Brian Knep and Theremin Follow-up

Brian Knep was an incredibly interesting man and artist; I enjoyed listening to him talk about his work. I already liked his work and had some sense of appreciation for it, but after hearing his conceptual ideas that were behind each piece and his reasons for producing each piece made me appreciate and enjoy his work on another level. I enjoyed that he derived so much of his inspiration from science and math because it makes his aesthetic choices seem more meaningful.

I also liked the way he interpreted his own art pieces in a way that says they are existent with or without the existence of an audience, yet they are so interactive. The idea that the viewer interrupts the activity of the piece's natural life is an interesting perspective. I did like that even though the audience's presence changes and disrupts the piece, the piece is able to deal with the change and grow in a new way as if to say, "life goes on, roll with the punches." I feel like I learned a lot from his talk about ways to view art and to make it so that it can fit in all kinds of different communities and be seen in all kinds of different ways.

The Theremin was a fascinating instrument that I had never seen before. I really enjoyed getting the opportunity to try playing it. It was definitely difficult to coordinate both sides of my body, but the idea that the sound was being produced by my interference with the space around it was amazing and even reminded me a little bit of the concepts used in Brian Knep's work. The idea that the instrument exists and is changed and altered by the presence of an audience, or in this case a musician, and that it flows with the environment and all the changes that come to it. The Theremin is like new media art for the music world which uses a lot of science and technology to produce the music.