Two Years Ago – 2006
The Ridgefield Playhouse in Connecticut on December 6th, 2006.
File under Ideas
New slideshow with three elements:
1) still image/photo
2) video (about 10 seconds in duration) without camera movement and with one or more visual elements moving at some point – e.g. view of street with a car moving through the field or a leaf blowing across, or a cloud moving slowly…
3) time lapse photography, e.g. 10 photographs of 1 second duration each
I think combining these elements would create interesting visual rhythms that would run along or counter to the music’s rhythm. Right now, using only still images, the rhythm is more like that of a clock, even and constant.
I will try working with Keynote for several reasons:
– Keynote can mix photography and video
– I know the program quite well already and programming would be easy – unlike Flash, which has a big learning curve
– if I mix still, video and time-lapse elements I might NOT want randomness, because I would not want to see several videos in a row. The randomness could be faked by using the iChing (like John Cage) for example.
Blue Note
I like the idea of short video clips where there is no camera movement at all. Could be very interesting to incorporate that into my slideshow. The contrast of a completely still image with one that appears to be still, but then a car moves through the frame, or the wind blows a leaf… Lightroom does not work with video. I could create the slideshow in Keynote, but that does not allow for the randomness I prefer. Maybe I can use the I-Ching – as John Cage often did – to create something that seems random. But, it would be the same slideshow every night… I might also try importing the images and video into iPhoto. I know iPhoto can present photos and vid, but I don’t remember whether it can present a random slideshow containing both. Sometimes software inspires new artforms and sometimes software is a little behind…
It has been very nice that many people have asked whether I will publish a book of my photography. “I am a professional photographer and I would buy a book of yours”, was one nice comment. Now that “The Scent of Light” is finished I may some times to think about this. I think ideally I would publish a DVD with the music of “One Guitar”, or maybe a new compilation of pieces, and a random slideshow. Not sure how a random slideshow could be programmed into a DVD. Another interesting idea would be to record new solo music with a binaural head… imagine a DVD with a slideshow of still and moving images and a guitar recording where the sound keeps moving around the virtual room. That reminds me of a performance I once did in a Boston gallery, where I kept moving around the space, sitting here and there to play a piece. The limitation would be that one could only experience the DVD on a computer and with headphones. But it also would be an amazing stimulation for one’s imagination, a new kind of poetry. Maybe the limitation would also be its strength in that it would be a very private and personal experience.
I had a good time tonight. Both shows were completely sold out. Couldn’t not notice a blinking red light two feet in front of me, (Adam, cough, cough) which was mildly irritating as one can still see that sort of thing through closed eyelids, but I got over it. At least put some black tape over that LED, eh? Overall a very nice way to spend a Saturday evening. Nice audience.
Turning off the laptop in between the two shows solved the problem of the Lightroom slideshow freezing in the middle of my set – which I think is more likely a Leopard issue than a Lightroom issue. I hope the upcoming 10.5.3 update will fix that.
