Ray Lee's Siren

The Pages performing arts experience is Ray Lee's sound installation Siren. This work incorporates installation (a work of art you can interact with) and performance art (sound and performance of the spinning sound mechanisms). Ray Lee, the creator of this work, is an artist, composer, and performer and is generally fascinated with, "the hidden world of electromagnetic radiation and in particular how sound can be used as evidence of invisible phenomena."

You will visit the Wexner Center and physically experience a unique sound art work by Ray Lee. Please look to the right side of the page to find out more about Ray Lee's work and "sound art" in general. There are dozens of links that give you information into this art form. Please be prepared to discuss and explore for the classroom visits in February.

I will be teaching this portion of the program so I am excited to work with each and every one of you with this particular work of art. I look forward to seeing you soon.


Dionne Custer
Wexner Center for the Arts

Quotes on Sound Art

Sound art. I find it a useful term. But why? I apply it to the pieces I make using electroacoustic resources, and which I intend to be presented in galleries, museums, and other places in which sound is, increasingly, conceived of as a medium per se, like video, lasers, but not as performance. —Annea Lockwood

When faced with musical conservatism at the beginning of the last century, the composer Edgard Varese responded by proposing to broaden the definition of music to include all organized sound. John Cage went further and included silence. Now even in the aftermath of the timid “forever Mozart decades” in music, our response surely cannot be to put our heads in the sand and call what is essentially new music something else—“Sound Art”... —Max Neuhaus

I think it is in sound’s nature to be free and uncontrollable and to go through the cracks and and to go places where it’s not supposed to go. —Christian Marclay

Tell us one thing you know about Andy Warhol

Click on the comment link below and share with us one thing you know about Andy Warhol.








Dionne Custer
Wexner Center for the Arts

Andy Warhol: Other Voices Other Rooms

For our visual arts experience, we will explore Andy Warhol's current exhibition here at the Wexner Center. Many of you may be familiar with some of Warhol's work by way of his influences on today's popular culture and media. You may have seen the Marilyn Monroe or Cambell's soup can prints. For instance, the image above is a recent example of Warhol imagery in the front window of the clothing store The Gap.

Most of you are familiar with Polaroid instant camera images or photo booth images, two ways of producing interesting and instant images that Warhol used and manipulated as he captured the portraits and personalities of himself, friends, and famous people far and wide for decades. Interview magazine, a publication Warhol created, is also still in print and just recently celebrated 80 years of Andy Warhol's influence on American mainstream culture in its June/July 2008 issue.

Warhol was not only fascinated with popular culture, his work in some ways began to translate and define American popular culture as he rose to his own respective celebrity and artistic fame during his career that spanned from the late 1940's to his death in 1987.

During your tour at the Wexner Center, you will see the only American exhibition encompassing many previously unreleased footage, imagery, and objects from Warhol's work with film and video including: films produced in Warhol's infamous "Factory" in New York City, and a range of episodes from Warhol's cable television network series. Additionally, you will see glimpses of objects from Warhol's time capsules, photographs and biographical information, and finally Warhol's magical "Silver Clouds", a room filled with inflated mylar balloons (shown above).

I have included resources for this experience along the right side of the page. You can click on the links and start exploring.

You will work with writer Kelli Trinoskey, as she helps you explore character development in fiction writing.

As always feel free to share interesting things that you find or think about while learning about Andy Warhol. Click on the comment link below to share with other students.

We will see you soon!

Dionne Custer
Wexner Center for the Arts

Tell us what you're thinking about American Blackout

Hi Everyone,

It was nice to formally meet all of you yesterday. There are a few familiar faces and I love to see that. :) I look forward to working with all of you this year, reading your writing, and seeing how you progress through this program this year.

Good session yesterday. Many of you asked thoughtful questions and I could see you thinking about the context of the film and how timely the subject matter is today. I could see many of you relating to the film from various points of view and I hope that you spend time talking about what you think.

For those of you who didn't ask questions or share comments during our discussion, I'm interested in some of the conversations you had on the way back to your schools. What were some of you thinking after viewing the film?

Please feel free to share your thoughts, comments, and questions with all of us.

And remember, this website is a safe and respectful space for comments so please be respectful of everyone's opinions and views.

Thanks!

Dionne

For Students!

Hi everyone!

I can't wait to meet all of you. As we prepare for your first field trip to the Wexner Center, I hope you all have been wading through all the resources and information on the blog. If you look to the right you'll find tons of information on the film and interesting things to read about as it relates to the film and the political process, including voting, getting involved, and having your say.

Mimi Chenfeld will be visiting your class in the coming days to talk about what gets you fired up! What are you passionate about? What would you like to see change in the world around you and what can you do to enact and/or support that change? What sorts of things are you doing now as teens to let your peers and the adults around you know that you have a voice and your thoughts, ideas, and opinions matter?

Let me know what you've been talking about in class.

Look forward to hearing from you,

Dionne Custer
Educator, School Programs
Wexner Center for the Arts