BAGS
a collaboration between Nick Bertoni, Laetitia Sonami, the Tinkers Workshop and East-Bay Youth
(Pictures & movie clips to come soon... )
New Langton Arts September 18 - October 19, 2002
Opening Reception Thursday September 19, 6-8pm
1246 Folsom St - SF CA 94103 (415) 626 5416
BAGS / description
Bags of various kind are activated by internal mechanisms which are set in motion when approached or touched. The activation of the bags in turn controls the music. The viewers can thus control and ÒplayÓ the musical score as they interact with the bags.
Seven to nine sets of bags have been selected from a collection of unusual ready-mades (handbags, luggage, military bags, brief cases....). They reflect a variety of life styles and experiences and thus become the vehicle by which local stories and struggles are recollected. Whether they are precious chests of memories or all you have left when living in the streets, they hide secret worlds to be discovered. They encapsulate dreams, fears and expectations. They play on the contrast between the inner world and the projected images of self.
The TinkerÕs Workshop in association with Sonami and Electronic wizard Richard Mortimer Humphrey have equipped the bags with mechanisms which set them in motion (pneumatics, servo and dc motors). They may shake with fear, sway with doubt, inflate like lungs, beat like hearts, open up and reveal their insides, growl like wild animals and close up like clams.
The interactive musical score is composed of recorded voices which are be triggered, recalled or modified by the viewer.
Youth who participate in the TinkerÕs Workshop and who range from age 8 to 14, have been trained to interview and collect stories from their families and neighborhoods. These personnel accounts are associated to specific bags and heard when the bags are set in motion by the viewer. These sounds are mixed in an ever-changing soundscape made of abstract electronic sounds, rhythms and processed natural sounds. Thus, when the viewer gets close to one of the bags, it becomes animated and affect the overall musical score by revealing its voice and ÒpersonalityÓ. The type of motion associated with the individual bags will affect the rhythm and density of the music.
As an example, one bag opens up when approached,a voice is heard and juxtaposed over the existing sound layers. Another bag may silence the overall music as it reveals a different story while inflating. Each bag thus becomes a performer in a cohesive musical ensemble, and the audience the conductors of this simulated musical collaboration.
The music is heard on an array of small speakers located on the walls and within the bags.
A web of infrared sensors on the ceiling senses the movement of the audience and controls the motion and sounds of bags (BX-24 / PIR systems). The viewer can also have a more direct control of the bags by using "channel surfers" which they can aim at the objects to "play" them.
The TinkerÕs Workshop has been in operation since 1996, founded by Nick Bertoni, an artist, inventor and project developer. Nick was technical director of the Center for Contemporary Music at Mills College for ten years and project manager of the Artists in Residence Program at the Exploratorium for eight years. The Workshop is located downtown Berkeley in two adjacent buildings and has been funded by the Tamarack foundation, the LEF foundation and the City of Berkeley. The mission of the TinkerÕs Workshop is to foster a spirit of imaginative experimentation through collaboration and community outreach. Novices and professionals, school dropouts, the homeless and learners of all ages have access to the WorkshopÕs tools and expertise needed to accomplish their artistic goals and realize their creative ideas. The WorkshopÕs facilities are equipped with the tools and machines necessary for most types of fabrication and staffed by a diverse group of creative people. These facilities are open to the public, with a special emphasis on under-served youth. They can attend workshops in arts, science and inventing and are encouraged to develop manual skills and follow through on their creative ideas with support of the staff. Accomplished artists and inventors also come to get help and exchange their ideas. Technical services are provided to affiliated arts organization (such as the Discovery Museum) and to social activists. A series of talks from renown artist and tinkers (from Nobel Laureate in physics Martin Pearl to artists Buster Simpson, Paul DeMarinis and Ned Kahn) has attracted an enthusiastic following.