anthony william wallace

2010-05-10T14:09:00.001-07:00

Website Coming Soon.....

2010-05-05T13:11:00.000-07:00

Sound of Balloons Painting a Canvas
Deleon White Gallery
Toronto 2009

2010-05-05T13:08:00.001-07:00

time & space

2010-05-05T12:55:00.000-07:00

- body -

2010-04-07T08:34:00.000-07:00

phase #3: sound/mediations/systems

critiques/comments

Personally coming from a music major’s position I really enjoyed this project. There was an array of variation presented in class but a few that caught my attention and made lasting impressions are the ones that follow.

Louis St-Amour

FACS 2930 - Phase 3

Guess which is which?

This one fooled me and impressed both while listening to it, and also after when they devices used where explained. The first one I thought was a construct due to the odd interaction of sounds and laughing/talking. The touch screen sequencer Louis used to create makes it sound perfectly normal if you know what is going on. The idea behind such a device has inspired me in my personal projects and is something I am continuing to explore.

The 2^nd piece, the slowed down theme of avatar, although in retrospect clearly sounds like a constructed sound source, I was too captivated by the first audio clip to evaluate it properly in class. It is a good manipulation of sound, as opposed to just edited found sounds together took a clearly composed piece and distorted it to a point of no recognition. The logic behind recording people’s interactions with a sequencer for the first video though is one of my favorites presented in class. The idea of creating an interactive piece or art and using this scenario, the audio of this relationship as another final product I think is very strong, and adds more layers to the idea of an audio soundscape.

Quincy Cheung 1 2

I appreciate pieces that take the time to create a relationship between as a diptych of the two audio sources. This one is a clear juxtaposition between stormy and clam. I unfortunately cannot remember which one is the capture and what is the construct, which although some may argue defeats the point of the exercise I can still appreciate the final product. It has mad a balance by contrasting two ideas of nature and made it indistinguishable which one was create and what was recorded. Part of this is due to the nature sounds used, the both sound like they have been taken from sample library and they both sound constructed. As far as I am concerned I do not believe this is the case but still presents a coherent two part audio soudscape.

Raveesh

The Importance Of Sound

First off all, this piece has a great presentation, tricky to maneuver in but appreciated. The change in the middle of the piece is distinguishable, although very subtle you can hear a difference, this is not a negative critique but a mere comment if the intention was to create a seamless transition. However, it is still hard to decipher which is the construct and which is the recording. Going with the approach of mimicking the talking computer and again having an overarching theme of the chaos of the world from a computers perspective. The way it is presented is ironic because a computer cannot comprehend chaos or the stresses of the drive to be famous and receive recognition. I think it is a really smart presentation, and final product and I enjoy the fact he did not create two tracks but blend them together. I think it works well with the theme and overall idea of the piece creating a very coherent presentation in the end.

Angus Chan 0 1

This one I appreciate on a few levels, one I am a drummer and enjoy the two different takes on the digital vs. analogue drumming techniques and how the two are almost indistinguishable, and also how in a way they both are digitized. If my memory serves me correctly the first one is a recording from the room of while playing on an electric kit, the sound of the sticks on the rubber skin and sensors. While the other is part digitized; the data from this performance and then enhanced with layered effects and what not. Essential it’s the same drumming just analogue on a digital kit, and then the pure digital data. I think it is really interesting how the creator managed the analogue capture audio recording to sound so electronic in a sense, there are at times still the sound of wood stick on stick, but other times an odd effect created on the pads that sounds enhanced in a way one would assume was a digital drum kit.

2010-04-06T21:53:00.000-07:00

Electronic landscape phase #4 reflection

I will begin with stating that I may have missed out on a element of this project, for I didn’t fully work from a group. Although attempted to work in a group of two I found myself doing most of the tasks and the conceptual brainstorms were one sided. So for the most part I gathered a large portion of the original material and there was little collaboration in this respect. But I feel I still experienced this idea of telecommunication with this project despite the fact; for the exchange of the four videos and watching the evolution of our first film, and the evolution of everyone else’s shows the loss of control and at times distortion of meaning and conceptual intent.

It is hard handing work over to people you don’t know, or understand their artistic nature; It becomes a trust exercise in a way and in this case displayed both positive and I feel negative results. In the manipulation of each other’s work I think the understanding of the original video or the video one is working off of is essential otherwise you create your own agenda and can ruin the original meaning. I don’t think in all the videos the original concepts were understood which is due to both not watching the original video closely enough and not creating concrete enough ideas in the source videos.

In the final class upon watching all the videos I know I am personally guilty of drastically altering the originally video from lack of understanding. The first alteration we did was on the video entitled “conversations”. It was a series of conversations from apples and oranges, to huge grant to people using sign language. I swept away almost all the video and kept the audio. I felt it was the strongest element of the piece and began editing the audio having fun with layers and repetition. I didn’t fully notice till we reviewed it in class that our edit had removed the overarching dialogue. We had created a parody of conversations and the interaction/ back forth nature of the original had been lost. The final piece was so far removed as a result of working off what we had done, the idea of a conversation had been erased.

This is part of the process though, not everyone is going to get what your intentions are as everybody naturally, whether they intend to or not, will create their own perspective on the theme or change the theme all together. That’s the beauty and the issue with the process, and what makes the trust factor with those who you work with the more relevant. I played with the audio of their conversations and by deleting the video two more edits after us had removed the original concept all together.

This applies for the video of the three little pigs (which had a clear coherent initial theme) that in the final fourth video turned into an add/ mockery for touch screen products. This happened because people have their own personal aesthetics; they take what they are familiar with and what they like, sometimes despite the prevailing theme. The second and third videos created a non-linear take on the first video, kept roughly the overall themes but played with how it was presented showing it on multiple screens and re-arranging the order. The final video took the concept of a touch screen and made a commercial out of it. from what i can, the creators latched onto the technology shown in the third video, dropped all the other content presented and made a commercial.

The concepts were lost, not just manipulated in this case and I think it is an example of poor evaluation of the material we are too work with. It is too much a representation of the person creating the video and not a representation of the video they are working with.

I had an issue with our final fourth video, the material we were to work with in my opinion was very poorly put together (I have a rant in a previous blog entry “phase 4 timing horses and rant on university caliber work" that you can look into for my full opinion). This piece left us with no clear material or theme I wished to work with. The theme was more of a joke, a fail blog joke that needed no elaboration on. I couldn’t add to this humour for it appeared in the 2^nd edit of the video and the 3rd had no positive contribution. The 2^nd half of the video felt like the creators ran out of time and stuck in a single shot of a video game. I used barely any original material in this fourth edit, but found the only two themes present and worked with them. I feel I added more onto the first video without watching it then I did to the 2^nd or third by taking this approach. The concepts were dissolved and I couldn’t discern any direction from what was presented so I took a new approach off what I could salvage. i feel it was a positive result, others may disagree but the final video had a more coherent theme, that complemented the original video. it was different then the initial but drew on a larger source, and i feel adds more to the original idea.

i think this final project was a great introduction into the idea of telecommunications. we began experience what it is like to loose control of ones work, to see the effects of collaboration on a piece of work and understand what works and what can be destructive; not necessarily in a negative way but in an way of exploration. i thoroughly enjoy it,

2010-03-28T16:45:00.000-07:00

stage #4 TIMING HORSES
with rant of the caliber of University work

Now I'm not one to comment on others work in our class, but the video we had to work with for this last edit is insulting in a university setting. the original video which transformed into a epic fail joke, the time machine that needs to be charged; although not the most engaging 2 minute video i have no issues with. To shorten this video to 1 minuet and add another minute of a unicorn video game does not belong in the Fine arts department in University. i would like to hear the reasoning behind the creators choice, i cannot see it having any conceptual, thematic element or aesthetic value in my opinion. it is not an interpretation or an elaboration on the original video for i can make no correlation between a fail blog joke and unicorns, not to mention the horrible quality of the footage.

i apologize for the rant, but in a university environment we should be allowed to voice such opinions and let them be constructive. after saying this i used none of the original footage nor audio from this video. i re-imported a better file of the time machine footage to work with, and disregarded the unicorn.

Time & Horses. that's what i take from the video and that is what i worked with.

I re-imported the video of the time machine to have some correlation with the original video, and used the idea of clocks and time in conjunction with the horse. A collection of classic American poems about horses was the audio for the piece, overlapped with footage of their poets animated to speak the poems with a few clips of horses all in comparison to the time traveler starting up his machine. again i played with overlapping audio to see how much the ear can comprehend and conpaired it with overlapped images of the poets faces speaking, blending their poems and images together. Can a viewer look at both faces at the same time? or does the mind jump back and forth, the same applies for the audio... what poem does one listen too? the louder poem or the one that correlates with the face they are seeing? does the face change when the listener changes what audio they are listening too?

2010-03-28T16:35:00.000-07:00

stage #3 Macho Men

this video contains the most coherent theme of all the videos we completed for this project, the video we received was overloaded with testosterone and as a response challenged the notion of macho men, replacing all the footage with strong women, socially/politically and physically and kept the only footage of men that demonstrated their ridiculous nature. it also contains footage of cross dressing males and transgendered people who challenged this masculine macho man ideal. the audio is all from the original video. "what makes you more macho then the next big guy" is the line that gets repeated throughout and acts as the theme of video.

2010-03-28T16:14:00.000-07:00

stage 2 conversational parody

for the second stage of this project the video we received was a collection of conversations between people, apples and oranges, presedient bush, some mashed up and some unedited. we predominantly used the audio of the original source for it was more interesting and spliced it with cartoon images to create a more comedic element to the video piece. the images we used are the shots of young girls talking vainly about nonsense, we're not poking fun at these girls just overemphasizing the irrelevance of what they are saying "my teeth look really white...my teeth look really white..." over and over again. its all nonsense just playing with overlaying the original audio on itself. i tried the same effect with the video of the cartoons, casting the images on top of itself over and over again to match the audios aesthetic.

2010-03-28T14:51:00.000-07:00

PHASE #4: THE ETERNAL NETWORK / HALL OF MIRRORS

Video#1

our first video is composed of footage of the human form, most of the footage dates to 1890-1910. i attempted to find the oldest footage for the asthestic quality of the grain. two of the four videos are of Thomas Edison's early films. Eugen Sandow is the body builder and and the deteriorating film creates lines in the footage that almost frame and contort to his muscles. the others are slightly better quality of couples dancing. the conceptual aspect of this film is not very developed for i understood the project and the manipulation that is going to occur to it. it is left open for interpretation but acts as an aesthetic starting point; focusing on the human form and how it moves and is captured on film.
the audio for this piece is something i constructed, it is samples of a 8mm film projectors motor running on and off. samples of old reel-to-reel tape recorder running and small percussion. i recorded AM radio filtering through channels continuous throughout and placed some synthesizers on it for melodic content. the audio and the video deal a lot with the tools (projectors/film/radio) that the piece is constructed from. While the human form is the subject what i find interesting is listening and seeing the evidence of the mechanisms that produced the work and how they interact with the final product.

click here for video

2010-03-20T10:43:00.000-07:00

solarbeat

turning the solar system into a musical sequencer.
the only interactive features are the tempo and a play/pause option, but really interesting concept.

2010-02-25T11:11:00.001-08:00

code organ
turns website code into audio.
slightly cheesy tunes but the algorithms and process in which they are created i find really interesting

code organ

2010-02-21T20:21:00.000-08:00

N+7

2010-02-21T18:32:00.000-08:00

The OULIPO, Indeterminacy (John Cage) and effect on algorithmic / programming approaches

Cage

John Cage, Indeterminacy (1959)
indeterminacy stories
concert for piano and orchestra

OULIPO

Raymond Queneau's One Hundred Thousand Billion Sonnets (Cent Mille Milliards de poèmes)
English translation

other
Verostko
Jean-Pierre Hébert

2010-02-07T15:24:00.000-08:00

audio capture/ creation

well i had a very disappointing experience with this project. i had an elaborate plan to score a piece for my capture, and record it in York's recital hall along side my fourth year composition class' pieces. i wrote out a score for 2 adapted violins (smal plastic tubes covering two strings on each instrument) an upright bass, an adapted trombone, bowed cymbols and an instrument of my own creation. i cut plastic tubes and attached it t a motor, which was controlled by a foot pedal to adjust the speed. as the speed increased the spinning tubes tone would rise. with this i had 3 cell phones on stage sitting beside amps, and the phone numbers written out so the audience could read them. the concept was people in the audience call the phones, the interference comes through in the amps as beeps and static, and the answering machine of each phone had the melodies of the piece recorded as the greeting, all the music on stage was an accompaniment to these melodies.
well it was performed and went over fairly well i feel, but for some unknown reason to me this is the first performance in the recital hall this year that was not recorded. i have no capture of it, so i can't use this anymore. it is my own fault for assuming it would be recorded, i should have investigated before the concert but it is a very big disappointment.
the pieces i am submitting is my plan B, a lot of the steam i had for this project i lost after the performance, but i am relatively happy with the final outcome.

2010-01-18T12:22:00.000-08:00

video project

when i enrolled at York in the Music program, i came to this university b/c it advertised itself as "the interdisciplinary University". misled i thought i could jump around the different faculties of the fine arts. i applied to many different programs other than music for i have a parallel skill and experience in other disciplines but when i came here i felt stuck in this faculty. the university does not allow any student to double major in the same faculty, and supplies very little courses for non-majors in the film, theater and design program. the visual art department provides some lower level courses but still is very restricting. saying this i was very excited to work on a video assignment for this class, and am very proud of my result. the two videos i produced are both independent but work as a dip-tic maintaining a very similar aesthetic but two different messages.
the first video titles "body" is an attempt to physically affect the viewers body with footage and sounds of the human anatomy. i wanted to use the theoretical "brown sound" which is not proven to exist by my understanding, but i like to this possible, is a frequency sub-audible that when exposed to for extended periods of time can loosen the human bowels. not finding a suitable sample online i ended up using Chris Burden's breathing water video where he attempts to breathe water. the audio is a lot of gurgling and choking, accompanied by visuals of old educational footage of turtle hearts and arteries being cut, schizophrenic patients and worms in the human body it does not make the viewer feel very comfortable.
the other video is of San Fransico in 1905 and 1906, before and after a devasting earthquake. the footage is of a street car driving straight on its tracks. the audio is an mix of an old educational film about space and time. the audio is edited to overlap and layer itself so at times being incomprehensible, so you resort back to the video. its an interesting piece were the visual is very monotonous but the audio can be over whelming.
this process has inspired me to start producing more cut-ups of found footage, for i have all the software at home i need to keep producing. i was very proud of the my first two products and hope to keep expanding on them.

2010-01-18T12:09:00.000-08:00

January 18th 2010
review so far

so my blogging skills seem to be a little below par so far this term. in my attempt to resurrect this i will write a short little review of me experience in the course as of such. working on our third project an audio capture and creation of a sound scape, i have ideas rushing through me. the last two projects have gotten my creative juices flowing and not only am i very excited to construct these assignments but have been very proud of the product i am producing.
the first assignment i didn't wrap my mind around the full concept and as a result i wasn't very satisfied with my piece. the criticism i received were very true. i didn't use this non-linear medium in the fashion it was intended to be used. My html website felt very rigid and directed and didn't give the user very much freedom. although i thought i created a theme and maintained it very nicely throughout.
i will post my veiws on the other projects at a later point, but my only criticism is that i feel the lectures are too short. i would much rather have a 2 hour lecture. i find the material very interesting but there is not enough time to get through it all, or go in depth about anything. its just a general overview over so many different ideas. it is great b/c we can in turn take the initiative to go deeper into what we find more interesting, but a 2 hour lecture i feel would be much more beneficial.

2009-11-23T06:45:00.000-08:00

2009-11-23T06:44:00.001-08:00

We interrupt this Program

I attended an exhibition entitled We interrupt this Program at The Mercer Union Art Gallery at Bloor and Lansdowne, Toronto. It was Curated by Sarah Robayo Sheridan with Steven Leiber and Ted Purves. Upon entrance to the exhibit one witnesses a room, which appears to be displaying documents throughout a winding table. Under the class displayed in many editions of “ArtForm” and other popular art publications. The exhibit was dedicated to presenting the personal ways in which artists used media to advertise themselves pre-internet. It took form in many gorilla adds in Artform depicting artist as products. It contained work from Lynda Benglis, Chris Burden, Herman de Vries, Jan Dibbets, Yoko Ono, and multiple other artists. It also contained several television sets, played TV spots artist had purchased to show their work.

I thoroughly enjoyed some of the video pieces, and the concept behind buying television time to use as your own personal gallery space is one I really appreciate. It is a very forceful way to get ones work displayed. Although the scenario these pieces were placed in I found to be out of context with their original intent. The strength of the art presented in this exhibit it based on their gorilla like tactic to be displayed, Interrupting television spots, or thrown in art magazines. Displaying them in a gallery is beneficial for the public to access these pieces, but robs the viewer of the shock, or confusion of what they are watching.

Chris burden’s video piece through the night softly is a good example. The beautiful piece, one of my personally favorites of the exhibition depicts Chris Burden crawling in his underwear in the dark over broken glass. The image is unrecognizable till about 50 seconds in when you can make an outline of a body crawling. The viewer witnessing this piece in a gallery is a completely different experience then having it appear on the television late at night. The understanding of what you are watching is completely different depending on the environment; the confusion that would emerge if you were at home watching does not take place to the same extent as when in the gallery. The same applies for the magazines ads; they’re shocking and stand out because they are next to articles and advertisements of existing products, not artists. I feel the reaction of flipping through a magazine and coming upon the add is different then seeing each add laid out next to each other and not being able to see their juxtaposition against the other adds and articles.

This fact put aside I really enjoyed the exhibit, it is a good documentation of performance art in an era that most of us in the class don’t fully comprehend, a time before the Internet.

2009-11-08T09:53:00.000-08:00

man in the dark

2009-11-08T09:50:00.000-08:00

how the internet enables intimacy

2009-09-27T19:15:00.000-07:00

concrete poetry
asteroids poetry by Jim Andrews

2009-02-07T21:24:00.000-08:00

2007-10-26T10:40:00.000-07:00

OCIC workshop on web design/ blogging.

2007-10-26T10:16:00.001-07:00

i added a picture of a tree...

tony creates blog

2007-10-26T08:49:00.001-07:00

...i created a blog.....