List of Ideas Complied During Individual Studio Visits with Undergraduate and Graduate Visual Art Students at Georgia Southern University

"A reflection on a year and its effects on the landscape and those within it." Hand-lettered inscription in "Dance Around the Sun", a 'zine  consisting of photocopies of etchings by Ray Pettit.

Dear All,

I want to thank each of you so much for sharing your work with me, and for the opportunity to share mine with you! It was heartening to share a moment in the midst of these strange and tumultuous times.

During many of the individual meetings, I found myself offering up little tidbits of information that came to mind during our discussions. Next time, I plan to carry an old-fashioned receipt-type book with carbon paper between the pages so I can take notes in duplicate! Since I did not do that, I have been trying to recollect many of the items and to put them into list form...I thought the ideas as a collection might be fun to share with the whole group.

With Sincerest Best Wishes,
Alyce


1. Every film Andrei Tarkovsky ever made:

2. Films by Alexandro Jodorowsky. In particular, Alexandro Jodorowsky's DUNE.

3. DIY stop-motion animation tutorial with Monty Python's Terry Gilliam.

4. Brainard Carey is an artist who specializes in coaching other artists. Lots of free resources on his website.

5. If you need short-term housing in NYC, this is a good resource (artist oriented/artist run).

6. The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World by Andrea Wulf

Caveat: I do have some problems with this book (one of the main ones: the author blames the reason Humboldt is not better known in the US on anti-German sentiment after WWII. I argue that Humboldt was swept under the rug because his ideas do not jibe with exploitative capitalist ideology.

I have not read this book yet, but it is on my wish list!
Plants & Empire: Colonial Bioprospecting in the Atlantic World by Londa Schiebinger

7. My brilliant writer friend Quince Mountain, a trans man:

"Cowboy for Christ"
Short essay: "Is Loving Trans People a Revolutionary Act?"
Qunice and his fiance Blair Braverman recently offered rides to the polls in a cart pulled by sled dogs.
A story by Blair: "What I've Learned from Having a Trans Partner".

8. Kate Temple, a visual artist and friend who works with "the secret luminosity of color and form."

9. Agnes Martin as an example of an artist for whom the work was more about being present than about any highly-developed or contrived concept.

10. Write an artist statement from the perspective of yourself in 10 years, as if you had already achieved many of the things you envision for yourself.

11. Solar cookery!

12. Come visit Marfa, TX!
Chinati Foundation
Judd Foundation

TONAL RELATIVITY: Solo Exhibition at Georgia Southern University, November 7 - December 9

Set of Pentatonic patterns, visualized in a repeat pattern.

On Thursday November 10th at 5pm, I'll be giving a talk to accompany a solo exhibition at Georgia Southern University. The show will feature the latest iterations in the Tonal Relativity series, most as works on canvas. Sixteen pieces will serve as visual illustrations of sonic relationships within a 12-tone musical system.

Throughout my own life, the kind of egalitarian, intuitive, non-verbal communication that comes out of sonic improvisation with one or more fellow earnest listeners/musicians/soundmakers has inspired much of my thinking and and efforts in all realms. 

This project was developed as a way to improve my own skills as an improvisor and listener, and to help me to overcome habitual ways of thinking and seeing. I hope that others – musicians and non-musicians alike – may also use it to discover new pallets of possibility.

This video offers both an audio and visual demonstration of the first six intervals in the series:

 
More here on the project: http://alycesantoro.com/mode_chart.html
There is much, much more to come...