AIR Open Dialogues presentation
09.10.09
I took part in a panel discussion on the theme ‘Points of Departure’. The other panellists were Dot Howard and Samantha Epps. I was discussing the re-definition of practice after a period of collaboration. Here are some of the notes I made beforehand:
Working with visual artists has helped me to address the visual aspects of sound-led work. During my BA I was often adamant that there should be ‘no visuals’ because it was about the sound, but I’ve managed to shift that assertion into a more gestalt view. Obviously, most people experience some visual element when they are listening to something (such as the room, or light conditions), so over the last few years I’ve been trying to develop ways of exploring this relationship. Collaboration has helped me explore different approaches.
Cans (April) was performed specifically so that the audience could identify the direction and sources of sounds; the lighting/black box performance was unusual for me at the time but it is something I now want to develop (in terms of how the audience behave in the spaces)
Use of video (documentation and performance to camera):
I was previously a little bit simplistic in my documentation/dissemination of work. I would be left with a great sound recording, and a few photographs, which would then have to be cobbled together for showreels. Having seen Dot’s use of the camera-as-object, and having had discussions with my Escalator mentor I feel a lot more confident in developing my work in the direction of performance-to-camera (good for the ‘physics demonstration’ elements of my work) and playing with the screen as a physical object in relating to the audience, in the same way that I use stereo headphones in my work.
Experiments: collaboration allows work to develop at a tangent to your practice. It is liberating, rewarding and distracting at the same time. I had to re-assess what I’d been doing after and during periods of collaboration in order to maintain an identity and not feel as if I was stealing ideas.
Expo Leeds
25-28.09.09
Sunday
The two highlights were: Christina Kubisch’s ‘Electrical Walk’, and Paul Rooney’s ‘Thin Air: The Psycho-Vocalic Discoveries of Alan Smithson’. I’ve ‘done’ Kubisch’s walk before, in Birmingham, so this time it was easier to focus the walk on areas that I knew would be the most interesting. Photo-booths and cash dispensers were a nice surprise. The accompanying maps were very thorough, so presumably those who were encountering it for the first time would find it easy to get over the initial ‘I’m wearing massive headphones’ dilemma and find some interesting sounds to explore very quickly. Perhaps situating the collection point in the mall (rather than tucked away in the Ikon gallery) changes the public uptake of the project. I’d like to see some audience figures…
Paul Rooney’s video lecture was the main thing I have taken away with me from this weekend: it was an intriguing blur of fact and fiction, delivered authoritatively, and made me re-consider the use of text and lecture formats in my future performances. It is a successful method of delivering work about some complex (and possibly spurious) theories such as Electronic Voice Phenomena, with the ability to subvert the audience’s expectations of lectures as a form of knowledge dissemination. In this case I enjoyed the fact that the performance was held within the university lecture rooms, further blurring the distinctions. It seems a natural way to present work which is experimental and research-based, or which has sound or photographic elements which the artist wishes to present in a specific order or context. It removes the option of flexible viewing/listening which takes place when such elements are installed in a gallery.
Expo Leeds
25-28.09.09
Saturday
The best thing I went to today was Christina Kubisch’s ‘Electromagnetic Consumer’ installation. It was an extension of her electromagnetic walk pieces, but in this case the audience wore headphones in a contrived environment. It was sited in an empty shop in a mall, and consisted of metres of red electrical wires strung around the space. Visitors collected headphones on the way in and explored the pulses of electromagnetism around the room. It was beautiful, both in its sonic qualities, but also in its visual presentation: the wires were simple and colourful, and clearly related to the intensity of sound. I think this helped to draw in the passing shoppers (and there were many whilst I was there, who were not otherwise aware of the Expo taking place); the space was glass fronted, and it was obvious what was being asked of participants, which I think is a useful way to engage people with sonic work.
Expo Leeds
25-28.09.09
Friday
The first thing I visited on the Friday afternoon was the schools project led by Mira Calix at the Leeds City Museum, which consisted of upturned speaker cones being used to move piles of small objects, thereby demonstrating the physicality of sound. All very well in theory, but as soon as I turned one on, a gallery assistant rushed over and said it was far too loud and proceeded to turn it down so low that it no longer worked: the beads lay motionless on the surface of the politely-rumbling speaker. This is one of my regular concerns with the spaces sound artists are being asked to work in: staff are often either intolerant of ‘the noise’ or do not understand the material. For me, it’s the equivalent of hanging a painting in a darkened room because the colours are too gaudy.
My second major criticism of the weekend was pretty much the next thing I went to at the Leeds City Museum. There was a specially commissioned interactive piece ‘PEAL: A Virtual Campanile’, which was “a laser-triggered, computer controlled, light-sequenced emulation of a traditional church bell tower”. I mean, come on! Church bells? Really? Any other contemporary sound could easily be stretched across a midi scale and used in the same way, and would perhaps warrant a commission in a contemporary sonic arts festival. Using church bells immediately made me worry about the intention behind the piece. The combination of bland melodic sounds, and the ‘Guitar Hero’ style interaction came across as a piece devised by a composer and a community-arts leader rather than by a sound artist, and so I checked the programme notes, and that was exactly who devised it. The way it was installed also suggested this, with no consideration given to the overall effect: whilst the lighting and sculptural elements were indeed eye-catching, the whole effect was ruined by the composer sitting awkwardly in the centre with his laptop on a makeshift desk, and a long trail of leads snaking off to the wall. I expected a commissioned ‘audio-visual installation’ (which was what the brief had asked for) to be more visually considered. Why didn’t they just have a hand-bell orchestra sitting there under some disco lights for three days, and be done with it? Even the acoustics of the room seemed stacked against the piece, deadening the sounds: church bells should be at the very least resonant, and in a space like that they could have been physically overpowering.
Leaving the museum, I wandered into the Millennium Square with Tom Betts’ big screen interactive game. Nothing spectacularly innovative, but it was great seeing passers-by stopping and cartwheeling, or spiralling round on their bikes to generate patterns and sounds. It’s even better if you yourself can’t see the screen they’re basing their movements on.
I have about 12 pages of notebook scribbles that I will eventually be adding to this blog, in the form of considered comments on various events (I promise). These include the Expo Leeds (at the end of September!) and the AIRTIME Open Dialogues event I spoke at in October. However, I am performing ‘Longwinded in Five Parts’ with other/other/other at the ROYAL OPERA HOUSE (well, their studio theatre) in less than two weeks, and once again it has shown that balancing collaborative work, a part-time job, and your own practice is near impossible. I also now have a cold. Hey-ho.
