Reading Response Two

Art Studio: The Artist’s Perspective: Multimedia Assignment Form for ARTS-235			Date: 2/17/2010 Name: Michael Widener Major: MMDD Specialization: Computing Year: Senior
Type of assignment [ ] Semester project √ Blog entry / Reading response [ ] Technical evaluation [ ] Exhibition			Title of the assignment: Julius and Orenblick Blog entry / Reading response
A description of the assignment. Throughout the semester, readings will be assigned which correspond to the area of multimedia we will be discussing or to the specific project you are working on. The readings will be discussed in class and the student will post a response to the reading on his or her blog.
Content of the assignment. In "What is Sound Art," Julius "follows three considerations of the term by three artists who take sound as their primary medium". Annea Lockwood, Max Neuhaus, and Christian Marclay define sound art for Julius through an evolution began in the 60s when the form was hardly recognized. He distinguishes between music and sound art that music aim to perform, to entertain, to achieve a set goal whereas sound art aims only to share aspects of itself, a texture, a technological trait, for example. He went on to point out that a sound art need not achieve a narrative like music in order to support the artist. If one only need catches a "collector's (or curator"s) attention, the person who created it can make a fair amount of money from it". He further drives the point home saying "Sound art rarely attempts to create a portrait or capture the soul of a human being, or express something about the interaction of human beings". Sound art then "rejects music's potential to compete with other time-based and narrative-driven art" and can be defined into three categories: 1. An installation sound environment 2. A visual artwork that has a sound-producing component 3. A visual artwork that has sound as an extension Ohrenblick's essay "In the Blink of an Ear," is an intellectually aggressive disassembly of standards for understanding sound. A reader comes away with the distinct feeling that Ohrenblick intends this with enthusiasm. One becomes frustrated with the bashing of convention and grasps for order. This frustration is best exemplified by the author's definition of a "sound walk". This art form, as Ohrenblick puts it, 'rambles' away from music into a subgenre of its own. It manifests in purposeless walks through a city, strolling the city simply to experience it. In a way, sound art aims to transpose the experience one may have to another without the other person actually having the same experience. In a sense, it is the most unassuming and faithful sharing of the experience. It neither attempts to shape nor narrate the experience. Depending on how you value the humility of it, sound art is decidedly humble.
	Biography of the author.	Michael Widener was born and raised in Berkeley, California. He is a thoughtful, quality-focused web programmer with accomplishments in computer problem solving and Internet business start-ups.