Mclean Mix brings call of the wild

Author: Melissa Marshall

This past Thursday or Friday, students could wander into the upper level of Johnson and immerse themselves in an interactive rainforest. Anyone could play a bicycle wheel using a violin bow to create astonishingly realistic bird and amphibian noises between their eleven and one o'clock classes, or fool around on the Jungle Keyboard before checking out the Free Friday Film. You know, the usual.

This less-than-kosher form of entertainment was brought to Middlebury through a joint effort of the Music and Film and Media departments as a part of their New Media Series. The series attempts to expose students to artists who innovatively manipulate technology in their works.

Viewers walked through the darkened room, which was illuminated mostly by the slide projections of different rainforests and filled with student-generated sounds. Some murmurings were so realistic that I found myself searching the ceiling for a real, live howler monkey.

However, the McClean Mix, a duo compromised of husband and wife Barton and Priscilla McClean was not always in the business of such artificially-rendered biomes. They were, and still consider themselves, classical music composers; however, they wanted to get their listeners more engaged. "We wanted to get the audience involved in performing with us. We think that everybody should get the chance to perform, not just musicians," said Priscilla McClean.

The seeds for the idea of a tropical rainforest that can fit in a room were planted in 1988, when the McCleans traveled through the Puerto Rican rainforest.

"We were just so amazed by all the incredible sounds around us and thought, the musical process in the rainforest is basically the same as [that] in the studio," said McClean. They began developing their ideas, and created the initial project within a yer.

The rainforest that students experienced last week consisted of an audiotape and five performing stations. Two featured processing microphones - one had a bicycle wheel with steel spokes that could be played with a violin bow or a mallet, and two other stations had synthesizers - one that was a sampler that played real rainforest sounds, and a digital synthesizer for invented ones. Slides, which faded and dissolved like artwork, consisted of pictures taken by the McCleans of seven different rainforests.

Besides the obvious cool factor of being able to feel as though you are experiencing the rainforest firsthand, the true inventive merit of the McClean's vision lies in its ability to create a wholistic, artistic experience. "It's really nice when there is a form of art that's interactive, visual, and physical all at once. It provided a more complete experience," said student Will Ceurvels '08 after exiting the exhibition.

However, the demonstration did not just rely on its innovative use of technology. In the middle of the room there was also a table set up that was filled with simple objects like a shaker and a cup with a hole in the bottom with a rod to be slid in and out, all of which made surprisingly realistic animal noises. It was enjoyable to be taken back to the days when one could be entertained by something that didn't come with a 200-page manual.

"It showed a creative and imaginative twist to making music," said Martin Puga '09, "It was really surprising and cool to see how the artists put together a rainforest out of simple household objects." Sara Jameson '09 agreed, saying, "I was amazed at how these simple instruments, some just made out of plastic cups and straws, could imitate so truly the sounds of nature,"

The McClean Mix also accomplished another important aspect of and contribution to art - it fostered a sense of community simply by following the crudely-designed paper signs featuring a mountain with a raining cloud, one had the opportunity to make a bird chirp by running a bow across a steel spoke and a frog croak at the wave-station, much to the enjoyment of other students in the room. Without a doubt, the exhibit could be entertaining to one person, but it was everyone's contribution that made the room come alive with the noises of nature. Priscilla Mclean seems to have had this in mind when creating the project. "It's a mind-expander," she said, "it is not traditional music. It's a discovery of sounds that can be used musically - a type of chamber music that can be performed with strangers or with friends."

It was indeed a weekend for music here at Middlebury. Campus bands Alex Ayres and The Easy Answers electrified the Forest Basement on Friday night, while State Radio had the Social Space jamming on Saturday. However, it was the small exhibit in Johnson that truly embodied the creative, resourceful, and communal essence of the five-letter word that means so much - music.