Midterm Critique of Jason Freedman: Sound Artist

Jason Freedman's work is truly one of a kind. Not only has he brought many new definitions to the word artist, he has turned imagination into reality. Artists such as John Cage and William Burroughs could only conceptualize the ideas behind the projects Jason Freedman has created. Freedman uses technology to his advantage in the three works Flock, Flou and the I-Tunes Signature Maker. All three of the pieces are ground-breaking in what can, has, and will be done in the user-generated art of the future.

Using this technology, a never before seen world can be entered in Freedman's Flou piece, where immersion is just the beginning. Freedman connects the viewer’s senses, putting them behind the controls of a small space ship, free to explore a virtual environment. Entering a sphere looking shape of color, the viewer’s ears are stimulated with your space craft engulfed in the world of Flou. The user is free to fly around and create their own artwork, from sphere to sphere, or sound to sound.


This idea Flou uses is similar to Burroughs’ idea of non-linear fiction. With Flou, Freedman takes Burroughs’ idea to a new level. Here, the user has 100% control over where they want to go, where as Boroughs cut and pasted directions for the user to go. Not only that, Freedman gives his user multiple types of media all at once, contrary to Burroughs’ text, once again, Freedman exploring new realms of art. Freedman’s work fascinates the mind, as I moved on to Flock.

Flock takes some of the ideas Flou uses, and brings them to life in a totally new way. Again, completely user-generated like Flou, Flock uses real world group of people in an enclosed space to create art. This time the “artists, users, or participants,” whatever one may call them, by moving and dancing with lights on their heads, create musical notes, musical notation, and a video animation all in real time. Once again, Freedman successfully creates a piece of art that is a 100% different experience for each viewer. Flock is revolutionary and is something that not many artists can or will ever achieve. Something interesting to think about: What is the art in Flock? Is it the final product? Is it the installation of Flock? Is it the individual experience of the creators/participants? I couldn’t find myself with a better answer than all of the above. The art is everything. That’s what’s beautiful about Flock.

Finally, after being blown away by Freedman’s imagination I tested out his I-Tunes signature maker. Not surprising, it a completely individual experience. In fact, one of the coolest parts about this piece is how it interacts differently with the viewer than both Flock and Flou. Instead of the user creating the new artwork, this piece creates the artwork from the viewer and about the viewer. Since the final piece is created from the viewers custom music library, the final piece says something about the viewer, in terms of their musical tastes, similar to how a painting may show something about how an artist views nature for instance. This is just another type of immersion Freedman is exploring, immersion similar, but very different than in his other two pieces, Flock and Flou.

Freedman is using Art to explore technology and how humans and technology can interact, becoming artistic partners in the creation of a piece. When will the line between humans and computers intertwine? I would be extremely interested to see what Freedman comes up with in the future. He is completely crossing lines and creating what has never before been created. The best part is the fact that the creation will never stop with Jason Freedman. With each piece, he hands the creation to us. The artwork of Jason Freedman is just the beginning of his legacy. The beauty only starts with his tools. That is revolutionary.


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