Erica - Photographer

Joelle - Clarinet

It has taken me a while to think through the process that was our performance. First it was terrifying. I decided not to practice the piece a lot. I did not want to feel like I was locked into a certain way of performing the piece. It felt like it should be flexible from performance to performance. We were not able to do more performances this semester but I hope that we will be able to continue to explore the possibilities of the piece in the future. The performance itself was exciting but also very scary to open up myself to the possibility of critique on what I created. There were no notes to hide behind, no one else's ideas to blame if someone didn’t like it. It was scary but great. It is a feeling in performance that is always there but this is just an extreme situation.

I really enjoyed watching all of the other performances. It was interesting to see how an artist handled the challenge of drawing a piece from a graphic score. But more than that is was interesting to watch the discomfort of the performer during the performance. It was clear, in a way that is not with musicians, that they were feeling weird having people watch them drawing. They don't usually have people watching them draw, but I am not used to having people watch and listen to me when I play. Usually I am in a practice room all by myself. Though I aspire to have people listen to me play it is not what happens every day. I thought that it was very telling to see someone who is not a stage performer be on the stage and experience the discomfort.

Lizzee - Artist

Post Performance -

The experience I had was an interesting one. I did not receive a copy of the score beforehand, so I had no idea how I was going to perform it, nor what the score was. I actually thought the score would be a traditional musical score. Needless to say, I was surprised by what I saw. To me, it looked like a mixture of Kandinsky's paintings and Federico Garcia Lorca's drawings.

It was awkward to draw in front of a group of people in complete silence while being videotaped. In hindsight, I wish I had thought of something more original to do instead of drawing with pen on paper. I feel that creating two-dimensional art is a solitary activity in which artist and material and art are intimately related. When placed in the front of a strange classroom and exposed to a score I had never before seen, I panicked. I felt frustrated and dumb, for lack of better words.

However, I enjoyed watching other people's performances immensely. I felt uncomfortable during Soojin's performance, just because she was another artist, and the room was completely silent as she sat drawing. I also appreciated being able to discuss the performance afterward with the group. I felt that Kate and the performers were very understanding of the discomfort and confusion that I felt at the time. The discussion was also was a great way to organize everyone's thoughts
and to provoke new thoughts and considerations about experimental, cross-disciplinary collaborations. Overall, the BAR project was a unique and thought-provoking experience.

Ian - Actor

Marcus - Percussion

I approached the graphic score in an improvisatory fashion based on the number six that seemed to be significant in the number of circles and triangles in the center-right area of the score. I chose woodblocks and kick-drum to represent the circular objects on the page, and cymbals to represent the more angular lines present on the page. I chose to start the piece with the center-right cluster of circles and triangles as a rhythmic tightly structured improvisation. Gradually, the piece becomes more ambient and pointillist as I attempt to interpret the objects surrounding the center-right figure and ending wth the peripheral objects. In several instances I chose to interpret the score in as literal a fashion as possible. (e.g. A bowed cymbal punctuated by a woodblock at the end to represent a line with a spot at the end of it. Also, the small cluster of very small dots I represent with paperclips cascading off the edge of a cymbal and onto woodblocks.)

Soojin - Visual Art

Pre Performance -

The first interpretation of the score I had only remained literal. Images of scattering insects or flower petals came to mind. Fire work is another depiction of the score that I had. I thought about what kind of music or noises each of the instruments would play or sound like. It was hard to imagine how anybody could read this score.

Even though the performance is done as one, everybody partaking in the project will most likely produce works with extreme individuality. Some unity might be visible within the instruments because of the difference in the mediums as opposed to art students. Because of the way a score is 'supposed' to be read might be imprinted, a lot of staccato beats or sounds could be guessed to be heard. For those using visual arts as the medium, they might not have as much to relate with each other as opposed to using music as the medium. In the overall picture however, the performance will definitely seem rather bizzare because of the unique individualism added by each person.

Post Performance -

The BAR Project turned out to be how I imagined it would be. The musicians generally focused on busy and staccato notes whereas the artists produced drawings "broken" drawings. It was interesting to see how everyone read the score literally and interpreted it literally. It was weird but intriguing at the same time to hear music according to the score that was given to me to interpret into a drawing. The idea of either coming together into a perfect form or brokeness was depicted in the drawings as well as the music and drama. Again, this probably happened because of the way everyone was reading the score since rather than an actual music score, it was closer to a diagram with symbols and shapes. I think it would be interesting to try it over and over to see how broad the interpretation of each medium gets as it gets further and further away from the literal translation of the score.