Bathhouse Presentation #2

Stephanie Rowden and Stephen Benson
Rowden’s piece at first was a bit awkward, but started to perform an interesting repetitive field of “is that wool hat, my hat?” I will admit that it was oddly catchy after awhile, but I think it could have been practiced more thoroughly because it, at times, seemed off key and rushed. In the performers defense, there is an excitement in performing without practicing; it is similar to the idea of improvisation. The performers just went off each other’s natural hunch, forming a slue of personalities into the piece. It definitely put an enticing spin on the piece as a whole.
Rowden’s main expertise is on art in sounds and noises in areas. It is really unusual to notice all the little details in universal noises, such as, the thunder noises of the bass, in a 24 hr. breakfast, of people walking around. Also, the quiet child voices of children gossiping in Poland under horse hooves. She truly grabbed the innocence of sound in a room with her presentation of it as an overlooked characteristic in an area, yet she showed it’s forceful nature. It was remarkable how often the beauty of a sound can be overseen, to focus on lighter areas of something such as its appearance. The sound is often even more interesting than the appearance. Rowland definitely has an ear that is prone to melodic movement in the air.
Rowland stated in one of her pieces, the title of have since forgot, “Sound can cross time, place, and imagery.” In other words, sound cannot only carry on in place, but it can carry through time. This phrase reminds me of an aesthetic characteristic that is held in the human psyche, the déjà vu of a particular sounds. Everyone has that situation in their life where they have heard or seen this situation before, but they cannot put their finger on it, I often have these experiences, especially with sound. It’s like when you hear a song when you were a child, but it intrigued you so much by the sound that you remember every word of it when the music starts playing, but off the top of your head you are at a loss.
The presentation also incorporated an appealing sense of humor. The context of which she used the humor was meant to remain serious, but the humor helped move her point along. For example, in one of the pieces there is a man saying something in a humorous voice, “its kind of damp, rainy, cold” in what I thought was some kind of Slavic accent. Also, how she displayed the reactions of the people in her art gallery. When they heard the noise coming from the boxes, there were some fascinating facial expressions, which represent a curiosity in human experience that some artists may overlook.
The Saratoga diary was absolutely fascinating in it’s entirety. Rowland truly found something so original, yet innovative, which provided for a sense of unique wonder in her work. One of the most interesting aspects of the piece is that they are in frames and doors. A question that I have wondered since the presentation is if the frames around the doors contributed to the personality or the sound of each piece. The frame around one of the pieces, which was the sound of horse jockeys and gospel singers, displayed a pretty simple golden frame that looked like it would possess an important religious painting of an omnipotent deity with a sacred document.
Benson was not as interesting as I thought he would be, but I did appreciate the creative spark, which lead to his improvisation. The technology failed, which seems to be a common contribution to important situations, and left the presentation a little bland. Benson’s work is astonishing and I have read a considerable amount of it so hearing his work was very interesting, but I would have liked to see his technological side of the presentation. This is no disrespect to him as an artist because he presented himself as a true artist performing with what resources he had.
The part of the piece that I liked the most came at some point in the piece that I cannot remember. I want to say that it was at the beginning, but it consisted of him reading off random pieces of text that he ripped off a set. This reminded me of one of my favorite videos of all time “Subterranean Homesick Blues” by Bob Dylan. In the video, every single major theme of a lyrical line would be written on a large presentation board and when he sang that lyric he would slowly throw it on the ground, displaying the next lyric he sang. It was this type of innovation, simple, but beautiful, that reminded me of Benson.