August 15, 2006
The Bring Your Own Voice Museum Tour
As some of you are aware, I have recently embarked on a BYOV Museum Tour. The intent of the tour is to travel to a number of art museums in the northeast, set up the BYOV booth and collect opinions and thoughts on art, museums and how they affect us individually and as a society. This topic has always interested me because I love how art can create highly varied individual responses and can encourage constructive discourse between people.
I kicked off the museum tour last month with events at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT and the Portland (ME) Museum of Art. You can see pictures and listen to some samples collected at these two events here:
The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum BYOV
Portland Museum of Art BYOV
The next date is in western Massachusetts at MASS MoCA on the 26th of August and then I head to New York to the Chelsea Art Museum and P.S.1, the contemporary art affiliate of MoMA, in September. The full schedule - with ongoing updates - can be viewed on the somewhat re-designed Bring Your Own Voice website:
Bring Your Own Voice website
Here is an article written in the Fairfield Weekly about the kick-off event at the Aldrich:
January 08, 2006
BYOV Anniversary!
Today is the day I held my first public Bring Your Own Voice event. It has been a long and eventful year, but don't worry, I won't recount it all for you here. I'll just note this fact, give you a few key stats, and hope that the second year of BYOV is fruitful and fun as well.
Thank you everyone who has participated in any form. Your support is invaluable.
# of events - 10
# of voices recorded - 233
# of songs written - 8 (completed)
degree of fame attained - still working on that...
the booth started out looking like this:
and now looks more like this:
I think it's no worse for the wear...
December 30, 2005
Museum of Science
Here is the press release I just sent out to the Boston media regarding a BYOV event at the Museum of Science that I will be having next weekend. I hope to be a part of the Current Science and Technology podcast as well.
This event will also be documented by a producer from Weekend America for a piece to be aired on that show later in January.
==========================================
Halsey Burgund holds Bring Your Own Voice event at the Museum of Science
WHEN: Saturday, January 7th, 1-5 PM
WHERE: Current Science and Technology area in the Blue Wing, Museum of Science, Boston, MA
Musician, Halsey Burgund, will be bringing his Bring Your Own Voice (BYOV) booth to the Museum of Science as part of their ongoing ‘Current Science and Technology’ exhibit and presentation series.
In lieu of live performance of his music, Burgund currently ventures into the public domain with his BYOV booth - a portable recording booth used to facilitate voice recordings – which will be present and in use at the Museum of Science on Saturday, January 7th. Museum patrons will be able to participate directly in the music-making process by entering the booth and answering questions or reading pre-selected texts while being recorded. The results will be added to Burgund’s ever-growing collection of words and voices from which he draws while composing new music.
Burgund builds his music around words that are spoken and recorded in a completely non-musical context. The notion of creating music out of everyday expressions not normally considered musical is the cornerstone of his approach. By incorporating voice recordings of otherwise uninvolved individuals, this music not only explores the vast array of textures the human voice can exhibit, but also is able to offer a unique opportunity to participating individuals.
The fusion of his music, lyrics and the voices of regular people is the captivating concept that drives Burgund’s most recent CD ‘words and voices’.
According to Jeff Lipton of Peerless Mastering, "This album is super textural. It is unique, original, and has a lot of energy. Halsey's approach to composing songs with layer upon layer of voice and sound is fascinating."
The ten song album contains recited poetry, narrations as well as impromptu conversations and other readings caught on tape. Words can be used in numerous ways and the context a word inhabits can be vastly influential on the resulting meaning. The arrangement and rearrangement of words with each other into phrases, sentences, stanzas, etc. in intended and unintended ways provides the lyrical and musical basis of this music.
“The booth and these songs are another way to connect with people. I think this whole project is about making connections,” says Burgund. “I’m happiest when one of my songs makes people feel something or view the world in a slightly different way.”
October 27, 2005
WCL
I am back from Philly for what is looking like my final BYOV event for the fall. Though it was a pain in the ass in many logistical ways, the trip was definitely worth it in the end.
World Cafe Live is an extremely cool performance space; certainly one of the best, if not the best in Philly. It has two performance spaces, upstairs and downstairs, which are also integrated in the same large warehouse type building with the studios for WXPN (including the World Cafe studios) and the rest of the administrative aspects of that large public radio station.
I got a decent 15 voices recorded throughout the night which is fine in number, but a few were those of individuals in the music/art world which is always a nice thing. Karl Mullen, an 'outsider artist' and musician donated his Irish accent and gets the record for using the most colors of markers as he drew a masterpiece on the back of the booth. And David Dye, the voice and host of the World Cafe radio show, was kind enough to let me explain what I was doing and brave enough to enter the booth and answer questions about religion for me.
Here is the official summarization including photos and audio clips:
Bring Your Own Voice @ World Cafe Live
October 13, 2005
Bring Your Own Voice video
Thanks to the tireless efforts of the official BYOV videographer, Mr. Rob Cheyne, we now have the stunning and intriguing "What is Bring Your Own Voice?" video. This six minutes of non-stop action is complete with footage of the booth at various events as well as commentary from a number of enthusiastic participants.
What is BYOV? [small-5M] | [medium-15M]
Hopefully this will serve the purpose of explaining what this project is all about to the uniniated. Please let me know your feedback, as this will always be a work in progress.
Those of you who are somewhat behind in your technology might have to download the latest version of Quicktime Player to take advantage of the new H.264 video codec which Rob used to compress the video. If the video doesn't play correctly, you can upgrade your Quicktime here:
Quicktime Player for Mac
Quicktime Player for Windows
And for those of you on the bleeding edge of technology, enjoy watching this video on your new video playing iPod.
October 05, 2005
WORLD CAFE LIVE!
Check out info about my next BYOV event coming up at World Cafe Live in Philly. This is very exciting.
September 30, 2005
going cordless
The booth is no longer tied to a power cord. I can now set it up in locations far far away from any signs of civilization. Whether or not I actually want to do this is another matter. But at least I can. And there is something to be said for that, right?
I will be giving the Husky a trial run at Oktoberfest this Sunday as my power options were depleted at the last minute. Don't worry, this event will be smack in the middle of civilization...
September 22, 2005
back in public
After a summer hiatus, I had my first BYOV event of the fall at Art Interactive last weekend. You can check out the post-event write-up complete with the requisite audio clips and photos here:
June 27, 2005
Global Mic
help me test by sending me an audio comment. tell me anything other than "testing 1, 2, 3. testing."
I like the idea of effectively having gained the ability to record audio anywhere in the world where there is a computer with internet access. This opens things up even more.
June 14, 2005
BYOV at Yale
I have posted a summary of the BYOV event at my 10th year reunion. As always, there are pictures and audio clips. This time the weather was much nicer than last time.
May 23, 2005
betablog
This is going to make BYOV events even more fun.
Ah, the fun that one can have with 560 multicolor LEDs. The possibilities are virtually endless as to what I can display on this thing. I have ideas for interactivity which could be very cool.
May 16, 2005
more video
I finally got around to playing more with Final Cut Express over the weekend and put this montage together from my stunning debut on FOX news a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, I was only talked about (very briefly) and not talked to, but hey, I'll take whatever I can get and brag about it all.
The first ever aerial views of the Bring Your Own Voice booth are contained herein, which is pretty cool, and I had fun mixing my music in with the video.
May 11, 2005
public
This internet thing is crazy. Look what I happened upon the other day:
There are some very interesting people out there.
May 08, 2005
MayFair updates
I've posted some pictures and audio clips from the MayFair last weekend. There's some pretty good stuff!
April 30, 2005
post-mortem
That's not really a nice name for it, but nonetheless, I have posted some audio clips and pictures etc from the Portland cd release event last weekend. If you were there, go ahead and re-live the glory, and if not, well, see what you missed out on.
post-mortem
That's not really a nice name for it, but nonetheless, I have posted some audio clips and pictures etc from the Portland cd release event last weekend. If you were there, go ahead and re-live the glory, and if not, well, see what you missed out on.
April 27, 2005
I suck at Final Cut!
Turns out that video editing with Final Cut Express isn't quite as intuitive for someone who doesn't like reading directions as I had hoped. Nonetheless, I persevered with my brute force introduction, and have something very exciting to share with you from the Portland cd release event last weekend.
Check it out:
Jeff Peterson is my new best friend
The pink shirt and "booth voice" belong to the famous photographer, Tanja Hollander, and yes, they spelled my name wrong despite filming me spelling it.
Please forgive the crappy edits and unprofessional compression scheme. A bit of outside assistance and more practice on my part will yield a better version eventually.
April 17, 2005
follow-up
I updated the BYOV site with some info and initial 'results' from the Boston event last week. There are some audio clips from those who participated. It's kind of fun to play them on their own and simultaneously as well.
Boston CD release event summary
Soon, I'll add some photos.
follow-up
I updated the BYOV site with some info and initial 'results' from the Boston event last week. There are some audio clips from those who participated. It's kind of fun to play them on their own and simultaneously as well.
Boston CD release event summary
Soon, I'll add some photos.
January 19, 2005
about a booth
I added the About the Bring Your Own Voice Booth page to byov.com.
And, I finally updated the entry for the BYOV event at Bernie Toale's. It's got pictures of the voice owners and a brief event summation.
Bring Your Own Voice at the Bernard Toale Gallery
January 10, 2005
Event #1
The weather was probably as non-conducive as possible for my Bring Your Own Voice event at the Bernard Toale Gallery on Saturday, but I did not let it stop me. The booth got a bit wet during transport, but survived intact and was quite happy set up in the middle of the main gallery space surrounded by some gorgeous photographs by Tanja Alexia Hollander.
I am indebted to S. and C. for all your moral support and help with the setup and breakdown as well as to all my friends who braved the slushiness and rawness to donate their voices to this project.
I am happy to report that I was able to record around 15 people, half of whom were complete strangers. The fact that these individuals were willing and interested in participating is very encouraging in that it suggests to me that perhaps this idea isn't all that strange after all.
I now have a lot of work in front of me in the post-event landscape. I will be posting some audio snippets and pictures of the participants, doing some other website rearrangements, sending thank yous to the participants etc. And then I have to listen to everything I recorded and eventually see whether or not I can turn it into a song. I feel some pressure with this now that I am involving the general public. And I can't start this work until I get the Words and Voices album artwork, mixing, mastering, and manufacturing done.
OK, clearly I need to stop blogging and get to work on all this. Don't bother me, BIG YELLOW.
January 04, 2005
poster
The big day is soon arriving and I am getting slightly nervous. Anyone want to help hang up some of these in your local haunts?
If you can help, here is a link to the pdf of the poster:
Right click to download, print, post and thank you!
December 22, 2004
photo shoot
With my impending BYOV 'gig' at Bernie Toale's place in January, I have started to think about some promotion. There is no better way to promote than to use visuals, I think, so I needed to get some photographs of the booth itself. The booth is, afterall, the centerpiece of this project and I hope it will become a strong visual icon.
I couldn't take photos in my house because the thing is too damn big to not look totally crunched in even the largest of my rooms. So off to the local Unitarian Universalist church I went. Unfortunately, one of the many things I am not, is a photographer, so the results are somewhere in that netherworld between better than nothing and barely adequate.
I was pretty psyched to discover that the booth really is easy to set up and take down (45 minutes for assembly, half that to break down) and it is sturdy enough to sit atop, should one have the urge.
December 19, 2004
it fits
One of my many design requirements for the BYOV booth was that it could collapse to fit on top of my car, and that I could load and unload it easily by myself. I can now safely say that I met that requirement.
I suppose one might argue that this isn't the perfect car for this project, but hey, it gets good mileage.
December 15, 2004
fun with freehand
I take pride in the little cool things...
December 14, 2004
don't forget your voice
I have finally gotten bringyourownvoice.com setup in a very elemental, but hopefully functional way. Please go check it out and let me know what you think!
For now, I just need the site to explain what this project is all about, to act as a way of updating people on upcoming events, and to log past events. In the future, I hope to have more photographs and/or technical specs on the booth itself as well as detailed accounts of each event including the instruction sheets, photos of participants, audio samples etc etc. Eventually, of course, the songs that come out of each event will be posted.
October 26, 2004
this weekend, I...
-almost got high on carpet glue
-installed a mic gooseneck
-did some grommeting
-hung some packing blankets
-divided 16 into 148
-pretended I was an electrician
-did some more stenciling
-blasted TOOL
I'm getting really close now.
October 09, 2004
all work and not enough play
I haven't had much time for work on any of my fun projects lately, including making progress on my portable bring your own voice booth (OK, I gave it away). But I did do some stenciling the other weekend and thought you might like to see the results. My basement does not provide for getting a good shot of it from far enough away to actually be able to see it for what it is, but hopefully this gives you an idea.
September 23, 2004
September 22, 2004
bring your own voice
I am trying to establish my web dominance of the phrase 'bring your own voice', so please forgive me for over-using it now and in the future. Bring Your Own Voice!!
Feel free to google it and click on my site; it will help.
Here's more progress.
September 20, 2004
progress and visual clues
the first few cuts
still life with dehumidifier
dado blades are nasty
first setup
door assembly
door joint detail
someone already guessed correctly.
I will be stenciling 'BRING YOUR OWN VOICE' on the side before you know it.
September 18, 2004
the land below
it feels really good to be back in the shop, though I do have pangs of guilt for not being in the studio. The good thing about the shop, though, is that I get to dress up in really sexy outfits.
It has been so long since I have been in the shop that it took me a while to clean stuff up to the point where I could use it. Unfortunately, during its non-use, my planer suffered a major malfunction, the replacement parts for which will cost more than a fairly decent new planer. Luckily, I don't need the planer for this project, but I hate to see that faithful machine huddling in a broken state in the corner. The majority of the cleaning up I had to do was cobweb removal. I felt like I was in Spiderman's living room it was so bad. And more kept appearing as the dust I generated settled in waves highlighting them.
I've got Saint-Saens piano concertos on the hi-fi and it's drizzling outside. I feel like I am 22 again, covered in sawdust. This is good.
September 16, 2004
shopping list
from Home Depot:
5 4x8 sheets of 1/2" BC pine plywood
8 4" t-hinges
1 chest handle
2 home/garage fire extinguishers (you can never be too safe, right?)
2 9 volt batteries
1 MASTER combination lock
Today, I begin construction. Any guesses?
