Digital Diary - Moments in Time

YADDO RETURN - Fall 2003

Voice of the Landscape
Earth Elegies III

PROJECT STATEMENT

Lynn Small and Dennis Paul
in collaboration
D. PAUL/SMALL

 

The waterfall… at once presents to the mind the beautiful, but apparently incongruous idea, of fixedness and motion - a single existence in which we perceive unceasing change and everlasting duration. The waterfall may be called the voice of the landscape, for, unlike the rocks and woods which offer sounds as the passive instruments played upon by the elements, the waterfall strikes its own chords, and rocks and mountains re-echo in rich unison… THOMAS COLE - from one of his notebooks

 

The Voice of the Landscape project draws inspiration
from Kaaterskill Falls,
the Hudson River Valley and the first public lands
set aside for future generations - the Catskill Preserve in New York State.
Since the early 19th century, this area has served as a wellspring
for American painting, literature, philosophy, and environmentalism.

A major piece that has been
stimulated by early America's creative voice
and our desire to transform the "sense of place" landscape tradition,
Voice of the Landscape is a multi-channel, mixed media installation
that seeks a new fluidity of expression
that morphs traditional art forms into the new century.

During our Fall 2003 joint-residency fellowships
to Yaddo, in Saratoga Springs, NY
the project was greatly enhanced by utilizing the facilities
at Skidmore College's Media Technology Center
and the Manuscript and Special Collections Division
of the New York State Library, Albany.

Much as photography, film and video have changed the fixed images of painting,
the digital domain has radically and forever altered the making of marks.
This new palette of tools extends the parameters of imagination
and enables us to create a dialogue
among the visual arts, literature,
the inspiring sounds of nature,
and the experiential world to be.

This installation references the beginnings
of a cohesive body of American art
that melds digital SoundScapes, video and stills
with the more traditional 19th & 20th century modalities
of painting, drawing, and photography.

In fusing these worlds with the digital realm,
we endeavor to create a viable model
for future cross-disciplinary studies in education.

WebClip [42 seconds]

PLEASE NOTE:

No single channel video can adequately demonstrate the immersive quality of this multimedia installation. Our original SoundScape is a holosonic sound field and the installation space that encompasses the environment will have multiple wall and floor projections playing simultaneously with additional feeds to LCD/Plasma monitors.We hope to demonstrate the possibilities inherent in new projection systems and the interdisciplinary learning aspects of digital media modalities.

Four-Channel [7 minutes]

 

Concept [7 minutes]

 

YADDO RETURN - Fall, 2003
25 YEARS AND 1 MONTH TO THE DAY

Entry I

 

Entry II

 

Kaaterskill
Clove

 

Cole's Hand

 

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Digital Diary - Moments in Time
other bodies of earlier work recently put online


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