[WINDOWS] by small_bars
small_bars [WINDOWS], 2025
AUDIO:
23 minutes of sound: MIDI synth, samples, audio verité, loops, and live instrumentation. Performed, arranged, and recorded by small_bars in the winter 2024/25.
VISUAL:
16-page riso zine printed in flo orange, charcoal, sea foam, and light lime, handmade and hand-cut cover; paper by Kayleigh Messler Vinson
side [a]
portal 01
portal 06
portals 04, 05
portals 13, 12, 11
side [b]
portals 07, 08
morning 2
portal 03
morning 1
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"Through the poet's window, the house converses about immensity with the world".
-G. Bachelard, The Poetics of Space
Bachelard believed that windows are a metaphysical space for existential reflection, where the inside and outside are visible at a glance. He also believed that windows can be a place to ponder alienation.
As it turns out, Nick’s home recording studio is positioned near a large window. I noticed this on a video call; it seemed a perfect point of departure for a new project. It was the kind that had a title before anything was recorded: WINDOWS. This is not unusual for our ongoing conversations and collaborative projects as small_bars. We quickly began generating sounds and passing them back and forth. The conversations continued, mentioning the work and ideas of Sister Corita Kent, Rebecca Solnit, Jennifer Roberts, and Gordon Matta Clark (archival audio from a GMC interview punctuates sections of the audio). Flavored by the dialectic of interior/exterior, discovering how that may reflect the dynamics of audience/performer, text/reader, and image/viewer. Forms that are in deep dialogue but maintain a distinct condition of never being able to empathize with the totality of their counterparts. Like an index doesn't look like the object it represents but instead implies it, the interior cannot exist without the exterior. Together but alone and the charged space in between.
Over the course of a few weeks, the project began to take shape. I enjoy when we are in the thick of projects, text messages back and forth throughout the day alerting me that new sounds and mixes await in the share drive folder. Time and space collapse; it feels like an extended hangout sometimes. My friend Nick and I have been making art and sound together for some time, and this winter, this project marks 6 years of small_bars. I appreciate our friendship and collaboration; they create an object between work and family. It’s warm with our best intentions and reminders of our hometown connection. We hope that you enjoy this project. In these alienating times, it reminds you to connect and make art with friends and family.
Credits
R.M. and N.S. as small_bars
