Thursday, December 20, 2007

I Know It When I Hear It

by Paul Giacobbe

Tom, a RISD student who admits a bias when it comes to stories about art, emailed that he thought that this week’s story about the sound installation of bird noises at the Kent County Courthouse helped reinforce a stereotype that art, especially abstract or installation art, “is either for a narrow audience or a waste of public funds.”

The story, by I-Team reporter Jim Taricani, said that the state had paid $106,000 for the installation of a sound system that replayed bird sounds,  recorded by a California artist at the Norman Bird Sanctuary, along the walkway between the courthouse and an adjacent parking garage.

“I just felt like this story helped perpetuate the idea of ‘we don’t get it, so it must be a waste’ in regard to the art,“  Tom wrote.  .  .  “I just feel that not understanding something (especially something of incredible subjective determination) is not an adequate reason for a sweeping condemnation or critique.”

Taricani, who admitted to a little tongue-in-cheek aspect to the report, said the story arose from more than one courthouse employee who complained about the sound.  He said he never criticized either the art or the artist, but instead raised the question about the cost of the project. 

Tom agreed the $100,000 cost was a valid issue, and would have preferred the money to be spent on the work of local artists But he said he was concerned that “modern art is discredited on the basis that it looks like something anybody can do,” and, as a result, “it’s not worth spending money on.”