In Class Response

1) Cory Arch Angel, Drei Klavierstucke op. 11, 2009

Drei Klavierstuke is a recreation of Arnold Schoenberg’s 1909 op. 11 Drei Klavierstücke (aka Three Piano Pieces) made by editing together videos of cats playing pianos downloaded from Youtube. Schoenberg’s Op11 is often considered the first piece of “atonal” music, or music to completely break from traditional western harmony which means it’s not written in a “key”. Below you will find the three videos (one for each piano piece), a technical description & the score.

2)

- The artwork is decidedly social because of its use of uploaded content by a vast array of contributing users from all over the world. By combining all these eclectic sources, Arcangel creates a fresh and very complex interpretation of a famous composure that was created 100years prior. The audience is integrated by their inherent understanding of youtube's interface and as users. That through their playing of the video's and sharing of the video's one may create multiple interpretations of the unseemingly epic videos. 

- The work demonstrates a blue between public and private by appropriating the various users cat videos that may have been originally made for their own personal reasons; to share with family, friends, etc. Arcangel breaks this boundary of the personal by giving the videos a cold and concise role in the 100year old composure, taking placeless private locations and putting them into the context of art and potentially giving the videos a wider spread of viewership

- The work comments on social media as a cultural phenomenon by showing the vast and almost unlimited array of content that is available on the internet. That through social media, the world is able to upload their lives and upload their private moments that maybe more clever users - such as Arcangel - may rework and turn into something potentially more beautiful. If anything, Drei Klavierstuke is a work of art that could only exist with the exponential growth of social media and the Internet.