steve
roden
stills
(for guru dutt), 2004
solo exhibition:tang
teaching museum, skidmore college, saratoga springs ny , june - september 2004
stills (for guru dutt) consisted of two works - the first was a sound
piece created from electronically processed fragments of background sounds
from various scenes in guru dutt's film pyaasa. since the use of an elevator
space suggested listening lengths of a single ride, i decided to work
with a 3 minute compositional lengths instead of my usual preference of
20 to 40 minutes. the entire audio work consisted of 10 different 3 minute
pieces, sequenced randomly by the audio system's shuffle mode. the intention
was so people who work in the museum would have different audio experiences when using the elevator numerous times on the same day.
the second part of the installation was a visual/text work created for
the lighted ceiling panels using the hindi language lyrics of one of the
songs from pyaasa to trigger a text in english. i spent a few nights
transcribing the song text into phonetic phrases and then taking the phrases
and "translating" them into english based on various visual
and linguistic suggestions - thus the translation of the word "kaharhen" from the chorus sent me to the part "harhen" which suggested the word "hearing"
based on how it sounded and looked. "harhen" (and hence, "hearing") was already used in a verse,
so by adding the "ka" in front of hearing, it suggested another
word related to hearing... "listen". the entire text was generated
in this manner. the yellow squares are simple decoration, systematically
placed throughout the text where every capital letter should be...
the entire work was created as an hommage to the work of guru dutt who
died in 1964, the year i was born. 2004 marks the 40th anniversary of
his death and my birth.
the work was commissioned for curator gretchen wagner's elevator music series. the elevator at the tang teaching music is very large as serves a dual purpose as both a freight and public elevator. the elevator was fitted with a 5 speaker digital audio playback system for exhibiting sound installations and stills was the third in the series.
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this is the entire ceiling panel text:
humming yesterday. humming today.
but not forever.
yesterday. as always. music constantly trembling.
the horizon illuminated with singing.
listen. listen to the atmosphere of every day.
you're hearing whispers - fragmented words - listen.
listen. listen. listen.
your pure air is all lines.
your clouds are moving.
your smile is made of icicles and caverns.
with eyes closed you see a house surrounded by quiet flowers.
do you know it's raining fragmented words? listen.
listen. listen. listen.
your noises and silences are small men on a tiny boat.
human saliva is a sea of miniature shipwrecks.
the strangeness of your bird or animal voice
- rings like music and fades.
you're hearing whispers - fragmented words - listen.
listen. listen. listen.
voices like wood. softly moving.
moving like fire. in the direction of some small thing.
in the distance. some small things are turning over.
repeating.
we are soft moving.
looking for a reservoir of some small things in the sky.
in the heat of summer. rocks and stones speak.
disturbing some small thing.
your breathing. a galaxy of moments and some small things.
you're hearing whispers - fragmented words - listen.
listen. listen. listen.
your fragile dragging fingers of aluminum.
your breathing is: twilight laser beams ghosts and patterns.
your talking is backwards.
your glowing is retinal.
you. hardly drifting and turning over.
weightless and moving in silence.
drifting like numbers. (and) abandoned hands.
behind old leaves.
behind old leaves your old ears are moistened.
you're hearing whispers - fragmented words - listen.
listen. listen. listen.
eyes closed. listening to everything. you are wandering trees and trees.
your shadow (and) trees humming the songs of trees.
eyes closed. listening to everything. you are wandering trees and trees.
your shadow (and) trees humming the songs of trees.
tomorrow is not only days and trees but a room of whispering voices.
yesterday your two legs moved into darkness.
you were hearing whispers.
one fragmented word - broken.
you're hearing whispers - fragmented words - listen.
listen. listen. listen.