John Grzinich | USA, Estonia

John Grzinich is a mixed-media artist who has worked primarily with sound composition, performance and installation since the early 1990s. He has performed and worked on projects extensively throughout Europe and the US and has published a number of CDs of his compositions on such labels as Staalplaat (NL), Edition Sonoro (UK), SIRR (PT), CUT (CH), CMR (NZ), erewhon (BE), Intransitive Recordings (US), Orogenetics (US), Elevator Bath (US), Pale-Disc (JP), Digital Narcis (JP), and Cloud of Statics (CH).

Currently John is a project and media lab coordinator for MoKS - Center for Art and Social Practice, an artist-run international residency center and project space in southeast Estonia.

http://maaheli.ee/
http://moks.ee/

Project: Nodar Flowlines
Category: Sound Art, Video
Period: April 2008
Event: Art Residency

A Sound Locations Project

My interest is to carry out a sonic and visual survey of the landscape around Nodar through a series of site-specific recording sessions. In particular I will attempt to compare and contrast the geographic lines caused by the natural water flows towards the river at the bottom of the valley versus the man-made aqueduct that transverses the vertical lines and brings water into the village. Both of these phenomena actually rely on natural forces yet one was created for a specific purpose for the local inhabitants.

Using this theme of natural flow lines, I will construct two distinct audio-visual "narratives" based on the two types of landscapes shaped by water and humans. The surveys include recording methods that stem from the types of flow, that is, I will draw inspiration from the behavior patterns of how the flows shape the landscape.

The base sound material relies on the use of ambient sounds, found objects, (natural and man-made materials), and human intervention (improvisation and performance). The visual material focuses on still shots of micro and macro materials and forms in conjunction with the location based activity. These sound and video documents will be catalogued and edited afterwards into two part video work that reflects and shows the "flowlines" locations and process.

An Excerpt of the video conceived and presented during the residency ("Nodar Flowlines "):