Digital Photo and Music at the Guggenheim

Hi—it’s Rachel from the Guggenheim.

The first half of our project is done! Which means that the real challenge begins now.

Last week, photographers and musicians put the finishing touches on their work, and handed over their pieces to their partners from the other class. This week, everyone listened to or looked at their partner's work, and started to plan their responses. Since the final products will be audio slide shows, the musicians must now create pieces that complement the photographs of their partners, while the photographers will interpret sound with their cameras (and maybe some Photoshop manipulation).

To make this even more complicated, the two classes come to the museum on different days, and therefore the partners have not yet met in person. They are communicating via letters (just like Kandinsky and Schoenberg did 100 years ago). The advantage to this arrangement is that it gives the artists a chance to reflect on their processes, and explain their ideas in writing to their peers.

We’ve put up an in-progress class website with all work done to date, so that the participants can revisit their partners’ work whenever they want. Have a look! (Files are large, so they might take a moment to download!)

-Rachel