Mike Hansen: Noise for the People
by Earl Miller
Hansen plays with noise as if it were conventional music in that he creates noise by altering and repurposing musical instruments, record albums, and music videos. Subsequently, he blurs barriers between the typically separate categories of music and noise. “I see noise as an invitation not a disturbance,”2 he explains. By “invitation,” he means that the majority of his sound works encourage participation through invitations to improvise or build random sound, noise, or music. His sound works, for that reason, are based on an overall philosophy of communality and generosity that ultimately drive his work.
Video: Ursonata Choir Nuit Blanche-Dada Reboot, Nuit Blanche 2012. The Distillery, Toronto. A choir style recital of Kurt Schwitters' famous dadaist nonsense poem The Ursonata. The installation consists of a following the bouncing ball projection of the Ursonata text and participants are invited to perform the poem in front of a series of microphones. The text is projected on the wall and the participants face it as they recite the poem. Sound art is an uber-specific niche on the art world fringes, often delegated there because of its categorization as a music genre rather than an art one, consequently leading to fewer gallery exhibitions. Such obscurity remains a problem for sound art not just in Toronto but across the globe. Nevertheless, Canada’s vast geography exacerbates this isolation to beyond what sound artists experience elsewhere, especially Europe, where geography can lead to closer ties to other sound artists and sympathetic venues. Hamilton versus Toronto is not a difference of opposites but of nuances of isolation. [ >>>>> FORWARD ] 2 Hansen, “Artist Statement.”
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