Asylum Exploration

November 16th, 2010

He continued exploration of this asylum space that has since been abandoned. Trying to just capture that space with a lot of scattered memorabilia. Some punch-cards with hospital fill-in information. Sound in space is still a huge issue, sometimes during the piece sound was showcased.

Critique:
Miranda Lichtenstein: What was the impulse for that one part you did record the sound?

John McNeil: The space was empty and wanted to explore the atmosphere.

Not sure if this video has a real connection to the previous piece. The only tie-in other than just the space/building is the same is the focus pull maneuver from the end of one video to the next. Exploration of the space and the act of being an archeologist about these spaces is what is interesting the made-up fictions that the viewer with to adhere to.

Timothy Druckrey: Each space had a specialized function, and that probably each space has its own sonic memory. The playroom has a different soundscape than the theater. A place that one can imagine a sonic memory. Create a series of rooms within the space building are separated by the soundscapes.

Lloyd Lowe, Jr.: Do you wish for us to imagine how your experience was to you, want us to be there with you, or for us to imagine what it would be like before it was abandoned?

John McNeil: I am struggling with those questions – I can’t deny and won’t deny that it is a mediated experience. But I hope to somehow embody the space to the extent of establishing as original experience by the viewer.