporello’s, performing the catalog aria at the Met a few years ago. Furlanetto may not be a buffo, but his comedic roles, especially Leporello, make him one of the best Italian bass singers.
Madamina, il catalogo è questo (Leporello, Ferruccio Furlanetto)
Disorienting, insane, strange, awkward, entertaining… confusing?
“I don’t believe in outer space” was a one of a kind experience. I don’t think I have ever seen a performance as complicated, but simple at the same time. To say that words cannot describe the dance, is a total understatement. The underlying theme of the song “I will survive” throughout the different “scenes” was so cleverly done, because at times, the song was used for comedy purposes, but what stuck out for me was the ending scene. It was very depressing, how one of the main performers started listing out things that people might have to live without, for example, No more parties, No more husbands, No more barbecues, No more drinks, No more love, No more smiles… It was a huge emotional shock, since the scene before it was a comedic one. It was very cleverly done that this song had the flexibility to fit into angry scenes, sad scenes, scary scenes and funny scenes. But I do feel as if the actual song wasn’t as important as the underlying idea that this whole production was completely random, and goes against all societal expectations.
This production, for me, definitely related to Nietzsche. Though it wasn’t completely Dionysian with regards to music and the inner self taking over, it was a very good bridge to join together reality and the surreal. First of all, this performance had no linear plot (maybe I’ve missed it…or something?) and though our human brains are trying to make some sort of connection between all this chaos and emotions and loud music, our brains really can’t come up with something this disconnected. It forces us to just enjoy the dance, and not question where all these ideas were coming from. It honestly felt like a dream sequence. One minute you could be scared out of your mind because of “the new neighbor wanting whisky” or the next moment you could be wondering “As if by chance…” It was truly a roller coaster ride. Nothing seemed to make sense together, (not that this should be analyzed) but thing’s seem to make sense part by part.
I was really amazed at the talents of these dancers, because it seemed graceful, but at the same time, it had that awkwardness to it, which seem to contradict each other, but it worked very well in this performance. Also, I was wondering the whole time how one of the performers (can we call her an actress?) memorized all the lines to “As if by chance…” It all seemed to correlate so well with the dance movements of the other performers, that she could not have possibly improvised any of it. I actually did find myself trying to imagine what would happen if “everything fell” or if “nothing fell at all”.
After it was over, it was the first time I felt myself lost for words after a performance. I couldn’t come to terms with what I just saw. And when one of my friends asked me what the play was about, I actually could not even give one concrete detail of it, except that “At first I was afraid, I was petrified”
I thoroughly enjoyed the performance of “I Don’t Believe in Outer Space.” I thought it was very Fluxus, considering it didn’t have a storyline or plot and there were many random things happening at once. I like how they carried the same song throughout each part of the performance and used it in different ways. As we were saying in class, music can affect everyone differently and the lyrics of the song were portrayed differently in each scene. In the original song, you can really hear Gloria’s feelings with the musical sounds behind the lyrics she sings. With the dancers speaking the lyrics of the song without music, they were able to change the feeling and meaning of the original song. For example, when the creepy neighbor visits the woman and is told “no” after asking for a drink from the whisky cabinet and hoping to “get down,” he speaks the lyrics sarcastically, making the scene humorous. Other scenes of the performance were also funny, including the one in which the “politician” uses sexual innuendos to try and get elected. He wanted to “undress and world and share his cocktail with everyone.” His remarks kept the audience laughing and awake. For me, certain parts of the performance became boring, when the music and dancing became very slow. I enjoyed watching all the chaos onstage and trying to figure out what was going on. One of the most chaotic scenes was when the narrator kept repeating, “As if by any chance.” My favorite parts were when the individual woman spoke the dialogue of the creepy neighbor and the woman. I found it very entertaining the way she moved her body and changed her voice. The ping pong scene was also very enjoyable, because although there actually was no ping pong ball, the way the dancers moved to the sounds made you believe there was. I think the performance displays a very Dionysiac art, with randomness, chaos, and a few sexual references. I think when Nietzsche says we need more Dionysiac art, he means art like “I Don’t Believe in Outer Space.” To me, many ballet performances are boring and lack excitement, but I think “I Don’t Believe in Outer Space” breaks the boundaries of the usual ballets and gives the audience a new experience. If this is what Nietzsche meant, then I would agree that we need more art that isn’t so Apollonian, or confined, to show the real world.
Coney Island and the High Line are both places of amusement, culture, and society but they reflect these ideas in diverse ways. Over the past two weeks, I visited each of these sites and came to the unfortunate realization that even though I had lived here all my life, I had never taken the time to truly appreciate the arts of New York City. These visits opened my eyes and gave me the opportunity to take notice of the beauties of this ever growing and developing city.
“When you approach the High Line…what you first see is the kind of thing urban parks were created to get away from” (Goldberger). Urban parks are intended to allow their visitors to enjoy a delightful landscaped area and to unwind in its nature. However, as I stood on 10th Avenue and 14th street staring at the High Line from below, it seemed to do nothing of this sort. I knew that the High Line was a beautifully designed, 25-foot high park, but all I saw was an unwelcoming, heavy, steel structure. However, as I went up the stairs and laid my eyes on the remarkable nature for the first time, I now understood what the High Line was actually about. On that evening, I walked from 14th street to 30th street, taking in the colorful flowers that were visible due to bright lights placed along them, the stream of water, the benches that rose from the floor, the berries, the plants climbing up the fences, and the lights of the city both below and above me. With all the splendor of the High Line surrounding me, I couldn’t believe that people had once wished to demolish it. Thankfully, instead of paving over the High Line, it was incorporated into a place that removes you from the normal city atmosphere but at the same time is uniquely urban.
I was now able to fully understand what Goldberger had meant when he had written that, “Walking on the High Line is unlike any other experience in New York. You float about 25 feet above the ground, at once connected to street life and far away from it.” Although you’re able to see the street life, when you’re on the High Line you’re not apart of it anymore. New York City is known for its hustle-and-bustle, always moving quickly personality. However, the High Line is slower moving and serene. Couples are holding hands walking leisurely down the path and people are sitting on the benches reading books and relaxing amongst all this nature surrounding them. You no longer have to worry about being trampled over by a crowd of people walking towards you or getting lost in a never-ending metropolis. It’s as if you had entered a part of New York City that is ideal and unrealistic.
A piece of artwork that grabbed my attention was “Still Life with Landscape” by Sarah Sze. This steel structure acts as an observatory for birds, butterflies and insects by containing feeding spots and birdbaths. I found this compelling because similar to the High Line, this structure has a steel foundation that holds up a piece of nature. It amplifies the goal of the High Line to encourage people to take a break from the fast pace of the city and to instead, internalize the beauty surrounding them.
Whereas the High Line represented the serene side of recreation and culture, Coney Island on the other hand was more “out there.” With all of its amusement rides, lights, and attractions, it gave more of a “look at me” attitude that I hadn’t felt at the High Line. However, within itself, Coney Island has a contrast. On one hand, it’s a fast moving, exciting place where you could have a fun filled day with your family but on the other hand, it allows you to peacefully reflect on your life while gazing at the waves and seagulls flying by. I especially enjoyed the pier because it gave me an opportunity to get close to the ocean without having to go through the sand, which I am not particularly a fan of. As I walked on the Boardwalk, I noticed that many of the trashcans had been painted. They had drawings and names of random people on them; these paintings reminded me of the drawings I made as a child that my parents would hang up on the refrigerator. They made me feel more at home even though I was miles away.
In Delirious New York, Rem Koolhaas talks about electricity and how “the introduction of electricity makes it possible to create a second daytime” (35). Throughout my life, my favorite part about Coney Island has always been being able to see the rides lit up during the evenings. It gives Coney Island a whole new feeling and the contrast between the darkness and the lights fully isolates each ride from everything surrounding it. Although there is a lot of congestion, which Koolhaas discusses, the lights allow you to see each attraction individually. I found both of these sites very enjoyable and I’m looking forward to going again sometime.
Goldberger, Paul. “Miracle Above Manhattan.” National Geographic April 2011: 122-137. Print.
Koolhaas, Rem. Delirious New York. New York: Monacelli Press, 1994. Print.
From today’s New York Times, a write-up on a 24-hour art exhibit which reflects the interests and goals of the Occupy Wall Street movement. I’ve been primed to see Fluxus in almost everything these days, but the ephemerality of the exhibit, its serious jokiness, and its political motivations do make it seem very Fluxus-like.
