Gustavo Matamoros
Untitled: Social Commentary (2019)
11′23″ | eight-channel site-specific sound installation | Dimensions Variable, Miami
LISTEN
YouTube Variations (2019) | 11′23″ | Stereo artist’s proof comprising three compositions created before their realization as the eight-channel installation Untitled: Social Commentary | Subtropics Editions
Untitled: Social Commentary
a.k.a. YouTube Variations | 11:23
1 YouTube Variations, Aria da capo e fine
From Johann Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg Variations, BWV 988
Created from 15 found performances
00:00–02:41 | 2′41″
2 YouTube Variations, Part 2: Corelli
Francesco Geminiani’s Concerto Grosso No. 9 in A Major, Op. 5: IV. Tempo di Gavotta, after Arcangelo Corelli’s Violin Sonata in A Major, Op. 5, No. 9: IV. Tempo di Gavotta
Created from 20 found performances
02:41–06:18 | 3′37″
3 YouTube Variations, Felicissimo Sonno / Gagliarda del Principe di Venosa
Carlo Gesualdo
Created from 11 performances of the madrigal Felicissimo sonno and four performances of the Gagliarda
06:18–11:22 | 5′04″
THE WORK
YouTube Variations is a collection of three compositions made from performances I found on YouTube. I chose the works somewhat randomly from a personal playlist: pieces and composers I enjoy, with no predetermined relationship among them. Gesualdo is a particular favorite. His harmonic shifts remain breathtaking—and puzzling—to my contemporary ear.
For each variation, I began numerous recordings of the same composition together. Differences in tempo caused the performances to separate naturally. Through crossfades, individual versions could disappear, catch up with the others and perhaps return—or not.
The crossfades made it possible to listen comparatively. Differences in interpretation, tone, tuning, instrumentation, dynamics, recording quality and acoustics became increasingly perceptible as the performances entered into different combinations. At times, versions in conflicting tunings or entirely different keys would overlap. The tonality of the whole could then gravitate toward whichever performance established itself most confidently.
These relationships were found experimentally rather than composed according to a preconceived plan.
THE INSTALLATION
Visitors listening throughout the magenta-lit corridor during Untitled: Social Commentary at Dimensions Variable, 2019.
For Untitled: Social Commentary, I returned to the separate tracks used to make the three stereo compositions and distributed them through eight channels. The speakers were aligned in a row along an exhibition corridor near the entrance to Dimensions Variable.
Two or more versions could emerge from different locations and mix acoustically in the corridor. At other times, performances traveled in opposite directions, meeting somewhere in the middle—or at another location determined by the speed of their movement. Listeners could walk through the corridor, remain in one place or change position as the relationships among the performances unfolded.
The fluorescent lights were wrapped in magenta gels. The corridor, the equipment and the people within it appeared as a single field of color.
The installation lasted 11′23″ and then repeated. Gallery staff ordinarily activated it for visitors to hear one complete cycle, repeating it if they wished to listen again or if other people joined them.
SOCIAL COMMENTARY
Diversity and abundance are not subjects imposed upon this work; they are its working materials. The performances coexist, separate, contradict one another, disappear, return and temporarily establish authority. Meaning emerges through the complexity of these relationships rather than being imposed as a message.
The title also contains a private joke about the expectation that art declare and explain its social position. The commentary remains inside the behavior of the work.
Magenta fluorescent light falling across the metal shutter inside the Untitled: Social Commentary installation.
PUBLICATION
Gustavo Matamoros — YouTube Variations, Part 2: Corelli
Soundologia Anthology – Volume 1: South Florida Contemporary Composers & Sound Artists
Soundologia Records | Digital album, Track 1 | 3′37″ | January 21, 2025
Executive producer and curator: Pedja Kovačević
Mastering engineer: Edward Hamel
Art director: Dimitry Saïd Chamy
EXHIBITION AND LISTENING SESSIONS
May 11–August 1, 2019
Untitled: Social Commentary
Eight-channel site-specific sound installation
Corridor, Dimensions Variable
Miami, Florida
May 11, 2019 — World Premiere
Reopening of Dimensions Variable
Miami, Florida
May 15, 2019
Untitled Listening Tour
Listening session and conversation
Dimensions Variable
Miami, Florida
June 2, 2019
Untitled Listening Tour
Listening session and conversation
Dimensions Variable
Miami, Florida
July 27, 2019
Untitled Listening Tour
Listening session and conversation
Dimensions Variable
Miami, Florida
August 1, 2019 — Closing Event
Listening session, lecture and presentation of Carlos Explains
Dimensions Variable
Miami, Florida
RELATED WORK
Carlos Explains
Carlos Explains (2019) | 9′51″ | speech-synthesis sound poem for synthetic voice
For the exhibition’s closing event, I wrote a statement about Untitled: Social Commentary to be delivered by Carlos, a synthetic computer voice designed to read Spanish.
To make Carlos speak English, I typed the words phonetically, using unusual spellings, characters and punctuation to influence his accent, rhythm and pronunciation. The resulting explanation became a speech-synthesis sound poem—and a tribute to the linguistic and musical humor of Les Luthiers.
Carlos Explains will eventually have its own related post.
PRESS
George Fishman, Dimensions Variable Returns with New Building, Artists and Business Model, Artburstmiami.com
“Rather than generating sounds or using field recordings, Matamoros downloaded and overlaid multiple versions of three historical compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach, Arcangelo Corelli and Carlo Gesualdo. Differences of tempo, volume, instrumentation and key in each performance were revealed by selective crossfading, causing subtle discrepancies among the “stacked” renderings of what was the same music — in name — but performed differently.”