The Situation: Musical Makings
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2022
-Experimental design project that takes everyday familiar objects and manipulates their fidelity to transform their form. In doing so, also exploring unique representations and new meanings of objects
-Looking at music as a medium to form community, the project transforms common instruments into characters and gives another perspective of how music can be represented and interpreted
Musical Makings (Text Version)
Written, Produced, Directed by: Jennifer Guo
Synopsis:
Humans have long been the subject of many artworks, from the nude model, to the still life, to the portrait. In these artworks, often the human is surrounded by objects or interact with them as part of the composition. Objects have been considered secondary to the human, but what happens when objects become the focal point? Do objects take on human qualities or have a whole new identity?
Objects typically associated as an extension of the body are musical instruments. Going back to the roots of music, people would take their instruments on the go and play music with others wherever. In contrast to nowadays where we have opera halls people go specifically to hear symphonies, the location wasn’t considered a hindering factor. Music originated out of an informal reason: to be able to gather with people to create a community and freely play music. No matter how people gather, music still retains its showmanship. Music has since then become a powerful form of storytelling as well as a way to pass down stories and cultural values of past generations to future ones.
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Act 2 Scene 1
They were coasting through the forests. Seconds became minutes, and minutes became hours. They didn't want to go back to the city to be judged and treated as outliers. Where there were perfectly polished instruments that did what people told them to do, but they did not. They refused and accepted their new life as the bandits of the musical world.
Before they knew it, it was nightfall. They decided to stop for the night. It was dead silent until Harry started clacking his keys about while getting off the wagon.
Harriet: Shhhh! We don’t want to attract any attention.
Harry: Sorry, but this wagon is not exactly fine-tuned like Violet’s strings.
Violet: I’ll start on the fire, can you both get some logs for us to sit on?
They all gathered near the crackling fire and looked up at the night sky in bliss. Nostalgia filled the air as they reminisced on the memories of their journey, and happiness knowing they were all together, at last, away from the prejudice. Harry broke the silence and started to clack his keys lightly then Violet started to pull at her strings, and everyone was lulled to sleep.
