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Minimundus
Four Historical Electronic Works as Fully Functional Miniatures
'Seppo Gründler
Seppo Gründler
TV Buddha, Nam June Paik, 1974 What is probably Nam June Paik’s most famous video work came about as a makeshift solution to a problem: an empty wall at his fourth exhibition in New York’s Galleria Bonino. Shortly before the opening, he got the idea of turning an antique statue of Buddha that he had once bought as an investment into a TV viewer. Ultimately, a video camera was added so that the Buddha could then sit and contemplate himself on the monitor screen. The past and the present thus confronted one another in this encounter of Eastern deity and Western media.
Media Art Network, http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/tv-buddha/—download from June 14, 2004
Material: Buddha statue, CCD Finger Camera, Casio LCD color television TV – 970, multiple plug extension cord, power pack.Pendulum Music, Steve Reich, 1969 “When it was done as a concert piece at the Whitney Museum in 1969, during an event of my music, it was ‘performed’ by Bruce Neuman, Michael Snow, Richard Sierra, James Tenney and myself. They pulled back their measured microphones and I counted off 4-4 and on the downbeat, they all let it go and sat down, including me. Then the microphones begin to ‘whoop!’ as they passed in front of the speaker because the microphones had been preset to be loud enough to give feedback when it’s in front of the speaker but not when it swings to the left and the right. Over a period of ten minutes, which was a little too long for my taste, and as the pendulums come to rest, you entered a pulsing drone. Once it hit the drone, I would pull the plug on the machine and the whole thing ended.”
Reich, Steve: http://www.furious.com/perfect/ohm/reich.html—download from March 2, 2004
Material: 3 guitar amplifiers 13 x 13 x 7 cm, 3 Sound-Professionell mini-microphones, electronic controls, power pack, multiple-plug extension cord. Visitors can start the microphone swinging; shutdown is automatic.Il Treno di John Cage, John Cage, 1978 “3 excursions in a prepared train, variations on a theme by Tito Gotti, by John Cage with the assistance of Juan Hidalgo and Walter Marchetti”
“In N railroad cars,” John Cage wrote, “I propose to install a sound system of N times 2 channels in such a way that two loudspeakers (A and B) are mounted on the ceiling of each car. The sounds that are picked up by the N microphones that are mounted on the exterior of the cars—ideally on the underside—are broadcast via the loudspeakers NA. The loudspeakers NB broadcast the sounds—shouts, noise, but no conversations—that the N microphones pick up in the interior of the N railroad cars. Switches mounted on loudspeakers A and B [...] enable any passenger to switch from one channel to another. [...] During a station stop [...] the entire system is abruptly switched from NA and NB to the loudspeakers C and D that are mounted outside on the roof of each car. [...]The loudspeakers NC broadcast signals from N times N cassettes [...], on which Juan Hidalgo and Walter Marchetti have prepared sounds from the Bologna Train Station. [...] In another part of the same car, [...] cassettes resulting from another selection process [..] are being played: on these cassettes, Juan Hidalgo and Walter Marchetti have recorded audio material that is typical of the different locations at which the train stops, [...]
From: Charles, Daniel: John Cage oder die Musik ist los: Merve 1979
Material: Minitrix Starter Set 11465, electronic controls, piezo-microphones, miniature loudspeakers, assorted model railroad material (figures, train station, trees, etc.). Visitors can operate the train themselves and select the “cassette.”Drive in Music, Max Neuhaus, 1967 For Drive-In Music (1967), “an environment for people in automobiles,” people drove along a specified path and passed through an array of low-power radio transmitters (7 – 20 units) each with an electronic sound generator mounted on poles or trees. The passengers heard combinations of sounds on the car radios. The sound generators were weather-sensitive and responded to minute changes in temperature, light, and humidity.
“Blue” Gene Tyranny, NewMusicBox,
http://www.newmusicbox.org/page.nmbx?id=45tp03—download vom 2. 3. 2004
Material: model car, electronic controls, miniature transmitter, receiver, various miniature scenery items (trees, houses, etc.). Visitors can steer the car themselves.
Translated from German by Mel Greenwald
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