LAURIE ANDERSON LIVE IDEAS

Laurie Anderson is curating the 2015 Live Ideas festival in NYC. Events are scheduled to start on Wednesday April 15th with performances and work by Anderson, Julian Schnabel, Pauline Oliveros, Chris Marker, and John Zorn. Readers on the west coast can see Laurie Anderson during her four-night run at SF Jazz in May (info here). NYC Live Ideas info here. 

STARN TWINS MTA

Get a tour of the new South Ferry subway station in Manhattan designed by artists Doug and Mike Starn. In this video by the Arts for Transit MTA program, the Starn Twins transform the space using their trademark experimental photography and sculptural elements to evoke the city's natural and historical identity. Enjoy! Learn more at the Stan Twins website here. 

JOHN CAGE

John Cage talks about silence and his love of sound, particularly the unpredictable sound of traffic on sixth avenue. 

MOMA ON MUSIC

A new exhibit opened at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC in November that focuses on the aesthetic connections between music and visual art and design. The scope of the collection is quite impressive, spanning designs for sound equipment, live hall spaces, sheet music, commercial design and graphics, as well as instruments themselves. Making Music Modern: Design for Ear and Eye was curated by the Department of Architecture and Design and will be up through November 1, 2015. Official description from MOMA: "Music and design- art forms that share aesthetics of rhythm, tonality, harmony, interaction, and improvisation- have long had a close affinity, perhaps never more so than during the 20th century. Radical design and technological innovations, from the LP to the iPod and from the transistor radio to the Stratocaster, have profoundly altered our sense of how music can be performed, heard, distributed, and visualized. Avant-garde designers- among them Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Lilly Reich, Saul Bass, Jørn Utzon, and Daniel Libeskind- have pushed the boundaries of their design work in tandem with the music of their time. Drawn entirely from the Museum’s collection, Making Music Modern gathers designs for auditoriums, instruments, and equipment for listening to music, along with posters, record sleeves, sheet music, and animation. The exhibition examines alternative music cultures of the early 20th century, the rise of radio during the interwar period, how design shaped the “cool” aesthetic of midcentury jazz and hi-fidelity culture, and its role in countercultural music scenes from pop to punk, and later 20th-century design explorations at the intersection of art, technology, and perception." More details here. As a music fan and musician, I hope to make it to the exhibit. I image they included a number of graphic scores, which I'd love to see up close. And as a record collector, it must be thrilling to see the various designs for LP jackets and players. Promo image below: Radio by Hiroshi Ohchi, 1954. Ohchi (2008-1974) was a prominent designer and art director of IDEA magazine. Related posts: my visit to SFMOMA to see the Dieter Rams design show here, 8-Track Museum, Vintage Vinyl, London HMV.