William Basinski’s lecture was very important to me because I frequently work with sound explorations and the moving image, and was also a great way to close out the visiting artist lecture series. This event was less a lecture and way more of a viewing experience. The lights dimmed and the screen lit up to show selections from several collaborations with his sound and footage from James Elaine. Elaine’s masterful work behind the lens of his lo-fi super 8 camera creates soft poetic images from landscapes and events common to everyday life (with the exception of the ticker parades which no longer take place). The soft details and grainy quality create a more relaxed feeling, which is mirrored by the ambient loops played Basinsky. The visuals and audio exist so well together that it is almost hard to imagine that they were made on separate occasions, and in some cases in different parts of the country. The familiar imagery used throughout allows for the viewer to easily associate and create their own personal meaning with, while the resonant sounds float through the air and in a way mirror the images. The heavy echos and ambient compositions allude back to Eno’s Music for Airports, but with Basinsky’s own unique style to the approach. Time becomes lost when viewing these films, what seems like very short section could really be 5 minutes, and vice versa. I found this lecture/viewing to be very insightful as well as inspiring to my own works. I noticed the importance/impact that a cohesive mix of audio and video can have, as well as realized that it is ok to let your pieces take their own form and that you don’t always have to cut them short (i.e. Disintegration Loops).
