The Flower of Stillness

July 12, 2009

A fragmentary translation of Zeami [世阿弥元清]’s The Nine Stages of the Noh in Order served as both inspiration and creative headfuck for me during my time in Tokyo. As an outsider to the performance tradition in which it’s founded, The Nine Stages is opaque, yet provocative: the image of the Flower of Stillness — snow piling in a silver bowl — abides with me, and in my work. The Nine Stages of the Noh in Order Higher stages Flower of the miraculous – transcends power of speech and working of mind due to the yugen of a master actor. …

love will tear us apart

May 30, 2005

… the individual crackling surfaces of analog media in their instantiation — ‘my’ copy of that 12” single vs ‘yours’. Installation proposal: ‘love will tear us apart’: an archive of the different surface noise on once-lovers’ separately-purchased copies of once-shared albums, made by subtracting the signal common to both copies, leaving only the remaining patina, unique to each disc…

From Here to Where?

July 10, 2004

From performance, to recorded music, to nude media, to what?

Retro Patina

July 24, 2003

They’re still making stylus-free laser turntables in Japan. I’ve never heard one, but look at its immodestly chunky styling: it must sound fantastic (and evidently it does). And just over $10,000 for the basic model. Still, it seems the only way to experience that retro vinyl patina without degrading the media at the same time. But isn’t that cheating? Part of the vinyl experience is the harrowing of the grooves with each playback, surely.

Audio Patina as an Alpha Channel

January 21, 2003

A way to explore the accumulation of patina in analogue recordings, using digital media.

Patina / Nude Media

January 18, 2003

Analogue media accumulates patina through usage and time: digital media remains the same, forever…

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