BLOG PROMPT: inbflat and thru-you
PLEASE ANSWER BY POSTING COMMENTS.
Compare and Contrast:
http://www.inbflat.net by artist/composer Darren Solomon
http://thru-you.com by artist/musician Kutiman
Among other possible topics, think about ideas related to collaboration vs. appropriation.
Collaboration is when more than one person intentionally helps to create a work of art.
From A Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art, "Appropriation in art is the use of pre-existing objects or images ... In the visual arts, to appropriate means to properly adopt, borrow, recycle or sample aspects of (of the entire form) of human-made visual culture."
I thought the site that was titled "In bflat" was really interesting because of the way all the music sounded like it should be played together. Just about each youtube video complemented the others very well. At times it was hard to tell that there were different videos playing, it sounded like it should all be coming from one source. This piece utilizes many artists who are meshed together to collectively make a beautiful sound. Some of the clips sound better when they are played with other certain clips but all in all they sound good with just about any other video.
ReplyDeleteCompared to the other video that was one main video that had multiple people that had their own separate parts in the video. Between the 2 videos, I liked the first one more because I thought each individual video had to complement the others to make it sound good, and that was done.
These two sites are easily comparable because they both are appropriated pieces that focus on music powered by pre-existing videos uploaded on YouTube. The difference, however, is that inbflat uses individual videos on the same site but allows them to be played together, separately, in unique combos and at different times. This allows visitors to interact with specific aspects and hear something new. On the other hand, thru-you is a site that directs the visitors to one specific video on YouTube (since flash-embedded videos are no longer supported) which is a mashup of other YouTube videos that have been edited together.
ReplyDeleteOut of the two sites, inbflat was the most interesting to me. Both pieces of work focuses around music and mixing different sounds together to create something new. However, inbflat had a really interesting concept to it. Rather than having an edited video, inbflat allows you to create and listen to your own combinations of tunes from the different videos on the site. By playing each video in any combination of each other, it creates a new kind of mix. I thought this was a very interesting concept. On the other hand, ThruYou has a list of videos that are already edited together from different videos to create a single mix. It is interesting to see the different mashups that ThruYou has created, but inbflat has me more intrigued.
ReplyDeleteEach site plays on the world's new way of receiving information. The appropriated youtube videos remind the audience that because of our access to endless information and entertainment, nothing is created from thin air. The music we hear from the individual videos combined is just an extension of existing art. This message was clearly implied from the "in bflat" website in the third video down on the left.
ReplyDeleteI liked the audiences ability to control what videos were played and when in the "in bflat" website. However, I enjoyed listening to the "Thru You" videos by Kutiman.
Inbflat intrigued me due to the interactivity of the site. It's interesting that everyone who has been on the site potentially heard a different outcome due to the decisions they made on what to click and when. I listened to a few different combinations and the outcomes were all unique. Each video went well with the others no matter when they started or stopped. ThruYou was not interactive so each person got the same piece when they watched it. It was well put together and the way the videos were edited together was interesting. I think I liked the music in this piece better...but then again maybe I didn't get the best arrangement in the Inbflat piece where I had more control.
ReplyDeleteIn-bflat (clever name), was definitely an appropriated piece that put together a bunch of separate YouTube videos in a way that made music. They were all very different videos with different messages, but could be pieced together in a bunch of different ways to create a pleasant sound. Thru-you.com was similar in that it was also an appropriated piece that combined other YouTube videos together to create music, however it differed as the clips were actually created for a musical purpose. In-bflat some of the video clips were of talking, some odd sounds, some musical etc. and it was also more interactive than the other site. I enjoyed the interactive website, it was cool to combine the clips in different ways to create new sounds.
ReplyDeleteSolomon's we page was a very interesting take on collaborative music. Typically, when I think of artists collaborating I think of them working together for a common goal. In his page, the viewer i free to mix an match any number of independent video an more or less create their own songs. this is different in that the artists featured, most likely, didn't intend for this to be the purpose of their videos. It is through solomon's appropriation of these individual works that we are now able to view something more interesting and even question what it means for works to collaborate.
ReplyDeleteKutiman's web page is both similar and different to Solomon's. It is similar in that different series of videos were brought together in unintended ways to appropriate new and interesting musical compositions from preexisting ones. It is different in that it limits the viewer's ability to customize their own experiences. Rather than having all of the videos available on one page for the viewer to click through at their leisure; each link takes you to a youtube page to witness Kutiman's own collaborative composition. Admittedly, I likes the music in Kutiman's page better than Solomon's.
Both Inbflat & Thru-You where an interesting site to take a look at. Both of the sites had a good mix of videos that oddly worked together and was enjoying to watch/hear. They both took multiple videos and made them into one project that turned out well. Both of the site where easy to use as well, which is a plus to have for any website/project.
ReplyDeleteI like the approach Inbflat took, allowing the user to see all the videos and, choose the process they went about at watching them. I like the collaboration aspect Inbflat had, all of the videos seemed to have a meaning to the entire project. Thru-You on the other hand was all the way appropriation. The videos came together nicely, despite all of them having nothing to do with the other videos displayed.
Inbflat was a really cool website. It was amazing how well everything sounded together even if I played them at totally different times. I never thought appropraited art could be so original.
ReplyDeleteThru-you was also really neat. I'm so intrigued by the ability to mix new and old sounds to create something brand new. Though the user's customization was more limited, I apprecitae the talent behind finding all these pieces and making them adhere together.
Although the two pieces can be compared due to their incorporating of layering tracks, they ultimately emit different feelings. "InBflat" provides a more emotionally evoking experience, feeling very purposefully meaningful to make the audience feel something. To my these feelings were mostly feelings of nostalgia, and just reflectance on the past. Each video feels like a separate memory that all collaborate to construct a composition similar to the flow of life.
ReplyDelete"Thru-you" seems as though it is made to create a more musically technical piece, to sound more like a cohesive song than In B Flat does.
I would label In Bb as more of a collaboration of different sounds to create a layered work of art.
Thru You uses the same sort of collaboration, in addition to an appropriation of borrowing other's videos to create his montage. In this mindset in B flat can be labeled with a sense of appropriation as well.
Both videos show the power of the internet in collaboration. I appreciated b-flat because timing was intentionally left out as a factor, so everybody just had to arpeggiate in the correct couple of keys to make music. What else stood out to me about b-flat was that there are perhaps infinitely many different ways to listen to all the music videos on the page, especially when you start and stop videos at different times. Each different visit to that site could be a totally different experience.Thru-You, on the other hand, was a straight jam. The one element that b-flat was missing, the same thing that enabled you to play any video at any time, was rhythm. Thru-You more than compensates for this, with the very first thing you see being a drummer. I couldn't pick a preference of the two, they are too different; they are both incredible examples of what a bunch of musicians are capable with the internet available.
ReplyDeleteBoth websites seem to have been started under the same concept, creating music from multiple independent sources, but their end results give off very different feels. Inbflat feels almost meditative in its sound while thru-you is more upbeat.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first saw Inbflat I thought it was appropriation since all the videos are embedded youtube videos. It's actually a collaboration which can be figured out by reading the more info tab. This makes the piece more interesting because despite all the musicians doing their own thing it still comes together to sound good no matter what order the videos are played at.
Thru-you on the other hand is an appropriation and you can tell since some of the background commentary of the musicians sounds like they are making instrument instructional videos. However despite the original creators of the videos having different goals this piece still comes together as one song. It is a little weird that once you post something online you have no control over what someone else does with it. At least Kutiman credits the original video posters below the video, there are some youtube videos out there that appropriate others work and give no credit to the original creators.
"inBflat" is an excellent example of collaboration. All of the pieces were submitted by individual people using whatever music-making device they wanted, and then selected to create the installation. This collaborative aspect makes the work really enjoyable. Every submission was just one note and only experience by that person as such, yet when harmonized with other versions of the same note, it really opens up the possibility of what that one note could sound like. In contrast, "Thru-You" is an instance of appropriation. The creator of this piece compiled videos from the internet together, to mix the sounds and create a song. This also ended up with a really fun result, these people didn't know that what they were doing would lead to a funky remix. However, many of them may not have wanted their video perceived in that way, so appropriation can be a tricky thing to navigate.
ReplyDeleteBoth of these sites were interesting in the way they used different music videos in order to create something new. My favorite of the two was InBflat simply for its uniqueness. Collaboration was used in the website InBflat by taking instruments played by each individual and puts them together in a order that makes an enjoyable beat. While Thru-you was similar, it was made by a user that took videos from offline, in order to make a beat. This is appropriation because it was taken from artist, used, and made into his own project. Collaboration is usually a group that shares ideas in order to achieve a common goal, which is why I feel like InBflat was more of one than Thru-you.
ReplyDelete