“Untitled Feedback Loop” – Clint Williamson

In Williamson’s piece, the viewer is presented with a densely packed wall of speakers, cables, stereos, cassette players and guitar pedals, which serve to be the piece’s tangible presence in the room. From them emanates a continuous guitar loop. Reversed, layered, loud the sound envelopes the listener in the room. With no discernable riff the piece breaks away from the typical guitar riff and song structure.  However, the repetition of the loop places the work in a middle ground between structure and chaos; the guitar line seems to mitigate a role between the traditional artistic soundscape and the “low-art” associations attached to the electric guitar. It is interesting that Williamson chose an accessible guitar timbre for the piece, since most ‘sound art’ done with guitars serves to break away from the traditional sound and uses of a guitar. Instead, the piece’s content (its multiple guitar lines) shifts as different sounds and melodies begin to occupy the foreground and background of the loop. Rather than becoming monotonous, the piece appears to evolve as the viewer shifts focus. An interesting ambiguity is then brought about, is it the loop output that is continuously shifting from background to foreground or is this content simply an illusion and the viewer’s own construction.

The role of the artist in “Untitled Feedback Loop” also adds to the work’s content. Because of the analogue nature of the equipment present, Williamson’s guitar, pedals and speakers remain in the room preserving an initial performance that the viewer was not able to witness. This shifts the traditional role of the musician in music. The piece becomes an echoing of the artist’s voice, a performance where the artist is present in his absence and his effective haunting of the space. The signal of the guitar remains preserved within the effects pedals, sending a continuous stream of changing information to the speakers. So as the piece continues its signal slowly disintegrates, becoming slightly quieter after each loop. Eventually, the piece fades into silence and the artist’s hold over the space fades along with it. The viewer is left alone in the room.

An interesting aspect of this piece is its changing significance if it is placed elsewhere. Placed in a gallery setting, the piece would need to be re-performed constantly. Would Williamson be present to do this? Or would the piece play once, leaving the viewer to question the role of materials when the silence takes over. Was there ever a performance or use for the equipment or are the materials the piece itself? If the piece continuously plays, then it never fades and the hold over the space continues as the exhibit continues.

-Vadim Fainberg