Christian Marclay

One of the most fascinating things I learned in watching the video on Christian Marclay was that he is half-deaf as a result of always enjoying music as a physical experience where he would go to clubs and listen to music that would take over one’s body. I found this so interesting as it’s such a testament to his love and passion for music, but also makes me think that he possibly hears sound very differently to someone with full hearing which is how he is able to conjure such interesting audio compositions! Anyway, apart from this, two things that inspired me in his work were what he refers to as the objectification of sound, as well as the relationship between sound and images, and the notion of images evoking sounds.

Marclay states that he believes there is “something fascinating about sound being objectified.” This is a very intriguing statement which at first I did not fully understand, but what it definitely recalled for me was the video we watched in class of Marclay “collaging” vinyls together to create new and unique compositions. Marclay also describes the nauseating stench of burning vinyl on his stove resulting in a dream he had where he was eating them. Inspired by this dream, he made a video wherein he is depicted doing exactly this – eating a vinyl – accompanied by a strange, high-pitched soundtrack. These examples of Marclay creating a physical, manipulable form of something intangible like sound is very interesting to me as it is not an association that is very obvious to me, possibly because I am from a generation wherein a lot of the audio media that we engage with is digitized and for many there is rarely any opportunity to physically intervene with it.

Moreover, Marclay even discusses the musical duo he formed with guitarist Kurt Henry, called The Bachelors Even, wherein his performances using turntables included sounds generated through recording skipping records, using cassettes on stage as background rhythmic loops, and performing several destructive actions such as breaking records or smacking them together (as represented in Record Players which I found quite funny). This action of recording other sounds to create sounds, and using specific actions that involve the destruction of (objectified) sound I believe contains a deeper symbolism, as to some extent it signifies a whole life cycle that the sound is undergoing evoking the kinds of conceptual ideas that Marclay is interested in. Sound is generated and objectified in vinyl; it is then destroyed to produce sound which is further objectified; the resulting sound is then collated with others to create a performance, and so the cycle continues. 

Another aspect of Marclay’s work is his exploration of images in relation to sound. He states that “the thread of [his] work is sound, but sound is such a wide subject that it allows [him] to work with different media.” This is reflected in one of his very interesting works – The Snapchat Project. In this, he wanted to shift the focus from the visual to the sound, and in doing so he worked with engineers to develop algorithms that would browse publicly posed snapchats to collate images for 5 different interactive sound installations. In the video on Art21, one can see a number of people playing a keyboard that generates different groups of images based on the key that is pressed, and several iPhones displaying snapchats that produce a surge of sounds. What was interesting to me about this, was that Marclay took videos and sounds from personal moments and created a sort of cloud of sound out of this that can collectively represent such a myriad of things. Moreover, the interactive nature of these installations adds another personal element to the generation of sound, which further develops a very deep sense of connection between people through sound. It reminds me in some ways of Kimsooja’s Archive of Mind as the collective actions of people are what bring a work of art to its final fruition.

Finally, Marclay also discusses his use of images to evoke sounds, speaking specifically of his projects Investigations and Manga Scroll. Investigations involved Marclay providing pianists with a number of cropped images of fingers placed on piano keys in specific positions, wherein the task was for them to emulate these images and consequently produce sound. To me, this was a very direct translation of the concept of images evoking sound, and I found it to be a very creative way to approach the production of a performance. Not only is the audience able to see sound represented visually in a non-traditional way, but also the interpretive capabilities of different pianists will also result in a performance that is dynamic each time it is conducted (like with the changing environments in John Cage’s 4:33). 

Moreover, Marclay’s graphic scores called Manga Scroll – wherein he composes a work solely out of onomatopoeias that are derived from comic books or photographs – also reminded me of another of John Cage’s works that we watched in class where he produces a musical piece out of different objects. The two pieces contain several parallels to me as they are both “collages” of sound in their own ways, with Cage putting together the independent sounds of objects to produce a cohesive composition, and Marclay doing the same with images that connote sound. The performance of Manga Scroll was also strangely fascinating to watch as to some extent it is a little absurd to listen to someone generate meaningless noises on a stage, but also there is a dynamic nature to it that keeps the audience engaged.

Overall, I found Marclay’s work to be a very interesting and unconventional approach towards making visual art or music from sounds, especially since he is an artist who can neither read nor write traditional music. His approach was quite different from other artists we have reviewed in the past, and definitely proves to me that a formal knowledge of music is not a necessity to create art out of sounds, but a significant element of it is a willingness to listen, observe, and actively seek out sounds that are contained within objects or environments.

Provided References:
Christian Marclay

Work from:
30th Nov 2020 – Daily Vitamins Assignment
Time with Professor Mike Rader