Breathe Cambridge: May 2011

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Submit Your Own Breathe Poem!

Fill out your own Breathe Poem using this convenient template. https://sites.google.com/site/breathecambridge/breathe-poem-form
Poems will be re-read and recorded for use in our sound art installation!

Also, consider downloading Audacity, the free open-source audio editing software that we use for BREATHE:Cambridge. That way, after you write your poem, you can record your own voice and submit it for use in our project! We'd love to hear from you.

you can download the latest version of Audacity here http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/

Friday, May 27, 2011

Cafe Luna: Voice Collecting and Community Connecting

The Breathe: Cambridge teens love to create their own art, but it is always exciting to view other work as well. Especially if it is the art and words of fellow Cantabridgians! As a semi field trip and sound gathering experience the Breathe kids packed up and took the van to Café Luna in Central Square. There they were warmly welcomed by Jean-Dany Baptiste who was running the poetry readings of that night. The space was tight but everyone squeezed in, giving the experience a more intimate and personal touch. With recorders in hand and two musicians forming the soundtrack of the night, the artists were able to witness local poets read their work aloud to open ears. One woman after reading her words, conducted a song which called for all the people in the venue to participate and sing along. Overall the night was fun and an exciting welcome into the artist community of Cambridge.

- Matilda aka ducttapedheart

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Breathe Art by Iona

Iona, a 'BREATHE' artist, created this amazing image this weekend at Cambridge Open Studios in between collecting voices. It's a new version of one of her recent visual concepts. Breathe is expanding into the visual realm in more ways than one as we move towards our Summer installation @ CAC Gallery. - MJ

A Breathe Poem

This poem was collected at Cambridge Open Studios this past weekend. We recorded about 100 community voices! This poem in particular speaks to me. - Mars Jupiter

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Space Transformed: BREATHE's Final Voice Collection Outing

Transformation through communication is today's theme. A culture of freedom was promoted through art at the former Blockbuster video space (above Pier 1 Imports in the above picture) in the Porter Square Galleria today during the final day of Cambridge Arts Council's 3-weekend-long Open Studios. BREATHE: Cambridge was set up at the entrance to the space welcoming art appreciators to participate in our sound project as they entered a space occupied by photographers, painters, artisans, sculptors and more. "Would you like to help us create some art?" This questioned proved irresistible to visitors entering a space filled with inspiring works. The first words collected today were read by a giggly little girl following a creative process of pure bliss as her mother transcribed her responses to the prompts of the Breathe form poem. We had our second beatbox cypher in two days, heard Italian, French, Spanish and Japanese languages, recorded infants and elders. The afternoon opened into a collaborative process that I've honestly never imagined possible. People, technology, time and space harmoniously converged in this relic of a dying (if not already post-mortem) era of media consumption. A bankrupted Blockbuster and converted Jennifer Convertibles opened space up for a higher level of human interaction through art and conversation. Destruction leads to rebuilding as the exhale opens space for the inhale. BREATHE!
- MJ

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Mars Jupiter offers a breath of fresh air with "Breathe To Lead"

"Breathe To Lead" Mars Jupiter
Mars Jupiter has debuted his first offering from his contribution to the Breathe: Sound Poetry project entitled "Breathe To Lead" available here ---> http://soundcloud.com/marsjupiter/breathe-to-lead On his soundcloud page he says, "My tape recorder listened as the community spoke. I listened as the tape recorder played. My computer recorded my keystrokes as I played with recorded reality to create this sound scape. I hope it inspires you to realize your complete potential, have consistent motivation and to lead!" This track was created with two Panasonic tape recorders, one Sony digital voice recorder, one Magnavox turntable, a condenser microphone, an Akai MPC-2000xl sampler, and Pro Tools, a potent combination of analog and digital. It contains elements of 70's Jazz, musique concrete, cloudsourced voices and various handclaps and organic percussion sounds to create a rhythmic journey through self-definition. Self: meaning one alone and many together, as the space for each individual's voice was created by a community that values self-expression. Elements of Fhanillia, Manny, Shea and countless others find a solid ground in Mars Jupiter's beatwork to breathe their truth. Leading the way towards a more transparent tomorrow through today's age of electrified information, love battles fear in a fight over reality and it's perception. Addressing the fear with poetry and music seems to transform it's vibration from it's slow and low rumble into a higher vibratory frequency that charges us ahead into the loving bliss of self-knowledge. Take a breath and take the lead!

Cambridge Open Studios

"I am rain, I wash away the day. I bellow thunder. I am part of this world. I travel without boundaries..." These words were gifted to the Breathe:Cambridge project while we were setup at Cambridge Open Studios' North Cambridge edition earlier today. Through our open venue for community voices we were able to capture a multi-hued spectrum of accents, languages and cadences from our community here in Cambridge. From Eriko the photographer who plays in a dub-metal band to a distressed post-dentist 9-year-old named Nyela and Cambridge's Poet Populist Toni B. there was no shortage of powerful, unique voices in Porter Square this afternoon. The latter voice was found at a COS poetry event at Porter Sq. Books, offering her words as well as those of Bob Marley's "Rastaman Vibration" to the rhythm of my beatbox which I had the pleasure of offering in a spontaneous collaboration. It echoed the open artistic comraderie of an earlier beatbox duet that happened after I caught a unique voice attempting to pass our booth without contributing his apparent skill. As I heard him manipulating his breath into a beat as he walked past I had to say something. "Would you like to contribute your voice?"

Stay tuned to hear all the voices! Hear some of our sounds @ http://soundcloud.com/breathe-soundpoetry "BREATHE:Cambridge" on display July - August 2010 @ CAC Gallery 343 Broadway Cambridge MA

-MJ

Friday, May 20, 2011

Susmit Pudasaini releases his first sound piece, "Do You Mind?"

"Travel in my mind, your mind, do you mind?" The words reverberate like the yelps of endless tourists passing through the Grand Canyon. The echo makes you wonder where the rest of this soundscape will go. Knowing Susmit's work on a personal level I understand the strong rhythms that shape the art of this young man from Nepal. Understanding this steady beat that pulses through Susmit's life and work I begin to wonder why he decided to release a beat-less piece as his first public offering. While it lacks percussion, or any sort of drums for that matter, there is a clear sense of rhythm as evidenced by the syncopated echoes and vocal repetitions. Susmit has chosen to catch the listener's ear with something familiar to all of us hear on earth, the human voice. Before any of us hear the monotonous beat of our industrialized urban landscape we hear the voice of our mother as we expand slowly in her womb. "Do you mind?" is a piece that removes external noise so that we can focus on the rhythm inherent in all of our voices. Space to breathe is provided to prepare us for a long journey ahead. At least that's what I got from it. - Mars Jupiter

Rawr.Wulf is releasing her sound art to the public this weekend!

Breathe:Cambridge artist Rawr.Wulf (real name withheld) is finally releasing some of her brand-new sound art this weekend to the public through soundcloud - http://www.soundcloud.com/rawrwulf Rawr.Wulf is one of only two sound artists of the Breathe: Cambridge artist collective yet to share her work with the public, Susmit Pudasaini being the other http://soundcloud.com/spudasaini . As a member of the collective I have had a rare chance to hear some previews of the art she is creating and I must say it is full of surprises. I would characterize the few tracks I have heard as dense, humorous, and playful. There is an attention to detail and making clear connections that gives the listener's imagination room to travel while staying grounded in her world. Stay in tune with us through the blog and our http://soundcloud.com/breathe-soundpoetry page to hear contributions from all of the participants! - Mars Jupiter

Monday, May 16, 2011

How to access a mac computer when you don't know the password.

How to access a mac computer when you don't know the password.

At the Gately Youth Center, there was one lonely Mac computer which nobody could access.
Years and years ago, the tech teacher of that time had packed up and left, forgetting to tell the Gately staff the password. Nobody could get in. Poor lonely little currently-outdated Mac.

Until tonight.

With the help of trusty... well... resourceful Google, one young worker of the Breathe Cambridge: Spoken Poetry project managed to trick the computer into creating a new admin account, as if the computer had never made an account before.

These two websites were used:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/40500/New-Admin-Setup-Mac-OS-X-How-to
http://www.macyourself.com/2009/08/03/how-to-reset-your-mac-os-x-password-without-an-installer-disc/

The steps I'd suggest following are as follows:

Power on or restart your Mac (should work for any Mac OS X system).
At the chime (or grey screen if your chime is turned off), hold down Command(Apple button)+S on your keyboard to enter single-user mode. (http://www.macyourself.com/2009/08/03/how-to-reset-your-mac-os-x-password-without-an-installer-disc/)
The screen will be black with white text
Type the following (include all the spaces or else it won't work):
/sbin/mount -uw /
Hit the return/Enter key
Type:
rm /var/db/.applesetupdone
Hit the return/Enter key
Type:
reboot
Hit the return/Enter key (http://www.scribd.com/doc/40500/New-Admin-Setup-Mac-OS-X-How-to)
Go through the registration process. Voila! A new account!
Log into the new account.
Go to System Preferences
Go to Accounts, and click on the old account (the one you forgot the password to)
You may need to click on the lock in the corner to be able to change the settings.
Uncheck the option “Allow user to administer this computer” and change the password of that old account.
Now recheck the option “Allow user to administer this computer."
Log out.
Log back in to the old account with the changed password.
Go to System Preferences
Go to Accounts, and click on the new account you had just made (again, you may need to click on the lock in the corner to be able to change the settings).
Delete the newer account. Click "Delete Immediately"
Voila! Now all you have is the original account with the old files and everything.

Of course, you could have skipped steps 13-20 by just deleting the older account, and keeping the new one, but then you would have deleted the old files you may have needed.

Well, we're done. Good Job!

~Morning Star. 5/16/11

Tips:
-Remember, type ALL the spaces, or it won't work (steps 3 and 5)
-If you cannot change the system preferences, make sure the lock in the corner looks unlocked. If it doesn't, click it to unlock it. (steps 13, 14, and 19)

Key Words (if you are unfamiliar with the terms, look them up, or find someone who is):
-Admin/Administrator
-root
-command prompt

...Random pictures MJ insisted on taking:

Ooh! A hand~ And part of my face.

OMG a computer... it's a MAC

OH NO! It's still a MAC!~

The computer is still there. Creepy.

"I always feel like, somebody's watching me~" The computer is watching me. I swear.

Haha... no.

~Goodnight!

Monday, May 9, 2011

Animation Inspiration

I found this animation while looking for images for the promotional flyer for our Sound Art Installation at the CAC Gallery http://www2.cambridgema.gov/CAC/Exhibitions/gallery.cfm that will be on display throughout the summer. It's an exciting time as we are drawing this phase of the project to a close while exploring how to catch people's eyes in order to catch their ears. As a sound artist, getting into graphic design always excites me as it challenges my creativity in a new way. I can't wait to share the images I produce to represent the project. The graphic campaign will be integrated fully with our online existence on http://www.Soundcloud.com/breathe-soundpoetry (find the youth participants on our followers / following lists - and create your own soundcloud to submit your voice to our project!), our blog and beyond using QR code technology! Here's our first QR Code for some raw audio of my train ride from North Cambridge to East Cambridge on the Red Line train, ending at Kendall/MIT station where I played with the Pythagoras sound installation that uses a crank to hit tubular bells that have a melodic and soothing sound.

Stay in tune with us as we move towards our gallery show, opening mid-June 2011!
-Mars Jupiter

Friday, May 6, 2011

Breathe Workshops

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Breathe Cambridge

Breathe Cambridge has started up again with a new group of artists.We are in the middle of the third stage of the project which is focused on audio production. In this stage we are working toward a 24-hour-long audio installation, recording new voices and working with those previously recorded to create sound art. Every member of the group is responsible for making at least one hour of audio. We use an audio editing program called Audacity to put together a piece with the recorded voices. In this process we do a lot of independent work on our pieces but come together as a supportive group.

In my process I have found it really easy to produce a lot of material in the short amount of time I have to work on my piece. I start with the piano as my background and add voices over it that sound really good with the piano. But some of my sound is not from the recorded videos. I get poems from You Tube, which fit with the theme of my piece, and convert them into audio so that I can use them. I want my piece to relate to everybody, teens, kids, even adults. My ending goal is to have my piece be inspiring and not to have my audience feel happy, but touched. I think if I work really hard from now to the end of this stage I will succeed with my goal and get many compliments.

-Mercedes Wallace