Trumpet Practice by Ranjit Bhatnagar is a live remix performance with video clips found on the internet, in real time, using a web browser as the only instrument
Tuesday October 13, 2020
Time: 6 pm – 6:20pm
Location: twitch tv/harvestworks
For several years I’ve been doing variations on a performance where I search for and remix videos from the internet, in real time, using no tools but the web browser. I often call this style of performance “trumpet practice” after one of my favorite video keyword searches, though the actual content varies every time. I search for short, looping videos – primarily for the audio content, but taking the visuals into account too – and layer them into audiovisual collages. The performance is quite different every time, both because it’s entirely improvised and because the ephemeral nature of social media content means that the available materials change rapidly.
I’ve performed versions of Trumpet Practice at the Sonic Front, Musical Ecologies, and Ab Uno Pluribus series in New York, and recently played remotely in a commissioned performance for Vicki Bennett’s First Person, Fourth Wall exhibition at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center in Buffalo, NY.
BIOS
Ranjit Bhatnagar is a sound artist who works with technology, language, and found materials to create interactive installations and performances. His heaviest work is Stone Song, a 7500-pound outdoor sound sculpture, and his longest is The Tapestry of the Search for Terrestrial Intelligence, a 40 meter tapestry.
Excerpt from Musical Ecologies performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W-Lzdpvqc8Link to Ranjit’s page in the Hallwalls exhibition: https://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/95229
PRESS QUOTES
“…it was serious and screwy, befuddling and captivating, all at once”
– The New York Times, on a collaboration with pianist Margaret Leng Tanhttps://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/14/arts/music/uncaged-toy-piano-festival-is-at-pianos.htm
Website: https://moonmilk.com
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/ranjit
Facebook: https://facebook.com/ranjit
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ranjit
PAST INTERVIEWS AND PRESS COVERAGE
Hyperallergic: For One Month Each Year, an Artist Builds an Instrument Every Dayhttps://hyperallergic.com/275731/for-one-month-each-year-an-artist-builds-an-instrument-every-day/
The New Yorker: What Happens when Machines Learn to Write Poetryhttps://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-inquiry/the-mechanical-muse