Fillet of SchoolBus
Tayloe Harding
About this work:
Fillet of SchoolBus (1994), version a, is a 10 minute Video/Audio Concert Piece (art/documentary film and musique concrete composition) chronicling the construction and installation of a multi-media collaboration developed in Atlanta of the same name. As the installation FILLET OF SCHOOLBUS has as its theme the various purposes and opinions associated with a uniquely American phenomenon, the SchoolBus, and its place in our education system, so does the music from the video/audio concert piece. The installation premiered in Atlanta in March-June 1994.
The most distinctive visual elements of the installation are its "pieces" of the bus that have been "filleted," including sections of one seat, its floor, wall and ceiling. My companion to this was to sample students while riding on busses and used these recordings to build the "vocal" parts of the composition. Since the project involved a huge amount of actual "filleting," I also wanted to capture what I could of the bus as a machine and sampled a great deal of bus sounds, many of which are quite distinctive. Squealing stirring, idling and driving sounds, the horn, a unique mechanical door, engines starting (and not starting), and that peculiar air brake release all made for the work's ground bed of sound. These parts came together in an original 15 minute musique concrete composition designed to play continuously during an exhibit of the entire installation (the tape alone version, version b).
Version: concert audio/video piece
Year composed: 1994
Duration: 00:10:00
Ensemble type: Unspecified Instrument(s):Ensemble
Instrumentation:
Instrumentation notes: VHS/DVD work for audio and video