6 Hour Endurance Piece

This was a very interesting experience for me. At first, it was not that bad because my partner and I were just sitting still. When it was time to move though, things started to become difficult. Since Jake could not hear, I could not use my voice to communicate with him and tell him what I wanted to do. I tried to give some sort of hand signals, but it was hard since I could not see where I was or what was happening around me. So after a while I was just an extension of Jake and I had to go wherever he went.

One of the first tasks that we had to complete was eating pizza. Jake had to hand me each slice and I had to tap him every-time I wanted another.

By the fourth hour I was becoming better at navigating the room around me and could lead Jake around the room to different chairs and even the fridge. I found that my ears were slightly more sensitive to white noises like fans.

Not much else happened for the rest of the piece and when the sixth hour ended, I removed my blindfold. I felt like I had just woken up from a deep sleep and the brightness of the room hurt my eyes. This eventually subsided and everything was back to normal.

This piece really gave me some perspective on what someone with a disability has to deal with on a daily basis. Next time I would want to try it with the headphones.

Record of Time

For my record of time, I listened to an album of music on my ipod for every "hour". Each album that I chose had a duration of about an hour. So, each album provided a rough estimation of how much time had passed. Each track was a subdivision of the album, or the normal time equivalent of a minute. So this is a new way of telling time without using a clock. Here is my "music clock" of the 12 hours that I did this assignment:

1st album- Midnight Marauders by A Tribe Called Quest

2nd abum- Labor Days by Aesop Rock

3rd album- Hello Nasty by The Beastie Boys

4th album- Mind Fusion vol. 3 by Madlib

5th album- Do You Want More!?!!!??! by The Roots

6th album- A Retrospective by KRS One

7th album- La La Means I Love You by The Delfonics

8th album- Stakes is High by De La Soul

9th album- Tales of Forgotten Melodies by Wax Tailor

10th album- Music by Cavelight by Blockhead

11th album- Enter the 36 Chambers by Wu-Tang Clan

12th album- Liquid Courage by Wax and EOM

Sound Postcard Andrew Ross

For my sound postcard I recorded the sound of a fan and then, using digital software, I slowed down the pitch gradually until it was - 100% (which means that the sound is at a "zero point" where it is not playing or making noise anymore).

I chose this sound because I usually use a fan in my room everyday. While sitting in my dorm, the hum of the fan is a constant sound. I wanted to experiment with altering that consistent buzz. The most interesting way to do so I found was to change the pitch of the sound (slowing down or speeding up the sound). First I tried with my turntables, but the range of pitch change was only + or - 10%. So instead I used a music mixing software on my computer which had a pitch changing range + or - 100%. I played the recorded sound in the program and recorded myself slowing it down gradually to - 100% or the point at which the sound stops completely.

Automata

Picture taken by Derek Georgia

Andrew Ross Endurance Proposal

I will be doing an endurance piece with Jake Berson. We are each going to deprive ourselves of one of our senses. One of us will not be able to see (will be blind-folded), one of us will not be able to hear(will be wearing headphones with very loud music playing) To decide which person loses which sense, we will flip a coin. Both of us will also be bound together at the wrists, inhibiting our movements, so for the duration we will have to work in unison to complete tasks and function. At the end of six hours we may remove the tape binding us and the blindfold or headphones.

One Drum

w

One Drum focuses on the concept of time. Two different forms of time. Real time and the tempo of the two different drummers drums.

Remix