Caroline Gil-Rodriguez
Electronic Media Review, Volume Six: 2019-2020
ABSTRACT
The late artist’s practice, the Rainforest series and its assorted versions—stretching over decades—are constructed upon experimentation and constant change, rarely being assembled or performed exactly the same way twice. MoMA’s recent acquisition, restaging and reperforming of Tudor’s Rainforest V (Variation 1), done in collaboration with members of Composers Inside Electronics (John Driscoll, Phil Edelstein, Matt Rogalsky and Ed Potokar) brought forth an institutional examination of the potential practice of collaborative modes of conservation that places the work at a “point in a continuum.” For Rainforest V (Variation 1) CIE conceived a customized, self-running sound environment using control software (Max/MSP patches) and a sound library of more than a hundred audio files. Twenty objects are affixed with audio transducers, essentially making each object a speaker without a cone. The objects are then suspended throughout the space to create a visual and acoustic environment. Audio files are relayed to the transducer via speaker wire – intended to create a resonant effect, or in Tudor’s own words, a “loudspeaker-object.” Computer software has an unparalleled potential for creating and manipulating sound: Visual programming languages such as Max/MSP/Jitter endow artists with tools that automate, shift, and alter signal sources in real time as one could with a hardware modular synthesizer. Max programs (or patches) are made by arranging and connecting object blocks within a visual canvas. These object blocks behave as self-contained programs, but under the hood are dynamically linked libraries that can receive an input and generate an output. A conservator or artist may approach these patches and software programs as a means to an end for installing the work, but they may also contain the salient logic or acoustic tuning schemas and retain a critical aspect of a performance at a given time.
Taking into consideration previous research on conservation documentation of sound artworks, this talk will describe methods for documenting and assessing the condition of sound art, including analyzing audio files and evaluating the material value placed on artist-provided control systems as part of an electronic chain. Just as media art installation derives meaning through a system of interconnected components, this talk will reflect on how works that use this technology compel conservators to work through a coordinated web of signification in order to document the work-defining properties that will enable the feasible restaging of the work in the future.