Did you Hear that? Sound in Art!

Let's hear it for the noise!

Until July 1, the Minnesota Museum of American Art is exhibiting Art in Sound/Sound in Art. We motorcycled to St Paul on Wednesday night for the opening of the exhibit and the opening of the Minnesota Bent Festival. There aren't a lot of pieces that compose the exhibit, but the pieces there are interesting.

The Storm by Jack Pavlik












The Storm was the most visually interesting piece to me. Click here and look for the photo of the piece; you can actually see it in action. As the huge sheet moves, it sounds like waves of thunder. Pretty f'n cool.

Green by Shawn Decker












Green was most intriguing piece for me. The piece is made with 32 small speakers, light sensors, and four homemade custom-programmed micro-controllers, the clicks and buzzes it makes are created by impulses from ever-changing light levels and natural radiation. It was inspired by the sounds of insects.

Urban Echo is an interactive piece in action! What do you hear? What do you want others to hear? Call 612-501-2598 and answer these 2 questions.

MMAA associate curator Theresa Downing approached me while I was staring at Meza's pet carrier bag. It's a pet carrier bag that makes animal sounds. Friggin wierd. I must've been making a goofy face, cuz she said something like, "It's a little strange, isn't it?" She asked how I heard about the exhibit and I told her we were there as supporters of the Bent Festival and strange sounds. I digged her knee-high socks/ knee-length skirt combo. Gerg waltzed over and then Theresa introduced us to Mike Rosenthal, the curator of the Bent Festival. Talked about the festival. He asked about interest levels in this area. I said it was impossible to find a Speak n Spell around here, which we all agreed was a good thing for Bent, but a bad thing for us.

We met this cool guy named Tim who was rokking the same Reddy Kilowatt patch that I have. He's a wikked cool circuit bender. We talked about running into each other this weekend, which increased our excitement about the festival, since he had some really cool toys with him at MMAA. While we were talking with him, one of the Sonic State guys joined in the conversation. This site is a synth lovers wet dream.

Ran into BeatrixJar on our way out - they were leaving too. Bianca was also sporting knee-high socks and a knee-length skirt! I'm starting to notice a trend! I've also noticed that this seems to be Bianca's signature "look" cuz she was totally sporting it at the Nomad show as well. We talked about the fact that they had sent me an offer for free Bent passes the day after gerg bought our weekend passes. DOH! gerg and I agreed that the exhibit is totally worth checking out, and since there isn't a ton of stuff to see, you can easily pop by after work or before a weekend outing.

Stop back for loads of photos and stories from Bent. We're totally amped!! gerg bought weekend passes and a load of toys just waiting to be corrupted.