Twittering Machines

Marcel Duchamp
Avoir l’apprenti dans le soleil [To Have the Apprentice in the Sun], 1914

Rrose Audio
Prière de toucher

DSP-controlled, rear-ported, single driver loudspeaker. Rrose Audio claims 125dB efficiency with a frequency response of 12Hz – 66kHz. Baffle based on the classic Western Electric 753c optimized by Dr. Rrose of Rrose Audio after hours of research.

We’ve asked for a review sample and expect to have our hands on a pair sometime soon.

Marcel Duchamp
Rotoreliefs

Marcel Duchamp first published his 12 Rotoreliefs in 1935. He had been working with rotary discs and their optical effects for decades – Rotary Glass Plates (Precision Optics) from 1920, Disks Bearing Spirals 1923, Rotary Demisphere 1925 and in his silent film Anemic Cinema from 1927.

The Rotoreliefs are silent too even though they’re meant to be played on a record player. You can think of them as the home version. Duchamp thought they were amusing and Calvin Tomkins suggests that they move in an “erotic rhythm”. I do too. You can see the Rotoreliefs in silent action here and/or watch and listen with John Cage’s prepared piano accompaniment…

…from Hans Richter’s film Dreams That Money Can Buy (1947)
you can watch the entire film here

Marcel Duchamp
In Advance of the Broken Arm (1915)
Wood and galvanized-iron snow shovel, 52″ (132 cm) high

Andy Warhol
Oxidation Painting (in 12 parts), 1978

I saw a show of Andy’s Oxidation Paintings years ago (I believe it was at the Parrish Art Museum but I may be remembering something else about Southampton) and I also recall my first reaction – they’re beautiful. I’d heard about these paintings, read about them but never saw one in person and I have to admit I was surprised by their visual appeal. Seeing as they’re made through the chemical reaction between urine and copper.

Warhol had a few people, some speculate even himself early on, pee onto these canvasses coated with copper-based paint and based on their diet the paint reacted to the piss. More vitamin B, more orange…No, they don’t smell like piss and if you didn’t know, you’d never know.

Which reminds me (warning ‘adult’ material next)…

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“Between the mind that plans and the hands that build there must be a Mediator, and this must be the heart.”
Maria, Metropolis (1927)

John Cage & Marcel Duchamp
27’10.554″ for a Percussionist
The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even. Erratum Musical
First Recordings

John Lee Hooker
Sings The Blues

This was part of last night’s play list – in order – and it reminded me of how broad and useless the category Music is. The Cage/Duchamp record is a mind game of sorts, titillating antiseptic cleverness which is only apparent once you read the liner notes. From the first few notes of John Lee Hooker’s first track, “I Need Some Money” you’re immediately rooted into the earth, dirt and all. No reading required. I wasn’t really thinking, consciously at least, when I put that John Lee Hooker on the platter. But it made me laugh out loud.

Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927)

After days of running what-if spreadsheet scenarios, I have to say my body wanted to respond to John Lee Hooker while my head was looking for a more elegant solution. I guess the trick is finding some in-between that allows the heart some necessary mediation.

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you’re only old once