Stephen Vitiella Henry Lecture

Stephen Vitiella

This work is one of a completely different form than any other artist we have seen so far at the Henry Art Gallery.  Very few artists work in the medium of sound without being musicians, thus it stand out very much when someone makes such a spectacle of non-rhythmic vibrations that one is unable to experience by sight, like almost all other exhibits one would see in a gallery.  This presentation was very informative in Vitiella's process of capturing sounds from the environment around him, searching and picking apart the small details of the flood of sounds we hear daily, and assembling a grouping to fit his desired effect.  His actual presentation its self was unorthodox, in that he jumped around often and used iPhoto rather than a traditional slide format, which seemed fitting due to the unusual task of facilitating such a style of art. Most artists, after going through whatever process they would to finish the product, have to deal with showing it in a gallery-like setting. Angle of perception and lighting are the only major factors one can take on. As long as the audience can visually see the artwork, they can perceive it in their mind. Even for something like a film that does include sound, there is most often a visual representation of the identity of the noises.  For Stephen Vitiella, working with solely noises, the challenge is to display the sound in a way that is obvious where it is to be heard from and/or in the best manor possibly.  His example of being given the gallery space next to a fountain outside was a very clear idea of how obstructive other elements of an area would be on the display.
Many of the pieces involved multiple speakers all facing toward a center point to where the sound is focused or intentionally directed otherwise, but having a space large enough to display something from all sides like that isn't always an option. The images he showed where there was 11 different speakers, all at different heights and orientations hanging from a ceiling gave me a new respect for the difference in effect location would have on a sound display. Not only does one have to worry about proper speakers and noise pollution, but also proper acoustics and reverberation of the sounds themselves.  Having a subject matter that is primarily natural documentation,= gives a real contrast to the urban art setting in which large cities and masses of traffic and loud noises assault the senses at almost all times. Silence is definitely one of the most obvious signs of peace and serenity, making it a very interesting canvas on which to work.  As a sculpture, I often find that i have absolute freedom the form i can create in physical space, but it pales in comparison to the morphic indefinable entity of sound waves.