A new performance of my video work with Vox Novus is featured at Outsound Music Festival on July 21st. If you're in the San Francisco area please check it out!
featuring mostly new beauty music from composer/leader Matthew Golombisky
and improvised video projected directly onto the performers for an immersive, inclusive experience like nothing you've ever seen at Jerry's Sandwiches!
This page is designed to answer questions concerning the creation and issues surrounding my piece I Am Sitting In A Video Room. If you haven't seen it yet, please click here.
An homage to the great Alvin Lucier, this piece explores the 'photocopy effect', where upon repeated copies the object begin to accumulate the idiosyncrasies of the medium doing the copying.
Please visit here for more information about Alvin Lucier's piece, and you can listen to the complete piece here.
Full words: I am sitting in a room different from the one you are in now. I am recording the sound of my speaking voice as well as the image of myself, and I am going to upload it to YouTube, rip it from YouTube, and upload it again and again, until the original characteristics of both my voice and my image are destroyed. What you will see and hear, then, are the artifacts inherent in the video codec of both YouTube and the mp4 format I convert it to on my computer. I regard this activity not so much as a demonstration of a digital fact, but more as a way to eliminate all human qualities my speech and image might have.
How long did this take?
I began on May 27, 2009 and completed the 1000th upload on May 27, 2010. It was not particularly labor intensive, but required constant interruption with my other work. I did not do it consistently, and there were entire months that went by where I didn't upload a single one.
Did you upload them by hand?
I did upload them all by hand. I would download the latest video, rename it and save it, then immediately upload that renamed video to YouTube (with pasted information). YT would require between 5-10 minutes to process the new video, then I would download that one. So I guess it was a pretty arduous process. If I were to do this again, I would write a bot in C++...
Why does the video get shorter as iterations progress?
YouTube automatically cuts off the last one or two frames from an uploaded video. While this doesn't make a difference for a single upload, the successive accumulation of these cuts eventually adds up. The first video is 42 seconds long, while the last video is only 38 seconds!
Why does the video get out of sync in the first 100? Why does it get corrected thereafter?
As with removing the last few frames, YouTube also adds a few frames of (silent) audio at the beginning of each upload. Again the accumulation of iterations pushes the audio out of sync. I didn't realize this would be a major issue until about Room 130, where I decided if I didn't fix the audio, it would eventually be removed entirely from the project. So I corrected the sync in Final Cut Pro, and then re-corrected it every 100 iterations. The final version of the audio is worth the corrections!
I thought digital copying was lossless. Why does the video quality get worse?
When copying files, the information is lossless; i.e. no matter how many copies are made they are all exactly identical to the original. This is just bit-jockeying. But what I am doing here is transcoding the video twice per upload. Each time the video gets uploaded to YouTube, it gets translated to the .flac/H.264 video codec -- a process that makes the video smaller but loses some of it's information. Then this loss happens again when I translate it again to mp4 format on my computer. Each time the pieces of information lost are saved on subsequent versions, and accumulated throughout the process.
Oh my god that audio is terrifying! What's going on?!
It gets complicated, but each translation of the audio goes through a process known as "Fast Fourier Transformation", which breaks the audio down into more-easily-parsed tones. Again, however, this process loses a bit of subtle information, which is accumulated. It sounds like water because water actually resonates/fluctuates at many random frequencies, and the FFT analysis unintentionally mimics this as well.
The Northwestern University Saxophone Ensemble proudly presents:
A Night of Entertainment: IN 3D!!!
Hear the profane and the profound as music blends with color and shape in a never-before seen synesthesiac experience, featuring ONTOLOGIST (patrick liddell) providing the eye-popping visual experience.
Works by Glinka, Walton, Fuste-Lambezat
Conducted by Anthony Paggett, William Staub, and Frederick L. Hemke
Narrated by Linda Gates and Richard Drews
Video by Patrick Liddell
I'm playing with Friends Of The Gamelan, the Indonesian music ensemble at University of Chicago. Our spring gamelan concert will be held
on Sunday, April 25, 2010 at 6:00 p.m. at Hyde Park Union Church,
5600 South Woodlawn Avenue in Chicago.
Joko Sutrisno, our guest artistic director, has crafted
an outstanding repertoire of traditional and
contemporary Javanese gamelan music. We've had great fun
learning these compositions, and we hope that you'll join
us for an incomparable listening experience.
On Friday April 16 2010 I perform with Northwestern's Contemporary Music Ensemble on Kaija Saariaho's work Amers. My part controls the electronic cues, synthesizer and sampler programs, and the reverb of the solo cello. Saariaho was invited to NU as part of her Nemmers Prize residency. I was asked because the electronics part ended up being pretty difficult to execute.
Another beautiful night of beautiful music and beautiful imagery. Two vids of the night attached: first, DJ TWITCH makes some beautiful noise with DOJO's recorded tracks. Both vids show off the double-projected imagery.
A piece originally written as a project in Jay Alan Yim's course at Northwestern, "Content In Music". After I wrote the music I had made a mp3 of it using sampled gamelan sounds, and posted that on my myspace profile
www.myspace.com/neominimal
I had been in contact with the lovely Dr. Jui-Ching Wang at Northern Illinois University the year before asking to borrow their gamelan for my recital, and while the school decided not to let me use it, she and I remained in touch and this spring she asked if the NIU gamelan could play this piece! Here is the performance, accompanied by my live visuals, at the concert on NIU campus April 11, 2010.
On Sunday April 11, Northern Illinois University Indonesian Gamelan Ensemble will be playing a piece I wrote a few years ago. While I will put up some info about that soon, the ensemble director, Dr. Jui-Ching Wang, was so kind as to film an early rehearsal. Check it out to get a sense of what to expect!
Premiered at Electronic Music Midwest miniFestival on March 11, 2010 at Lewis University, Romeoville, Illinois. Intended for tape and 2 videos, in which the second video is projected at a large convex mirror and reflected across the entire auditorium walls and ceiling.
Program notes:
The title is a quote from spiritual teacher Adi Da Samraj, discussing the connection between our Universe and our thoughts. This sentiment is echoed in current quantum theory, where consciousness is required to collapse the behavior of electrons (as exemplified in the infamous Schrödinger's Cat paradox). I used the electron emission spectrum of elemental hydrogen as the source for timbral and formal material within this piece. The dual-duality of the title also suggests the fractal (in this case, Cantor's Comb) nature of the Universe, again found in the emission spectrum of hydrogen and a formal factor in both the music and video.
Maurice and ontologist, at it again! This time at Morseland (1218 w Morse ave, Rogers Park) on March 6 2010 starting at 9 PM!! Come out for some experimental rock/jazz and classic R&B/soul jams!
You might be asking yourself "Gee, how many innocent people have died because of America's presence in Iraq?" Now there's no need to ask! Iraqbodycount.com has hooked you up:
localSTYLE (Jay Alan Yim (sound) and Marlena Novak (light)) are featured at Northwestern University's Contemporary Music Ensemble Concert on February 1st, 2009 at 7:30 PM at NU's Pick-Staiger Hall, 50 Arts Circle, Evanston IL.
ONTOLOGIST performs the video for this unique performance experience!
Two tectonic plates — the North American (moving to the west) and the Eurasian (moving to the east) — form the Icelandic Rift; they are separating at the rate of approximately two millimeters annually.
The underlying theme of ~plicity is that of inexorable forces (such as social / political / psychological turbulence and plate tectonics) pulling people (and continents) apart, counterbalanced by a reciprocal yearning to pull together, build bridges across divides, and to strengthen community.
The title is an indication of the complex nature of these relationships and of the strategies for addressing them: implicit, explicit, complicit, duplicit, implication, duplication, replication, multiplicity, etcetera.
The musical and video scores are templates for contingency, presenting the performers with recurrent windows of opportunity to assess and reassess their relationships with each other, shift allegiances, and to map out a course through changing terrain.
Renowned Wicker Park lounge Rodan is the site of the weekly showcase of sound and video art known as "LIVING SUNDAYS." The evening features new music, video art, and live performances. Hosted by a potent cross-section of creators and promoters, "LIVING SUNDAYS" is a free event sure to leave a lasting impression.
Noisemakers Dojo vs Twitch, along with the trusty Ontologist on visuals, curate their chapter of the Living Sundays story every 2nd Sunday of the month. This Sunday January 11th they welcome the celebrated Chicago institution DJ Warp as their featured guest. Good beer on tap is 3 bucks. No cover. Great food. Chicago's own clubhouse for weirdo art peeps who do shit.
Please visit Rodan on any Sunday night to check out some great Chicago sound and video art, at 1530 North Milwaukee Avenue, 10pm-2am. For more information visit the Living Sundays website, www.livingsundays.com
Here's a clip taken from that night (courtesy of Brian Klein):
A semi-regular series of episodes exploring the sometimes-confusing and often-beautiful world around us through music, video, and light-hearted philosophy.
Episode four: Combine Doubt With Wonder
Today's society is chock full of two types of people: skeptics and fanatics. Is there any middle ground? This episode discusses an old Japanese philosopher who dared to say 'yes'. He is visited by his old friends Quincy Jones, Herbie Hancock, Carl Sagan, and some crazy dancing women.
No longer on Thursdays, ONTOLOGIST still visits your favorite Pilsen hotspot, this time coming in on a Saturday to make your feet move and your spirit soar.
ONTOplayer is a quicktime video player intended for real-time manipulation in live improvisatory settings. Choose any set of movies to scrub, add effects, and zoom, pan, colorize, and otherwise fuck with in real time!
Features:
• 19 video effects, including Sobel line detection, distortion, feedback, and more
• Full MIDI controller implementation
• Video camera in and out
• Full algorithmic mixing and chromakeying
• ReWire support
• Play and manipulate any movie that QuickTime can read
Freeware! For Macintosh running OS 10.5+. Please download here:
60 works by 60 different composers. Each piece exactly 1 minute long, played back to back. This ultimate mix tape of largely original works becomes the bread and butter of Vox Novus's 60x60 project. It has become so large and successful in the last few years that multiple offshoots have started, including a Midwest Minutes Mix and a Pacific Rim Mix.
This year Robert Voisey, ringleader at Vox Novus, asked me to collaborate with them for their 2009 International Mix. 60 composers from around the world combine into an intense and orgiastic hour of sonic bliss. I composed and recorded 60 short videos to accompany the sound! Please check out the collaborators list for Vox Novus here:
http://www.voxnovus.com/60x60/Collaborations.htm
and please check the events schedule to see if the International Mix (or any of the other mixes) is playing near you:
http://www.voxnovus.com/60x60/Events.htm
Says Voisey:
Friday September 25, 2009 – 60x60 Video (2009 International Mix)
So all this starts somewhere around the G20 conference in Pennsylvania,
Friday September 25, 2009. 60x60 had a private screening of the 2009
International Mix with a video collaboration from Patrick Liddell. David
Morneau and David Berlin presented this screening is in an effort to create
a large interactive educational outreach program using 60x60. (Another new
initiative for Vox Novus and the 60x60 project.)
ONTOLOGIST @ SIMONES (980 w 18th st, Pilsen, Chicago)
TUESDAY JUNE 30th 2009 @ 8PM+
NEW & OLD FUNK (Parliament, Jamiroquai), SOUL (Jackson 5, Dwele), R&B (Al Green, Remy Shand), some originals!, and MORE (Bob Marley, Herbie Hancock, Stevie Wonder)!!
Including video footage of soul/R&B classics and live visual improvs!
Come out and enjoy some listening/watching/dancing/drinking!
New CD "Themes And Scenes" by bassist/composer Matt Ulery! Recorded with musicians from throughout the Chicago area, this album is a soundtrack to a movie that doesn't exist.
24 FEATURED VIDEOGRAPHER at EYES and EARS FESTIVAL
THREE DAYS of ONTOLOGIST
as FEATURED VIDEO ARTIST at the 3rd ANNUAL EARS and EYES FESTIVAL
OCTOBER 24 - 26, 2008
at The Hideout, 1354 w Wabansia, Chicago
Performances by: Toby Summerfield Large Ensemble, Touch., Bus Master, David Daniell, Black Ladies, Rats & Labor, Bill MacKay, Maurice, L'Altra, Mike Reed's People Places and Things, Via Tania, D Numbers, The Eternals, Silences Sumire, Jeff Greene Large Ensemble, W. W. Lowman, The Engines, Pedway, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Algernon, Eleventh Dream Day
please see: www.earsandeyesfestival.com for more information.
A semi-regular series of episodes exploring the sometimes-confusing and often-beautiful world around us through music, video, and light-hearted philosophy.
Episode Three: an explanation of harmony
In this third installment we are taken through the harmonic inner ear of three electronic composers (and a tip o the hat to Beethoven). What is harmony? What does it represent in our everyday lives? And what does this mean for you?
A semi-regular series of episodes exploring the sometimes-confusing and often-beautiful world around us through music, video, and light-hearted philosophy.
Episode Two: Bifurcation
In the second episode we take a look at the dichotomy of human existence. Why do we always see everything in black and white? What does that say about the way we process our experiences? Featuring an ontologist original, some bizarre computer footage from the 80's, and a few words of advice from none other than The Beatles themselves.
If you know anyone that would like to know about this, please forward this to them or forward me their email address and I'll include them in the next posting. Postings will be made at the release of every two episodes; you are welcome and encouraged to join the mailing list! Please write to me here!
A semi-regular series of episodes exploring the sometimes-confusing and often-beautiful world around us through music, video, and light-hearted philosophy.
'Postmodern Mix' is theme for this premiere episode. Within we take a look at what postmodernism is as a movement, as well as what some of its implications are. Music and visual examples abound.
If you would like to receive info about new episodes of ADSR, or if you'd like to discuss any content from the show with me, I would love to oblige.
I've ordered new business cards! I wish that I could include the information from this site but alas it wasn't ready when I made these cards. www.patrickliddell.com still works though, so at least they can (re)direct here.
Track 8 from the complete art-piece Arrow To The Sun. Here CHOP must overcome the Kiva of BEEZ, symbolizing money and sex. Performed by Maurice from Chicago.
When I made this video I was not aware of the singer or song; however, since then I have come to discover that it is none other than Bridget Bardot singing one of 'her' tunes, Contact. I took out most of the accompanying instruments and added my own harmony, rhythm, timbres, and so forth.
I must admit that the final product, with the video singing along, is pretty nice. I'll be trying more of this sort of mash-up covers in the future... stay tuned.
This poppy piece was originally written as a potential car advertisement in England. It didn't get used, but I was pretty happy with the texture I created so I added some chords underneath and the rest just came together.
About the video: Consider a building you pass on the way to or from work. That building has a particular meaning to you. Now consider the meaning of that building to a person who lives there -- the meaning of that building is *completely* different to yours, in ways we are incapable of fathoming. Further, to a tourist who passes the building for the first and only time, your meaning is impossible for him to fathom. Now, consider how the building is a weak metaphor for *everything in the entire world*.
The original was created for pLAy ensemble, which performed it multiple times in their 2007-2008 season.
The instrumentation is: flute(piccolo), clarinet(bass clar), oboe, viola, cello, piano(percussion), and tape.
The second version is electronic, featured below. A birthday gift to Jessica. Happy Birthday! A video/music collaboration celebrating women and all their roles in our society. Taken from film reels of the 50's, 60's, and 70's, this montage changes the meaning of those reels -- in which women were shown to be often subordinate to their male counterparts -- to show what they were capable of then, and even more so now.
Patrick Liddell [ontologist] is a music composer and video artist currently living in Chicago. His music and video art is a postmodern blend of all styles and genres. He has regular collaborations with bands such as Maurice (Chicago), Sunshine Family (London, Melbourne), Silences Sumires (Chicago), Vox Novus (New York), and many solo artists from around the world. His first album, Arrow To The Sun, is available from Canzona Records as well as iTunes and CDBaby.
He has received his doctorate in music composition from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.
I have been interested with the idea of ‘aural postcards’ for some time now. There are similarities between the expressionists within the art realm and the expressionists in the music realm; in the same way there are similarities between impressionists in both disciplines, and minimalist art and music share many concepts. But what is the aural equivalent of a photograph, or a snapshot, or a postcard? These represent a cross-section of time – a singular moment, lasting anywhere from 1/2000ths of a second to half a second. Obviously no piece of music can technically be played within these time limits. These ten short pieces attempt to portray the same idea; while the period of time in which they are perceived is longer than that of a postcard, perhaps, they are a cross-section of a larger time span of which the listener can only guess their full scope.
I took the New York Miniaturist Ensemble call for scores as a perfect opportunity to create a series of postcards. Each postcard is only 10 notes in length (though repeats add to the literal number of notes played), and with ten postcards the 100-note limit is reached exactly. Upon completion of these miniatures, I realize that some are indeed cross-sections of larger works, and a snapshot has been taken, while others are complete within themselves… perhaps the visual equivalent in these cases is a photograph of a landscape, still-life, or portrait.
I wrote this piece for Vox Novus's 60 x 60 project, in which sixty tape pieces of exactly one minute each are played back to back, filling one hour. My piece takes this concept one step further though; in ...by Sixty, I break the time into smaller segments and wrote 60 one-second pieces.
I had just discovered the term "ontology" at the time I wrote this piece (and hadn't thought of "ontologist" yet), and some then-students at Northwestern Uni composition students voiced the word for me for this recording as well. Voices include:
Johnathon Kirk
Kenn Kumpf
Joann Cho
Jennie Gottschalk
Lee Weisert
Instrumentation: tape.
(Some samples include: accordion, waterphone, electric bass, film strips of the 1950's (in particular "Duck and Cover"), and my 2005 freshmen aural skills class.)
