- Playing
- A Radio Rorschach Test
- From
- Aaron Henkin
I was inspired to put this piece together after interviewing Baltimore experimental musician John Berndt about his band Geodesic Gnome. Their stuff is so abstract, it seemed like a great opportunity to gather together a really random sampling of volunteer test-subjects and to 'administer' the songs to them scientifically as possible, in the tradition of the Rorschach test.
I'm guessing a psychologist would have a field day listening to the results of this radio experiment. It turned up some pretty cool mental images and some pretty humorous moments.
Now clear your mind, and prepare to answer honestly...
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Piece Description
I was inspired to put this piece together after interviewing Baltimore experimental musician John Berndt about his band Geodesic Gnome. Their stuff is so abstract, it seemed like a great opportunity to gather together a really random sampling of volunteer test-subjects and to 'administer' the songs to them scientifically as possible, in the tradition of the Rorschach test. I'm guessing a psychologist would have a field day listening to the results of this radio experiment. It turned up some pretty cool mental images and some pretty humorous moments. Now clear your mind, and prepare to answer honestly...
6 Comments
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Review of A Radio Rorschach TestAaron gets a nice selection of ordinary folks to react to some challenging "music" created by composer and improviser John Bernt. Over the course of three pieces the subjects in general move from expressing confusion and apprehension to thinking a bit deeper about and almost accepting what they're hearing. To be fair, the first piece the subjects hear is rather obtuse, and the last of the three the most traditionally musical, although in a Steve Reich sort of way. To add balance after the subjects' reactions, Aaron injects interview clips of Bernt as he explains what is actually going on in each piece, and we the audience find that he's doing some experimenting of his own on his musicians and on us. It would be interesting to find new guinea pigs for this Rorschach test and administer the three pieces in reverse order -- would their reactions be the same, or would they become more agitated and/or confused as the audio becomes more abstract? As always, Aaron puts a very professional touch on music/arts from the margins and attacks it creatively and unapologetically; he stands in the middle and moderates like a good journalist would. |
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Review of A Radio Rorschach Testwhen i heard this piece on the PRX podcast, i knew right away i was going to have to find a way to play it on our local radio show. there are a lot of great things about this piece, but most importantly, it's simply a really good idea for a story. beyond that, it's well executed, well produced/mixed, and the narrator strikes the perfect tone. it's funny and fun without sounding like it's trying really, really hard to be funny and fun. |
Broadcast History
This piece aired originally on May 26th, 2006, on WYPR's weekly arts program, The Signal
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Ethan Parrott
Posted on July 23, 2009 at 01:47 PM | Permalink
A great piece!
This brilliant radio concoction has entertained me by showing me experimental music and letting me listen to a wide variety of peoples responses to such music. I am a lover and writer of music, but never in my life have a heard such strange pieces as those. i'm going to put an eight-foot fiber-glass penguin in my back yard...