The SoundSeen exhibit was a lot for me to process. I definitely wouldn’t consider myself to be a musician and so relating to these artists and musicians who were pushing the limits of their traditional craft was hard for me to wrap my brain around because I don’t even understand the traditional craft in the first place. I think I had the easiest time (granted, not easy at all) with understanding Anthony Braxton’s method of paintings to represent his music/as a form of notation of his music. The expressive sweeps and movements of the paint seemed to inspire the musical piece that went a long with it. I appreciate this because sometimes when I write or speak, words can’t always express what I’m feeling. My friends always poke fun at me for the weird “sound effects” I make when I’m trying to get a point across or express an emotion. I say things like AahhHggh or eeehhkk. But even those words don’t really capture what I say – or mean…

– Sarah Fahmy

At first, I found the music to be very strange. The John Cage piece was very slow and almost too random for my liking. However, the other two pieces seemed as though they were early versions of DJ remixes. I thought the progression of Braxton’s piece was fascinating and I especially enjoyed how he used inspiration from strangers. It made me think of the podcast we had listened to for Connor’s listen and tell. When the curator asked what each of the pieces reminded us of, I kept thinking about the craziness of March Madness. Since we are in the midst of March Madness, it is top of mind, but I kept going back to it and thought about how random and unpredictable the tournament is. It’s almost impossible to pick the perfect bracket and predict what’s going to happen next.