Portland Museum of Art - Portland, ME (Museum Tour)

WHEN: Friday, July 21st, 5:30 - 7:30 PM
WHERE: Museum Garden - Portland Museum of Art - Portland, ME
WHAT: The Bring Your Own Voice Museum Tour continues in a northern direction, crossing into Maine for the first time. I used to live in Portland and it holds a special place in my heart, so I am particularly pleased to be returning for this tour.

- Does art have to be beautiful?
- What is the purpose of an art museum?

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Summary:

Number of voices recorded: 15
Reading sheets used: 22
Weather: more torrential than a PT Anderson movie
Level of success: much higher than I ever would have imagined given how it began
Records broken: most rain ever rained on the booth
Photos: Check them out

I had not gotten rained on quite this hard in a long long time. The streets of Portland were transformed into rapids for about an hour, filling the time between when we got the booth setup and when the event started. In that sense, the timing couldn't have been better, so I guess we were lucky, but I can't help but feel that it would have been even luckier to skip the rain entirely. I learned my lesson in Harvard Square last year, so the booth was prepared for rain as well as a plywood box can be prepared. As I was stringing up the blue tarp to the overhanging tree, I felt like I was bringing the booth on its first camping trip, hoping that the thunder wouldn't scare it.
OK, enough personification. Despite the unhelpful weather, the event was definitely a success and I am very pleased that the Portland Museum of Art wanted to participate in the tour. We had a constant stream of people recording, and even though the event was a brief 2 hours long, we managed to get fifteen voices which wasn't too bad. The crowd was quite engaged and interested in what was going on in the plywood box and only two people thought it was a peep show.

My favorite carrot again performed brilliantly, and quite remarkably retained a positive attitude throughout the evening. Thanks also to everyone at the museum who supported this project and to the curiously omnipresent security guards.

As usual, click below to access some representative audio clips:

the beauty of confusion

singing and floating

Wally is very cool

intentionality

we each have our own

never been before

necessary or not?

good to stare

offices suck

The Aldrich Museum - Ridgefield, CT (Museum Tour)

WHEN: Saturday, July 15th, 12-5PM
WHERE: the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum - Ridgefield, CT

WHAT: This event will kick off the Bring Your Own Voice Museum Tour. With dates at other museums in the northeast throughout the summer and fall, I will be collecting opinions on art and the role of museums in today's society. As always, the intent of these collections is not only to learn more about what people think about topics that interest me, but to act as raw material for a musical work.

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Summary:

Number of voices recorded: 39
Reading sheets used: 22
Weather: way too hot to be outside doing much of anything
Level of success: very high - a great way to kick-off the tour
Records broken: first time Perrier was provided to us!
Photos: Check them out

I hope that the entire BYOV Museum Tour goes as well as this event. The venue was great, both logistically and in terms of the people who work there. The voice collecting went at a steady and more relaxed pace throughout which was a nice change from the usual fits and starts. René and I both remarked at how we weren't totally wiped afterwards like we were after the Museum of Science event. We had yummy Indian food to celebrate and then I got to watch a recap of the day's activities on Le Tour (this was quite a treat since I have no cable at home!)

HUGE thanks to René, the woman who can cheerily convince just about anyone to enter a small dark box to record their voice (even accompanied by a photographer!). Also to the incredibly kind people at the Aldrich. You are all inspirational.

As usual, click below to access some representative audio clips:

the best reason ever!

this is what I like to hear!

limitations are bad

BIG with tiny

a nice sibling disagreement

any guesses?

different feelings for different folks

be grand and big and fly high

interior/exterior

heart of stone

arguments

art tells you what it's talking about

visceral vs. cognitive

I feel grateful for art

SpongeBob may not be art