So here is what I got in mind for my site specific installations due in May..
I’ll get back pretty soon with thoughts on a recent research on some peculiar objects called BUTTKICKERS!!!! which I'm planning to use for what follows..
As I've been focusing both my dissertation - and most of the compositions that I’ve created in the last two years - on popular culture and the recycle of sound material through sonic manipulation, I thought about having my final installation as a site-specific piece around the iconic image of the Coca-cola can. As source of inspiration I definitely have to cite Andy Warhol, especially the 32 Campbell’s Soup Cans piece, and Christian Marclay’s Telephone.The installation I have in mind has at its core an environmental message, and it is a direct attack on the corporate world we live in.
The provisional title is: We CAN Walk (in our corporate graves)
It consists of two separate factors:
- Thousands of empty cans of Coke
- A composition played through loudspeakers (which would be a mix of Foley work on cans of Coke, Coke company Jingles, and probably an overall structure similar to Mozart's
Requiem). I need also to find out if such a mass of cans of Coke can be molecularly moved by subsonic infrasounds.
I considered health and safety because of the sharp edges of the used tin cans, and I thought about RED working suits, RED boots and RED gardening gloves.
I also thought of building some sonic Headphones – which are called CANS in popular English slang funny enough- with two cans at the two ends, but that could be another piece, maybe with the title "I CAN hear you!”
The piece would need some carpentry work that I can do with some friends, as I need to elevate the container floor, and then having it descending in a sea of empty cans of Coke - of course at a reasonable level (again) for health and safety reasons.
Regarding the composition techs specifics for diffusion, it would be stereo with a sub-woofer. So I'd only need an amp, two speakers + sub, a CD player.
I'll look through recycling companies to see what's the deal on getting such a big amount of cans, and also if I can manage to get the council to collect them at the end of the show for recycling purposes. I also thought about asking local Kebab shop to keep some plastic red rubbish containers -which I will provide- to collect and separate the cans from the rest of the garbage (I’m pretty sure more than a million cans of coke are consumed in the London area each and everyday). I could do the same thing in the school building and offices workspaces.
I also thought of building some sonic Headphones – which are called CANS in popular English slang funny enough- with two cans at the two ends, but that could be another piece, maybe with the title "I CAN hear you!”
The piece would need some carpentry work that I can do with some friends, as I need to elevate the container floor, and then having it descending in a sea of empty cans of Coke - of course at a reasonable level (again) for health and safety reasons.
Regarding the composition techs specifics for diffusion, it would be stereo with a sub-woofer. So I'd only need an amp, two speakers + sub, a CD player.
I'll look through recycling companies to see what's the deal on getting such a big amount of cans, and also if I can manage to get the council to collect them at the end of the show for recycling purposes. I also thought about asking local Kebab shop to keep some plastic red rubbish containers -which I will provide- to collect and separate the cans from the rest of the garbage (I’m pretty sure more than a million cans of coke are consumed in the London area each and everyday). I could do the same thing in the school building and offices workspaces.
I got a friend who's a lawyer that can enlighten me regarding the risks I could incur into by using the Coca-cola brand - Even if I’ve been told by LCC staff that it shouldn't be a problem because LCC is a private space.
The room will also get darker and darker as people go through - Think of Miroslaw Balka's installation at the Turbine Hall.
The perfect site for this piece would be the red container now standing outside of the school building. I’ve been in touch with the responsible of the site and I’m not waiting for everything to be green-lightened.
Signing off.
