Dance Monkey project took over three week to complete. Creating an advanced draft, and then a finish version of the artworks cover music took three days. The rest of that time, was spend solving a number of issues related to the design and the performance of these mini works, plus updating the stereo system on Cheap Thrills. I also put together a new LEDs lighting system for these mini works and an alternative amplifier option. Time was also used up fixing a number of construction bugs for this series of artworks. My goal for time spent to complete these small artworks is two weeks.

Before photography, talented painters where payed to produce ever growing realistic two-dimensional images of a three-dimensional world. Throughout the history of western art from the thirteen century into the twentieth century that is how they made a living. Then there was a change with the invention of photography and the portable camera that made realistic images easier and cheaper to produce. Painting, then had the opportunity to diversify its purpose. Notable artists like Wassily Kandinsky contributed to the creation of abstract art. But, for me, I would look to Pablo Picasso’s 1907 artwork, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, as the first important painting of the twentieth century. In 2015, I saw this artwork in person at MOMA in New York city. I remember nothing about that moment, but luckily my good friend Tom Haley took the image below. I have read that Les Demoiselles d’Avignon had few admirers, including Picasso’s fellow artists. Les Demoiselles d’Avignon did not sell until 1924. MOMA purchased the artwork for a modest $18,000 sum by selling a Degas painting and donations in 1939.

I feel a connection between Les Demoiselles d’Avignon and my art. I see Les Demoiselles d’Avignon as a major artwork that was not made to be a quick turnaround sale by Picasso. I think Picasso created Les Demoiselles d’Avignon to make a statement and to change the course of art history. He certainly did all that and more. This art from day one was also never about sales. Instead, its end goal still is a more humbled realistic butterfly effect on future art. This quote by Richard Serra represents my sentiment: “Good artists impress the viewing public, while great artists impress their fellow artists.” Right now, my only connection to other artists is our art group. And their art, as I now expect and am perfectly fine with, is focused on impressing the viewing public. That is where the sales are. My take is: where their art stops mine begins.

On the drive over to a wedding with my wife I was playing softly my favorite music on Spotify. It was like listening to Muzak. I felt nothing coming from the music. I think music needs to be felt to be heard. At the wedding dance for 300 people the DJ music got louder as the night came on. Even though, again, I recognize the music all I actually heard was throbbing bass. All the other instruments sounded like a mix of blaring white, pink, and brown noise. I certainly felt the music, but did not hear it.

When this art is on display, the dilemma is the volume of the artworks. No matter who is in charged the artist’s preferred volume set in the Studio will need to be adjusted down for any public display. To help set the volume at public events I dug out my old sound level meter from Radio Shack. I put in a fresh 9 volt battery and this analog device, of course, worked. I use the meter to test and set a base reasonable volume in my Studio. I found that to be around 65 decides with spikes into the seventies. It can be louder but for this artwork those settings are enough that I can hear the music. I can feel the music.

With some experimentation and feedback from my last exhibit I am going with a gallery setting from 50 to a peak of 60 decibels. The sound meter manual states those levels would correspond to the residential to background music setting. Any volume lower than 50 number did not work for me. I am capping spikes at 64 decibels. I take all the measurements about 30 inches back from the artwork. This is only a starting position. I certainly know when hanging these works in either a private or public spaces, there will always be the threat of turn-it-down. In those moments I will do just that while hearing in my head the voice of Meat Loaf saying: “If it is too loud you’re too old.”

Using the sound level meter, I have found a strange effect I am unsure of. When I compare at equal volumes, a better quality stereo system to a lesser quality system, the sound from the better system sounds consistently louder. The difference may be the quality of the sound being reproduced. Therefore, here is the mp3 of the music box music from Dance Monkey. Since a listener is not in the Studio, it’s okay to set the volume of Dance Monkey at a level depending on the quality of the stereo system. Find your level for this music needs to be felt to be heard. Although, in the Studio, my music varies in volume, quieter in the daytime, louder into the night. No sound level meter needed.

This is an update on the previous artwork Cheap Thrills. The images below show the upgraded Cheap Thrills stereo system, and a test amplifier I used on Dance Monkey. In my comparison testing, setting the volumes close on both artworks, the differences surprised me. Some of this might be the music, but the sound coming out of the Dance Monkey amplifier system feels to me to be wider, with better separation between instruments. That may be because the test amplifier has both treble and a bass controls.

Originally, the artwork Cheap Thrills came with a 2 watt stereo system for the cover music that is under one minute. I thought this would save time and money over a 20watt system. I thought the 2watt system was appropriate for these mini styled works. I was wrong. In short, the 2watt stereo, even at its maximum volume of 60 decibels, lacked clarity, separation, sound depth, and detail. The 20watt upgrade resolved all those issues and made Cheap Thrills cover music sound almost as good as my major and much larger works, which have cover music limited to a length of a minute and a half.

Next Music Box project is called Fast Car. Tracy Chapman wrote and released the song Fast Car in 1988, Luke Combs recently covered it, in 2023.

Scott Von Holzen