My Remix A Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Fine Arts in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Mark Gunderson Graduate Program in Art The Ohio State University 2015 Master’s Examination Committee: Kenneth Rinaldo, Advisor Todd Slaughter Marc Ainger CC BY SA Mark Gunderson 2015 Abstract Before my graduate studies began I had already established myself as an artist of the remix, with dozens of albums and hundreds of performances worldwide. This was always in the context of a band: works were musical and usually performative. This changed during my graduate studies as I explored ways to remix my practice of remixing. Some works were musical but not exclusively performative, such as the Fruit Looper. Then musicality faded in later works such as the sonified Pillow Fight and ultimately went silent for the video-only installation Bird/Wings. Yet while the use of music and performance ebbed, the remix flowed: the flexibility of this strategy enabled the expansion of my artistic practice from one of remixing music to one of remixing sight, sound, interface, context, and even my dreams, culminating in my thesis exhibition installation Birdless / Wingless. ii Dedication To Christy, for steadfastly supporting my art and loving me throughout To my parents Ann and Gayne, for fostering my independent mind iii Vita 1987 . B. S., DeVry Institute of Technology 2012 - present . Graduate Teaching Associate, The Ohio State University Field of Study Major Field: Art iv Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................... ii Dedication ...................................................................................................................... iii Vita ................................................................................................................................. iv Field of Study ................................................................................................................. iv List of Figures ................................................................................................................. vi Chapter 1: And Now, Let’s Go Back Into History A Little Bit ............................................ 1 Chapter 2: My Structure, Deconstructed ......................................................................... 8 Chapter 3: Do It ('Til You're Satisfied) ............................................................................13 Object Turntable .........................................................................................................15 Fruit Looper ................................................................................................................17 Pillow Fight .................................................................................................................20 Bird / Wings ................................................................................................................21 Other Delights ............................................................................................................23 AutoTuned Door .........................................................................................................25 Chapter 4: Showtime .....................................................................................................27 Chapter 5: Over And Out ...............................................................................................40 References ....................................................................................................................42 v List of Figures Figure 1.1: The Evolution Control Committee, Gunderphonic ......................................... 3 Figure 1.2: The Thimbletron ........................................................................................... 4 Figure 1.3: Cease & Desist Letter from CBS................................................................... 5 Figure 1.4: The Evolution Control Committee, All Rights Reserved ................................ 5 Figure 1.5: All Rights Reserved Listener License Agreement ......................................... 6 Figure 2.1: Artist Statement ............................................................................................ 8 Figure 3.1: Object Turntable ..........................................................................................15 Figure 3.2: Object Turntable ..........................................................................................16 Figure 3.4: Fruit Looper MaxMSP programming view ....................................................18 Figure 3.3: Fruit Looper at the Bay Area Maker Faire 2015 ...........................................18 Figure 3.5: Fruit Looper 3D rendering ............................................................................19 Figure 3.6: Fruit Looper 3D rendering ............................................................................19 Figure 3.8: Pillow Fight in use ........................................................................................21 Figure 3.7: Pillow Fight ..................................................................................................21 Figure 3.9: Bird/Wings video still ....................................................................................22 Figure 3.10: Bird/Wings video still ..................................................................................23 Figure 3.11: Other Delights ............................................................................................24 Figure 3.12: Other Delights detail ..................................................................................24 Figure 3.13: AutoTuned Door ........................................................................................25 vi Figure 4.1: Thesis Exhibition (first version) 3D rendering ...............................................27 Figure 4.2: Birdless Wings / Wingless Birds installation entrance ..................................28 Figure 4.3: Whipped Cream Wall ...................................................................................29 Figure 4.4: Bird/Wings video sequence .........................................................................30 Figure 4.5: Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller, Opera For A Small Room ...................31 Figure 4.6: Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller, The Dark Pool ....................................32 Figure 4.7: Birdless Wings / Wingless Birds ...................................................................32 Figure 4.8: Whole Jackdaw In Heavy Syrup and Wren Paste jar lamps .........................33 Figure 4.9: Birdless Wings / Wingless Birds microphone listener ...................................34 Figure 4.10: Dialogue script for microphone voices .......................................................35 Figure 4.11: Birdless Wings / Wingless Birds detail .......................................................36 Figure 4.12: Birdless Wings / Wingless Birds detail .......................................................36 Figure 4.13: Birdless / Wingless technology diagram #1 ................................................37 Figure 4.14: Birdless / Wingless technology diagram #2 ................................................38 vii Chapter 1: And Now, Let’s Go Back Into History A Little Bit "What we're gonna do right here is go back Way back Back into time..." Jimmy Castor Bunch, "Troglodyte (Cave Man)" (1972) “And now, let's go back into history a little bit. (click)” Negativland, “Time Zones” (1987) In 1972 the Jimmy Castor Bunch recorded that lyric at the beginning of their song “Troglodyte (Cave Man)”, a fictitious history of mating habits and the Butt sisters. Although it peaked at only #6 on the charts, that recorded line has been sampled in over 75 songs. Fifteen years later, Negativland released their album Escape From Noise, my personal favorite in their repertoire. Although it did not sample the Jimmy Castor Bunch, it did sample at least 75 other bands. I am a big fan of both. 1 Before arriving at The Ohio State University to begin graduate studies in art (and technology) I had spent a couple decades building up a reputation as a creative copyright violator as The Evolution Control Committee. Under that band name I released over twenty albums, most of which were collaged from samples which I never secured clearance or permission to use. This was a trick I learned from Negativland, especially from their Escape From Noise album quoted above. It was also a habit that got me seeking and appreciating the original sound sources of the various samples I heard -- not just in Negativland’s avant-garde music, but in hip-hop and other genres. Initially the motivation was competitive, but later the motivation was true appreciation for the originals and my personal discovery of them. This was true regardless of what the original sound source was -- song, speech, sound effect; they were often equally enjoyable, especially since my joy was also in the achievement of my discovery, as if I’d located a rare manuscript in a forgotten library, a fragment of which was known and renowned, yet unidentified or thought lost as a whole. Collage and reappropriation are fairly venerable terms in art, but at the time they were largely unknown in popular music. The mid-1980’s saw the emergence of the sampling keyboard, an instrument which unleashed the concept of sound sampling to popular