"THE REACH OF RESONANCE" TRAILER

"JOHN LUTHER ADAMS: A SONIC GEOGRAPHY OF ALASKA"

An introduction to John Luther Adams' work translating the geophysical phenomena of Alaska into music.

For more information, read an article from The New Yorker written by Pulitzer Prize finalist Alex Ross. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/05/12/080512fa_fact_ross?currentPage=all

"JON ROSE: AN AURAL MAP OF AUSTRALIA"

Just as John Luther Adams has made a musical map of Alaska which perpetually translates its geophysical forces into sound, Jon Rose has been making his own musical map of Australia through years of turning 40,000 kilometers of its fences into musical instruments.

In the process, he met musicians living on both sides of these fences creating their own musical worlds unlike any other, including a chainsaw orchestra, a singing dog, an aboriginal women’s choir, a woman who makes music from DOT Matrix printers, a man who screams into (and chews on) amplified glass, and countless others. To celebrate the discovery of this musical universe which had been effectively ignored, or obscured, by the gatekeepers of culture in Australia (and the world), Rose compiled this carnival of souls into a giant chamber orchestra, which performed at the 2005 Melbourne Festival, giving voice to the sonic map of Australia that emerged from Rose’s sonic map of the fences dividing them.

"Where Aural Maps Collide", goes further down the rabbit hole: http://www.steveelkins.net/Writings/Aural-Maps/23337840_nSKxjT

The article explores the idea that: “Jon Rose has argued that the history of modern Australia can be seen as running parallel to the history of its fences. But his aural map of the country reminds us that this does not have to remain its legacy. Creative music is the sound of our struggles against the limitations of our bodies, our technology, our language, and our geography. It is the imprint we leave on our social confines. It can transport us to a height where we look down and see how impotent such fences really are. At that altitude, those on all sides of fences may experience music as a celebration that we ‘own’ nothing, but share much.”

"JON ROSE vs. TCHAIKOVSKY (VIA JOHN OSWALD)"

John Oswald of Plunderphonics fame (aka Audio Piracy As A Compositional Prerogetive: http://www.plunderphonics.com) once said: "If creativity is a field, copyright is the fence."

Jon Rose plays fences as musical instruments with a violin bow.

Here's what happens when the two collaborate and even involve the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in their cultural terrorism.

John Oswald: http://pfony.com/​
Jon Rose: http://jonroseweb.com

JON ROSE IN SLOVAKIA: THE ROSENBERG MUSEUM

One of the most bizarre anecdotes from production of “The Reach Of Resonance” was traveling to the remote and unsuspecting Slovakian village of Violin, where Jon Rose founded The Rosenberg Museum to preserve an encyclopedic variety of mutated “violins” invented by a dynasty of madmen who don’t actually exist. Jon in fact made them all himself and has spent the last several decades educating the public about their alleged creators, “The Rosenbergs,” through international art exhibitions, university lectures, and publishing books on the history of these mysterious perverts who are actually him. “I had to plagiarize my own work to support it,” Rose once observed. But truth becomes stranger than fiction as the Rosenbergs steer Jon’s own history in unpredictable directions around the world from wreaking anarchy in shopping malls to making marmalade out of violin cases.

Alex Ross’s observation that “Even if history can never tell us exactly what music means, music can tell us something about history,” takes on a fresh contextual veneer as the Rosenbergs present us with a musical spy hole into how history, and even our personal tastes, can be transmitted to us. "The Rosenbergs might be described as surrealist satire dealing with many of the issues now facing the musical culture of this world," said Jon Rose during the 1998 International Rosenberg Symposium in Rotterdam. "Between them, the Rosenbergs deal with everything from the pointlessness of 'jazz education,' why there is so much really bad performance art, the agony of musicologists, the ignorant pretensions of music criticism, the business of the 'culture' industry, etc...so if you want to know 'where we are going and who is paying for the pizza after the gig'..."

Although this material was shot during production of “The Reach Of Resonance,” none of it was used in the film.

 Some of the archival materials of The Rosenberg Museum were shot by Konstanze Binder, Andrea Horečná and Barbora Paššová.

For more about the Rosenbergs and The Rosenberg Museum, see "Violin Pornography": http://vimeo.com/33515964

"JON ROSE VS. SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE SECURITY"

Shot approximately 6 months before Jon Rose headlined a Sydney Opera House concert filmed for "The Reach Of Resonance," in which Kronos Quartet premiered his string quartet for barbed wire fences. There are multiple ironies at work here.

"BOB OSTERTAG AND KRONOS QUARTET: TRANSCRIBING A RIOT INTO MUSIC"

In 1991, Bob Ostertag transcribed his recording of a gay rights riot into a notated score for performance by Kronos Quartet, titled: "All The Rage." A full sequence about Ostertag's composition of this piece, and Kronos Quartet's performance of the riot as music, is part of "The Reach Of Resonance."

After years of searching for anyone who had taken part in the riot, in which an estimated 10,000 people stormed the California State Building in San Francisco and set it on fire, Steve Elkins encountered one of the two people who actually organized the protests: Gerard Koskovich. This clip contains part of the interview Elkins conducted with Koskovich in San Francisco in February 2010, in an effort to document the history of the riot, and the events that sparked it.

On September 29th, 2011, organizers and participants in the riot were reunited for the first time in the 20 years since it took place, to share their memories of that night and the events that sparked it. A powerful conversation ensued, which can be viewed here: https://vimeo.com/57118105

As part of that conversation (which took place at San Francisco's GLBT History Museum), Elkins was asked to speak on a "Living History" panel, an excerpt of which can be viewed here: https://vimeo.com/56832171

"BOB OSTERTAG: ON ORGIES AND THE RECORDING INDUSTRY"

In this clip of unused production material from "The Reach Of Resonance," Bob Ostertag shares some illuminating thoughts on intellectual property laws.

Ostertag serves on the board of directors for QuestionCopyright.org. Their programs examine the educational and social effects of monopoly-based distribution in contrast with the potential of sharing-based audience distribution.

Their Sita Distribution Project is a public demonstration of how an artist can flourish — economically and artistically — by letting their works circulate for free. It's not about self-distribution, it's about audience-distribution: put the work out there, let people share it, give them the freedom to organize activities (both commercial and non-commercial) around it, and the artist will benefit, because audiences want to support artists.

The animation in this clip was made by Nina Paley.
The audio was recorded by John Rogers.
Special thanks to Larry Ochs.