Dual-sensory perception

This is going to sound cliche, but I'm going to say it anyway: I love being up in Brooklyn. This comes as a bit of a surprise to me, because I am not one of those people who always wanted to move to New York and it would be quite a stretch to call me a hipster. 

In fact, I sometimes I feel like I am the non-hipster girl constantly described in that blog, Stuff Hipsters Hate.  Nonetheless, I love it here.

The place where I'm staying, adjacent to a working space and gallery just one stop out of Manhattan, bursts with creativity and completely enables productivity. The neighborhood  feels the exact same way with everything I could possibly need within blocks and more creative people per square inch than probably anywhere I've been.  Its clearly an area conducive to bringing wild dreams and ideas to fruition-- just look at the bands and startups that hail from here.

An event I went to last night, "The Art of the Show," hosted by Vimeo, the online video community, featured live music videos from film makers such as Vincent Moon and Ray Concepcion and embodied this culture perfectly.  The event was part of a monthly series sponsored by Vimeo, which was cool because the offline event was totally consistent with the online experience of Vimeo. 

The videos, projected on massive screens covering every wall of the square room from nearly ceiling to floor, were stunning depictions of live music from a diverse array of genres in a host of settings: musicians from Mali in a record store, a string duo in a field, a man and his piano on the streets of Sydney, etc. 

While watching the videos, I came to an interesting realization. When I was a dancer, I used to love performing with live musicians. I find that the highest caliber musicians and dancers bring the best out in one another. For example, when I watch Asharah, an incredible D.C.-based dancer, she brings out nuances in the music that I would have never heard had I not seen them physically brought to life through her.

What I realized, watching the videos, was that the same can be said with live music and film.  Choices in lighting and camera angle made me aware of elements of the music that I otherwise would have missed. Would I have heard the violin in just that way if I had not seen the violinist's hand quiver just before she plucked the string?

See for yourself, and let me know what you think.

By

Alexis Rodich

 |  November 19, 2009; 3:02 PM ET Save & Share:                 
Previous: A winning nomination | Next: Getting schooled at school

The comments to this entry are closed.