Simple, yet Powerful

Introductory Questions

• Draw a sketch of your teammate in 30 minutes, then another in 10 minutes, then another in 1 minute. How much information was lost between attempts? Is the 30 minute sketch “better” than the 1 minute sketch?

• Is detail a necessary aspect of depiction?

• Try and draw an alpaca in the fewest straight lines and show it to your coach. Did they recognize the image? How simple could you have made the drawing for them to correctly guess the image?

• Is a sketch of a cube a piece of art? What about a square? A line? A dot? A blank canvas?

• Can you make any single object art? Or is contextualization needed for the work to be considered “art”?

• Can the viewer themself be a part of an artwork?

• If you could describe your surroundings in three words what would it be? What about three colours? How would you describe your life in three colours?

• Should depictions of historical figures or events be detailed so as to not oversimplify or misinform?

• What separates music from noise?

• If you clap a rhythm for long enough, can you consider that a song? What about if two people clap a rhythm for long enough?

• What instruments are necessary for music?

• Can you make music with one sound?

• Do you prefer shorter music or longer music? Does it matter to you how long a song is?

• Should works that require less talent be celebrated less?

Down to the Last Minute Detail

• When a new style of art is born, critics will always pounce on it. Minimalism was no different. Many in opposition were quick to criticize the apparent lack of passion and talent displayed in these works. Most proponents, however, quickly place the ineptitude on the viewer rather than the artist. Others point out that a work’s immediate space is more important for a viewer to connect with the work than the broader context, and that an overarching meaning is unnecessary for works to be valuable. Discuss: does art need to have meaning? How much can works be stripped before they become meaningless?

• Art can take many forms, one of the most ubiquitous is paint on a canvas. You may think of the intricate paintings depicting the world of that time with dynamic forms and movements. Nevertheless, starting with Piet Mondrian, artists have been willing to take the medium in its most abstract forms. Consider the following selections and discuss: is it possible for this trend of abstraction to continue? If so, how?

  • Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow | Piet Mondrian (1929)

  • The Marriage of Reason and Squalor, II | Frank Stella (1959)

  • Earth Life No. 19 | Zhang Huan (2007)

  • Zone Butterfly | Brent Hallard (2021)

  • Payne’s Grey Blue Sea No. 3 | Shi Zhiying (2024)

• Even in the realm of three dimensions, artists are continually attracted to creating settings or objects that lack traditional detail. Consider the following selections and discuss with your team: do these works idolize these objects or spaces? Would you like to see these objects or spaces find more popularity? Or do they evoke uncanny feelings of unrealism?

  • Greens Crossing Greens | Dan Flavin (1966)

  • White Angle | Ellsworth Kelly (1966)

  • Skyspace I | James Turrell (1974)

  • Large Rod Series | Walter De Maria (1984)

  • Maquette Esfera Theospacio | Jesús Rafael Soto (1989)

  • Boom Boom | Neil Campbell (1993)

  • Where Have You Gone - Where Are You Going? | Wolfgang Laib (2013)

• You may think that artists want their artistic expressions to be creative and meaningful; however, Kazimir Malevich’s Black Square (1915) superficially appears to only be the latter. Artists have since created numerous interpretations of the enigmatic piece, and Malevich himself remade the artwork three times and painted many reimaginations of it, coining the term Suprematism to describe their styles. Consider the following selections, by Malevich or otherwise, and discuss with your team: would artworks be more successful today if they were simpler to allow for more potential reinterpretations?

  • Red Square (1915)

  • Black and Red Square (1915)

  • White on White (1918)

  • Black Circle (1924)

  • Abstract Painting no. 4 | Ad Reinhardt (1961)

  • With My Back To The World | Agnes Martin (1997)

  • Black Square | Gillian Carnegie (2008)

• In a similar vein to paintings, photographs can also reduce complexity to focus on a particular subject. Take a look at these examples through history, and the following selections. Then, discuss with your team: are these photographs inherently less valuable because they portray less? Or does their simplicity add to their value? When is a photograph too simple?

  • Colors of Shadow | Hiroshi Sugimoto (2004)

  • Untitled 1990 | James Seehafer (2007)

  • Snow Timeless | Lionel Orriols (2011)

  • The Sunbath | Balint Földesi (2015)

• In “Fluxus Manifesto”, George Maciunas puts on a Karl Marx impression and outlines his problems with the “bourgeoisie” of art. Art manifestos are not particularly new. One in 1855, only 7 years after Marx’s, was an introduction to the author’s own exhibition, and this one from 1961 fights against abstract expressionism. Read up on these influential art manifestos and discuss with your team: should artists be told how they can express themselves? Are these manifestos productive? And if so, how?

Archetyping Architecture

• Similar to how we romanticize old architectural styles, maybe future generations will revere ours. Some, however, disagree. Modernism is one of the most heavily criticized developments, especially in architecture. One pioneer was even condemned for being fascist. Take a look at the history of suburban architecture, along with the following instances of modern architecture and discuss: are these criticisms valid? How long will this design style last?

  • Al Janoub Stadium | Barcelona Pavilion | Israel Museum

  • Museum of the Future | Shine Dome | U.S. Tax Court Building

• Oman has an abnormally regulated architectural precedent that reflects the region’s culture and sunlight. Apparently, American suburbia is ugly because of regulations put in place that dictate building materials among other things. On another note, many of Canada’s old buildings are being torn down. Discuss with your team: should we rid ourselves of the past knowing that it is expensive to maintain and will fall eventually? Or is there some value in keeping them around? Should the rules of modern construction create buildings that look like the ones of today, or the ones of our past?

• Not all buildings are made to house or shelter. Case and point: memorials. Structures made to honour a group or individual face a completely different set of design constraints to government offices, museums, etc. Observe the following examples and discuss with your team: where is the line between honour and insult when it comes to designing an explicitly simple memorial?

  • Ground Zero Memorial | Jewish Museum Berlin | Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall

  • Memorial to Victims of Violence in Mexico | Smritivan Earthquake Memorial Museum

Nothing But the Beat

• When creating a new song, artists can take inspiration from a variety of sources, but it can manifest in many ways; occasionally, this results in a very simple musical concept being the most fitting to include in a song. Research the following terms, then discuss: what makes a song “less complex”?

  • Phase shifting | Polyrhythm | Rhythmic cycle

  • Drone | Pulse | Process music | Tape Delay

  • Ambient | Downtempo | Lo-fi | IDM

• Many people see classical music as stripped. Others see classical as stripped when performed on one instrument. Yet, composers find a way to remove all extraneous movements or sounds if they dive into a minimal style. Consider the following examples of minimal compositions and discuss: what emotions do these evoke? Can a minimal piece evoke any emotion?

  • “Gymnopédie No. 1” | Erik Satie (1888)

  • “60+” | Annette Kruisbrink (1988)

  • “High Window” | Jō Kondō (1996)

  • “Stélé” | Phillip Houghton (1998)

  • “Comptine d’un autre été” | Yann Tiersen (2001)

• Maurice Ravel’s acclaimed composition “Gaspard de la Nuit” (1908) features a slow-paced movement dedicated to a gallow. Another composer Anton Batagov gained inspiration from a past composer’s grave. Consider the following selections of that project and discuss: is mortality better portrayed maximally or minimally? Should a blend of past and present yield minimal results?

  • “At the Grave of Sergei Rachmaninoff (Kansico Cemetery, Valhalla, NY)”

  • “Letter from Sergei Rachmaninoff to Peter Gabriel”

  • “Letter from Sergei Rachmaninoff to Ludovico Einaudi”

  • “At the Grave of Sergei Rachmaninoff. Postlude”

• Outside of the classical genre there are still many songwriters who subscribe to lower complexity or movements. Most, but not all, opt for electronic production to achieve this, despite the vast potential that it allows for. Studies show that the advent of electronic music production has led to a reduction in melody complexity. Consider the following examples and discuss with your team: should producers go this direction? How simple can electronic music be made? Does minimal inherently result in fewer possibilities?

  • “An Ending (Ascent)” | Brian Eno (1983)

  • “Walking Song” | Kevin Volans (1984)

  • “Natural Light” | Porter Robinson (2014)

  • “Eternal Youth” | RŮDE (2017)

  • “Leaves” | Taiko (2017)

• Speaking of melodies, there are numerous examples where a song features a melody composed of essentially repeating a single note. These will tend to employ another musical quality to engage the listener. Discuss with your team: will we run out of melodic ideas in the future? Should we be allowed to reuse ideas knowing that they have already been used?

  • “Samba de uma Nota Só” | João Gilberto (1960)

  • “Julia” | The Beatles (1968)

  • “Mr. Brightside” | The Killers (2003)

• Perhaps an artist does not want to align with the more minimal genre but wishes to appeal to that audience regardless. Acoustic covers are a common way for songs to become more stripped and simple instrumentally, although it seems some artists do it better than others. Note the following examples and discuss with your team: are all of these versions needed? Are they still true to the song’s original meaning? Why have some become popular and others not?

  • “Zombie” vs. “Zombie (Acoustic)” | The Cranberries (1994)

  • “The Kids Aren’t Alright” vs. “The Kids Aren’t Alright (Acoustic)” | The Offspring (1998)

  • “Cosmic Love” vs. “Cosmic Love (Acoustic)” | Florence + The Machine (2009)

  • “Love Is Gone” vs. “Love Is Gone (Acoustic)” | SLANDER ft. Dylan Matthew (2019)

  • “Unity” vs. “Unity (Acoustic)” | Alan x Walkers ft. Sapphire (2019)

• Maybe a basal composition has to not just be slow or repetitive, but instead short. The length of songs has been reducing since the 90s, and many people are critical of this shift. So much so that the Guinness book of world records ceased recognizing the record for the shortest song or shortest concert after the band White Stripes put on a show in St. John’s, Canada in 2007. Discuss with your team: does shorter always mean lower quality? Should there be monetary incentive for artists or songwriters to make longer works?

• Philip Glass’s Portrait Trilogy (1975-83) includes three operas that follow the lives of important historical figures. The style of these operas is incredibly minimalist. Observe the following songs from the three operas and discuss with your team: is this style appropriate to retell the complexities of history?

  • “Knee Play 1” | Einstein on the Beach (1975)

  • “Evening Song” | Satyagraha (1979)

  • “The Window of Appearances” | Akhnaten (1983)

Concluding Questions

• Antoine de Saint-Exupéry famously once said, “A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” In the context of art, is this a jab at artworks that contain granular, albeit unnecessary details? Or is it that artworks that are more complicated portray more fleshed out ideas and that simpler artworks were able to be reduced due to their less fleshed out ideas?

• Just like how there will always be a species to fill a niche, there will always be a colour to fill a certain role, and every colour will have a role, even the most visually unappealing of them. Take a look at the symbolism behind certain colours around the world and where they might come from. Should we even be assigning colours to emotions or meanings if they can be recontextualized in so many ways?

• Albeit not music, white noise has gained a foothold as a sound to sleep to, and some research suggests it helps, despite being an artificially synthesized array of frequencies. There are many other noises named after colours that have many other uses. Do all sounds have a purpose? Can you evoke any scene or emotion with a simple sound? Is this evocation universal?