haha. i wrote a paper on it.

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The Stadium, The Street and Rappers on the Internet
Peter Segerstrom
10/26/06

Maracanã is a piece by the Brazilian artist collective Chelpa Ferro that uses a ring of huge speakers to emulate the sonic environment of the stadium of the same name in Brazil. Viewsers* enter the ring and by speaking hear their own voices projected back at them as though they were amplified and speaking from the center of a large arena or stadium.

Times Square is a piece by Max Neuhaus that consists of a subtle sound interposition into the sensorial landscape of the island in the middle of Times Square in Manhattan. The sound is a beautiful after-ring of bells that exists entirely out of context for the raucous environment of Times Square.

Slim Thug Status Bot is a online work by Cory Arcangel that allows viewsers to check on the status of Slim Thug's record Already Platinum to see if it has gone platinum yet. By adding 'SlimThugPlatinum' to their chat list on a computer, viewsers can ask the te virtual Slim Thug themselves.

Bump is public sound work that consists of multiple car based sound systems that generate a field of bass. This bass sound is created by the repetitive beat of an Roland TR-808 kick drum. Sound is distributed to the cars via a multi channel FM radio transmitter array.

In comparing the first three pieces with the piece Bump I argue that the co-option of communication technology for purely physical or conceptual experience as a central theme to all, can liberate the individual's relationship to sound, public space and celebrity.

In Maracana, Chelpa Ferro intend to convince participants that they are the center of the stadium and also it's spectator simultaneously. Through the use of delay and reverberation effects, the participants can say anything and feel as though it is being rung out over a huge space. This experience has psychological and phenomenological effects. Hearing one's voice at a greater volume than physically possible and in a greater scope than physically possible suggests super-human power and also a direct physical impact on the body of the person involved. The psychological implication could be read negatively as even though it sounds as though one is speaking to a stadium the viewser is only speaking to complete the loop of the art piece for oneself. This rhymes with the physicality of the piece in what can succinctly be described as aural masturbation. Speaking into this environment will physically impress your voice upon your body. While both of these things have negative connotations, ultimately I feel the piece is celebratory because it does empower the individual to feel their own voice as such.

The formal arrangement of the piece suggests the duality of inside/outside self-consciousness of the stadium as well. The user is trapped or nestled depending on the reading in a tower or room of speakers. This immersion is in part for physical effect but also to suggest the encompassing nature of the spectacle. The viewser is simultaneously at the center of this spectacle and obscured from the rest of society (or more specifically the gallery) by their entry into it. This suggests the isolation that is central to the experience of the spectacular stadium. We are all experiencing this together and because of that we are real, even though there is no place for an individual in such a structure. Maybe this piece is an attempt to heal a wound caused by forgetting oneself in the stadium mentality through putting the fan center stage.

Max Neuhas' piece Times Square creates an inverse experience of Maracana. In a cacophony of visual and sonic noise the piece places a slight aural non-sequitur into public space. Outside the gallery, the context for Art is lost but the chance to impact a person's perception of sound is greatly increased. While Chelpa Ferro is comfortable in the gallery, Neuhaus understands that perception of sound is as (if not more) important in public space. Times Square offers a sonic escape from the immersion of the environment through the thin thread of a single tiny sound. If the listener can focus on this small sound it's easy to lose place and forget where you are. Pastoral small town churches hold your attention in the den of sin for a moment and when you return, you understand your sonic landscape differently. Where Chelpa Ferro uses a giant ring of speakers to convince the viewser that they are the center, Neuhaus uses the opposite tactic by allow the listener to understand that they are alone in hearing this thing in this place.

The role of the individual is similar in both Neuhaus' Times Square and Cory Arcangel's Slum Thug Status Bot (hereafter referred to as STSB). What's liberating about both is the ability of the individual to separate from his environment. In STSB, any person with a computer can add STSB as a friend and ask it about the platinum status of the record. This act allows a viewser to virtually connect with fame. Even if one doesn't know who Slim Thug is, the fact that he is available to discuss the success of his record is ironically thrilling. Granted this novelty doesn't have the phenomenological import that Neuhaus' piece does, however, given that Arcangel's work is more memetic by it's existence on the internet, it becomes about the transfer of fame to the viewser who in turn can tell friends that they now know the status of Already Platinum.

Another similarity in both works and a strong connection I make in my work is the simplicity and accessibility of the gesture. Both Neuhaus and Arcangel used freely available materials to make these works. The import is in not only making something but showing how it can be made. While a reductive and close-minded public would see the work as either simplistic (which it is, just not negatively so) or empty of "craft", (which could be argued, but I won't) those that engage the work may enjoy it more because it is such an elegant act of connection.

With Bump, my hope is that even though the end result is a bunch of cars making noise, listeners will want to understand the relationship between the cars each making sound. Ideally it will encourage closer listening and maybe an eventual connection of one sonic source distributing sound to several playback systems. Like Chelpa Ferro, I want a viewer to experience the feeling of sound pressing itself against their bodies and have that ellicit the question or response. Like Neuhaus, I am interested in presenting sonic landscapes that allow people to separate temporarily from standard public experience, but in a way that allows for interaction with others i.e. not an iPod.

In the way that all three use readymades, I want to make Bump a piece that doesn't have a sense of authorship that traditional artwork does. I have curated sound for the cars and I have built the system which cost a total of about $80 not counting the computer, but other than that, I just thought it up and convinced some people to let me use their cars.

Beyond the scope of these works, I feel a strong affinity with each of these artists for their choices of site and materials and their relationship to the work. As my work progresses I hope to achieve the same melange of humor and elegance.

*viewser.com