The Art of Susan Janvrin

Featured in the Art After Dark: Turntable Remix were 4 audio/visual pieces, each based on a pair of vintage recordings carefully selected by Matt Normand and myself. After digitizing them, we cut the two records and glued one half of each together.  Then, we picked a spot on the vinyl where two familiar songs lined up. Using Ableton Live 7, Matt precisely edited together the audio to match the visual for a complete experience.

One’s brain will always try to make sense of whatever it is perceiving at the time. It was important for us to choose songs that are sort of familiar for that reason. Even though 50% of each song is missing, listening to the audio for these creates the auditory illusion of listening to the two complete songs simultaneously. If you are not very familiar with one of the songs, the other songs seems to come in a bit stronger.

Below, Matt gives titles and brief explanation of each selection.

Apology Unacceptable (NFS)
Plato Dialogues (Record1, Side 1 and Record 4, Side5)
Apology Part 1 & 5
Click to listen or download for free.
Type Plato in Google and you will get 93,100,000 results. Apology is the account of a speech in which his mentor, Socrates, is charged with not recognizing the gods of the state. This would be followed by being charged for corrupting youth. The work, Apology, is not an apology, but a defense for charges. Since Plato is one of the most quoted people in history, and a foundation of Western thought, I thought it was interesting he was essentially plagiarizing his teacher. We took his formal introduction to Apology (part 1) and his closing arguments(part 5) to create a new dialogue that is simply the rambling of an old man.

Good Vib (NFS)
Beach Boys – Smiley Smile (Side 2)
Good Vibrations
The Koto Music of Japan (Side 2)
Haruno Kyoku (music of spring)
Click to listen or download for free.
Originally we were going to put the Beach Boys record back into our listening collection. I would only cut the record if we had a strong concept. Shortly afterward, I listened to the Koto Music album that included traditional Japanese songs. One song on this record curiously included the first six notes of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, 2nd movement. This reminded me of the influence that the East had on the West and also how Brian Wilson wanted to create music that was culturally significant to the United States. Good Vibrations is easily recognizable and lined up well with another song on the Koto album, Haruno Kyoku. Both songs translated to us as songs of Spring.

We Go Together in a Time Warp (NFS)
Grease (Record 2, Side 2)
We Go Together
Rocky Horror Picture Show (Side 1)
Time Warp
Click to listen or download for free.
These two musicals’ albums are themed around the sexual confusion of identity in the 70s. Grease, with its underlining sexual innuendoes and Rocky Horror Picture Show with its very upfront sexuality. In today’s cynical culture it is difficult to take Grease as sincere or innocent and is as equally corny and over sexualized as its (at the time) sonic/interactive counter culture competition. The song, Time Warp is the most recognizable song, and while several songs on the Grease soundtrack are equally identified in short fragments, We go Together matched up with Time Warp’s location.

Sex (NFS)
Convertion
Let’s Do It
Kool & The Gang
Jungle Boogie
Click to listen or download for free.
The 1970s tapped into the 60s and brought freelove into the mainstream in the form of songs at 110-120 beats per minute. Jungle Boogie, a metaphoric song about sex from the beginning of the disco era was mixed with Let’s do it from 1980, (around the end of disco,) which discards any deciphering of codes and pretty much dives right to the point of the dance floor participants.

Last night, I had the pleasure of showing my latest work, along with some sound pieces that I collaborated on with my husband, Matt Normand. I will write more on those later, but for now, I’d like to share some photos that my dear friend, photographer Ellen Leedy took last night.

The lobby of the museum

DJ Brian Oblivion with experimental sound artist, Christian Marclay who is visiting from London while working at Graphic Studio

Power ofThree

The Burning Embers

Lava

Upstairs, the John Cage installation, “33 1/3 played by audience” sets the theme for the event

Sound pieces by Matt Normand and myself

And here I am!

All photos by Ellen Leedy

I will be in an upcoming show at Tampa Museum of Art for an Art After Dark event. It’s themed around a current installation exhibit of John Cage’s musical mosaic played by the audience. (Read more about that here.) The exhibit is all about mixing sounds to create an overlapping pattern of beats out of which new sounds and ideas may emerge.

I have often wondered what it would sound like if I put a record player needle on one of my pieces. In a collaborative piece I made with my husband, Matt Normand in 2008, we answered that question. We made a small visual arrangement of 3 records, digitized the songs, and then made an audio track of the sound mosaic. For the records, we chose Black Sabbath’s “Born Again”, Jimmy Swaggart “Some Golden Daybreak”, and gospel from St John’s Episcopal Chruch Choir.

For this upcoming show, we would like to make more sound pieces, but this time, we’ll focus on pairing just two records at a time, with like beats per minute, for a less haphazard sounding result…(or not, we’ll see).

In addition to those, I have a couple of exciting new pieces on the drawing board.


For these, I am revisiting 45′s as the medium. I love the fine lacy patterns that can be achieved with smaller records. Here is a sneak peak at some of my color studies before I get started in the workshop.

Three To The Power Of Three is a piece in a numbers series inspired by the graphic design textbook, Decoding Design, by Maggie Macnab. The book theorizes what numbers and patterns mean to the human subconscious, regardless of age, nationality, or culture, and how they translate to us at a glance with no additional thought or comprehension necessary. Because this happens on a subconscious level, it becomes a powerful communication tool in graphic design and marketing.

This piece is based on the equilateral triangle. The number 3 is associated with some very powerful meanings, such as…

The Primary Colors From Which All Other Colors Are Made

The Father, Son and Holy Ghost

The Beginning, The End, and The Middle

The Great Pyramids

3 Dimensional World

3 Chances

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Macnab uses a recycle symbol as an example in the book. When one sees this symbol, no explanation is necessary for one to know the meaning. It communicates instantly, making it a well designed logo. This could be because it utilizes information that is already embedded into our primitive beings.

Three To The Power of Three, 48x52", LP's on plywood

Although I love the negative space and simplicity of this piece, I’m going to recreate this and take it a step further by adding more triangles. The triangles will be carved out of the background plywood and painted. About 10-12 color studies are made before choosing the best one. Here are a few of them.

Three To The Power of Three (photoshop sketch for color study) 48x52"

Photoshop color study

Photoshop color study

One of these days, I’d love to make a black & white piece. When it comes down to the final hour though, I can’t resist using color for some reason.