BIRTH OF ALLOGAMY

Listen: Birth of Allogamy.MP3

001/365

Austin

Here begins what will probably be one of my single most prominent activities for all 2010; an extensive series of photos and music we're calling "Allogamy." There isn't really one particular goal or reason for this project. It is, essentially, a very large experiment. As a composer it is my daily task to try to uncover new ideas, new sounds, new means. The sheer volume of writing required for this project (365 total pieces, with an arbitrarily-predetermined average length of 60 seconds) will mean that I either learn A LOT and grow A LOT, or will otherwise crumble and be ruined as an artist. I can't help but feel a tiny bit like Major Kong riding the bomb out of the sky ....

Basically, each day for the entire 2010 calendar year we will post one photograph by Andrew Berglund, and one piece of music by me. In some cases, he went and took a photo and I studied it, and wrote a piece of music somehow inspired by it. In other cases, I went and wrote a piece of music, and he then reacted with a photo. Still others involve us mutually discussing an idea, and separately going off to capture in it and combining the results.

This first piece is sort of a mirror. It began with Andy's photo of his camera. Appropriate enough ... start with the origin of the next year's work! I decided to write a piece which was essentially about music itself. What resulted is basically a very short trip through the first 12 pitches of the overtone series, the foundation of sound itself.

Andy

Happy New Year and welcome to our 365 Project! I’ve followed/adored/envied several photographers’ 365s in 2009 and decided I wanted to take on my own. I explained the idea to Austin and he saw an opportunity to collaborate creatively, something we have not really done probably since middle school. We were both immediately extremely enthusiastic about the prospect and got to work.

I have a few goals for the year. Like just about anyone who embarks on this journey the big one is artistic growth. Photography is a passion of mine that I all too often leave on the backburner. This is an attempt to remedy that. This being a collaboration, I am also extremely glad to get the opportunity to share an artistic vision. Photography to this point has been very much so a solo sport for me. Getting the chance to make it a more social team exercise is going to be an incredible opportunity.

A brief explanation of the project. I’m taking photos, Austin is writing music. Sometimes in that order, sometimes the other way around, sometimes at the same time. Together they are magic. Because we’re working together this is an atypical photographic 365 in that I’ve started ahead of time (still taking on average a photo a day) but in order to have both together we had to stockpile just a tad. Don’t hate on the method. Also when I get my act together we should be transferring from blogger to Word Press for JavaScript compatibility reasons. Things will get prettier then. Stay tuned. Also look up allogamy, it's one of them sciency words. If you know the word, you'll understand why we chose it.

And finally, the photo. It’s a camera. "Soft focus", glamour shot goodness. Seemed appropriate.