This last Sunday, Jordan Martins and Katherine Young kicked off Ten x Ten 2015 by sharing their personal creative insights to a rapt audience at Graphic Notation 101. First, Jordan walked the crowd through several of his artworks, sharing his techniques and reasoning behind certain artistic choices. Jordan often takes a "kitchen-sink" approach by adding layers of collage until a dynamic balance solidifies. When Katherine asked Jordan, "Is there anything that you're rooting for when making an artwork?" Jordan responded that he often feels he works through the chaos until a particular color or shape stands out. Jordan also mentioned several helpful "rules" from a class he took long ago, such as "Mistakes can't be erased--they move you from your present direction into the future" and "Tolerate chaos."
Katherine described her use of traditional notation along with graphic notations as simply a way to get ideas down quickly, efficiently, and most effectively. She mentioned that notation can run the gamut of lines, shapes, colors, and even notes and rhythms. Ideally, notation serves a specific purpose under a certain context to show what is absolutely necessary in a particular piece, which might range from a rhythmic pulse to the form of a piece.
Within her group Pretty Monsters, Katherine uses graphic notation to remind herself what the musical ideas are of an improvised piece because the band sometimes takes months-long breaks between rehearsals. She described a piece of notation as "I am laying down the road and the rest of the band is responding to the prompts."
To further inspire the audience and the ten pairs of artists, Jordan and Katherine did a lightning round of interpretations of audio and visual samples that each prepared ahead of time, talking through how they might translate it to a graphic score or a sound piece. As the lecture concluded, the twenty newly-paired musicians and artists mingled, perused books and scores, and headed to the Spudnik Press Printshop to witness the screenprinting process.
Join us again on Thursday, February 19, this time at Constellation, for the first working performance and collaborative session for each pairing of artists participating in the Ten x Ten 2015.
Ten x Ten 2015:
Improvised Music Series: Working Performance
Thursday, February 19, 9:30pm
Constellation
3111 N Western Ave.
$10
Purchase Tickets Online
Facebook Event
Ten x Ten 2015:
Improvised Music Series: Working Performance
Thursday, February 19, 9:30pm
Constellation
3111 N Western Ave.
$10
Purchase Tickets Online
Facebook Event