Distributed Memory: Live Music and Projected Image at the Getty

This week Friday Nights at the Getty, their weekly lecture and performance series, became Friday and Saturday night at the Getty with the presentation of Distributed Memory: Live Music and Projected Image. Saturday night, the night I attended, featured the film work of Janie Geiser, and Brent Green, accompanied by Tom Recchion and Califone, respectively, playing live sets to the previously existing images. Though all the individual elements of film and sound were strong, somewhere in the middle of the evening I asked myself “Why is it important that the musicians be part of this live performance? Is it providing me anymore information than would have been understood on a prerecorded soundtrack.” Besides a little bit of additional verve in the auditorium setting the answer for me was no. There was nothing that required the musicians to be there – no additional on the spot improvisation, no use of the space as an instrument or playback device, no audience interaction that made the live musicians imperative. In fact the only reason that I could equate was an extension of the historical idea of the live musical score being played to silent films. But these films are not silent in their construction – from what I could tell they are never meant to be viewed without sound, so the evening seemed like an exaggerated presentation.

However the over work presented was an interesting combination of experimental animation and sound. The collaboration between Janie Geiser and Tom Recchion was ethereal, Geiser’s filmmaking pushing dreamlike landscapes of forlorn men and women, always utilizing imagery of film days gone by. Recchion sound work, which was only performed live to her newest video, full of contemporary pops and synth provided a nice counterpoint to general film-as-film presentations.

The collaboration between Brent Green and Califone is a little more hand worked and homespun, with saw instruments and acetate overlay edges. Both filmmaker and musicians have a folk-alt edge, reaching down to the dark edges of the universe. The complexities of life for an unknowable Santa and a bastard child provided the material for simple, unrefined animation and the almost preacher frenzy of narrative being sung. During it’s best moments, the combination of frenetic energy between the animation and music painted a dark picture that previously been envisioned, but often the works were a little long and shut me out soon after they invited me to the new landscape.

All of the works presented created a universe of fantasy just left of what you normally see. And for a casual Saturday night’s entertainment, that is not too bad.