ASLAP
January 28th, 2010
Last week I stumbled upon this list of the 50 best wikipedia articles. I looked it over and thought "whatever, I'm sure they're not that amazing." And then I clicked on a random link to prove it to myself. And found myself at the page for As Slow As Possible, a piece written by John Cage for organ that is designed to be played "as slow as possible". So some church organ in Germany (pictured above) has been wired up to play it for 639 YEARS! It started in 2001. Apparently it's like a really big deal whenever a new note comes in…
Reminds me of 24 hour Psycho, the Douglas Gordan installation where he slows down Psycho so that it takes a full 24 hours to run. You watch it inching by and get seduced by its rhythms, the barely changing frame, the small movements. When there's a cut, it's a big deal. I remember watching it for a long time, then going away, leaving the museum, going to get a drink, coming back, looking at other artworks, and then coming back to it only to find that it was still in the same scene. Kind of amazing.
Anyway, check out this list of the 50 most most interesting wikipedia articles…like the page says, this will fill you full of interesting cocktail party conversation, which is a good thing…
click over there, start reading and kiss your Thursday good-bye…
#4 Tybee Bomb. Mind Buggling. 24 Hour Psycho was a good time too, remember the other exhibit that was pitch black and you went to the front and stood there till the lights came on??
#26. The Zone of Alienation. The best part is that the Ukrainians don't seem to realize that they're actually living out their own Kafka novel.
Not to mention #1, the Marree Man…all my crop circle style dreams and suspicions blended into a giant howdtheydodat?
and yeah @OD, that was an amazing exhibit — the bagpiper?!?!?!…remember also that the text in that dark room on the wall was about that last moment of life that a severed head has after it's detached and still lives…also I have a hazy memory of standing in front of the text and making a weird pose before walking out to surprise and bemusement…
a description of that piece:
The simple power of Gordon’s work is evident in 30 Seconds Text, a room installation of 1996. This consists of a single hanging light bulb that goes on in a previously pitch-black room. The bulb illuminates a text printed on one of the walls, which describes an experiment carried out in Montpellier in 1905 to see how long a man retains consciousness after his head has been severed by the guillotine. Apparently, it takes 30 seconds. It also takes 30 seconds to read the whole text. After this time has elapsed, the light goes out and we are plunged back into darkness.
Whether Prometheus should be considered the oldest organism ever known depends on the definition of "oldest" and "organism"…
Yes, thats what I was talking about, but I didnt remember the text and guillotine, nice call…bagpipes too
how often do we go to cocktail parties?