Gen Doy New Collaborations Bursary 2014

Photograph by Ken Taylor

I’m hoping there’s a picture here for you to see, as I’m trying to get the hang of adding pictures in this new a-n website…..After a meeting with my collaborators and separate discussions of
my singing voice in relation to my work, I decided to have mostly recorded sound (voice and sound of waves) in my recent work for the Asylum Chapel, Peckham, South London, entitled The Ten Commandments of the Asylum Chapel. At the end, I stepped forwards towards the audience and sang for a short time. I wanted a contrast between the recorded and the live sound, between the past and the live present. The effect is very different and seemed to work well. While I was standing waiting to sing the live part, the setting sun illuminated an area around my head, a development of which I was unaware at the time. When I saw videos and still photographs of this later, I realised that this chance event should be an encouragement to me to allow my performances to be receptive to developments in the site and surroundings which could interact with my performance. Of course sometimes these really are a disruption and would wreck what I am doing, for example a fire alarm going off in the middle of a song. Other times, these chance occurrences could enhance the performance and, I suppose, are part of live art. I had realised this before, but not to the extent that a chance event could really be the highlight (literally in this case) of the performance.
The reception I got from the audience and their comments were encouraging and helpful, as were the comments from the other artists and the curator after the rehearsal. After this I decided that live performance is important to my work, and I was not going to give it up, but to decide when and where a live element would be appropriate to the work/commission very carefully. I also found it useful to present work as part of a curated programme over the course of an evening, which allowed my work to complement and/or be in dialogue with other artists’ works. In addition, I also liked the chance to work on my own away from the collaborative a-n project. It gave me a bit more of a perspective on the a-n project, which I think I was in danger of losing to a degree. I suppose the lesson of this is that it’s useful to collaborate in making work, but it’s also important to do work as an individual, which can then be in dialogue with the work of others, who also made their work as individuals. The interaction of the works can then be facilitated by the curator, so thanks to Ed Ball who curated the evening’s programme of performances at the Asylum Chapel on July 3rd.
Yesterday I worked on my performance of the song I composed to sing in the hollow Yew Tree at Crowhurst. Lucy thought the song was powerful and has given me some advice on how to make the delivery more technically sound and delivered with more emotion. The key, as always is loads of breath and support from the lower abdomen and pelvic floor, and a relaxed jaw…and don’t be afraid of pauses to allow the audience to take in what they hear and respond to it. More soon.

I’m still trying to work out how to manage this new blog set-up and have just managed to lose loads of things that I wrote after trying to add a picture…alas i’ll have to start all over again. The video of instructions for blogs on the a-n website is far too quick for someone like me, and I haven’t got a clue how to use this toolbar!
I’ve had meetings with my two collaborators about how the works are going. Lynn, who is mainly dealing with video and editing, feels that my voice is rather nervous and shaky, that I should probably be singing in the middle of my range rather than attempting to sing things that are more demanding, and also that my songs need more variety. I think that I could tackle this by warming up more thoroughly before starting to sing, and always taking pitch pipes with me to make sure I’m starting on a note that will be comfortable for the whole range of notes in the song.
I talked to my voice and singing teacher, Lucy, about this. She discussed with me what my range of voice actually is, and emphasised the need to be totally in command of the song, know the melody and the words off by heart, and warm up really well, and to attack the song with intent, not half-heartedly. Obviously being relaxed and not nervous helps as well. Lucy also said that the expectations of your audience are important. For example I am an artist who uses my speaking and singing voice in my work, and am not a professional singer. when the audience is aware of this, their expectations will adjust accordingly. Nonetheless, I need to work harder to improve and strengthen my voice and performances.
I was feeling a bit down after the meeting with Lynn, even though she made some valid points, and wondered whether I should really continue doing live performances. Did my work really need to be live? Always? Sometimes? a mixture of live and recorded sound?
I had a commission to do a new work as a result of a mini-residency at the Asylum Chapel, Peckham, South London, and decided to see what would happen there before trying to reach any tentative conclusions. Most of the performance sound was recorded and edited previously, and I sang live at the very end. I wanted a big contrast between the recorded, past sound, and the live sound which was really “in the moment” and present to the audience. This seemed to work pretty well, and I regained a lot of confidence after the evening went well. I warmed up my voice properly, and we all rehearsed for the programme before the evening performances.

I’ve tried several times to upload an image here, but have failed and so I’m going to stop here and continue once I find out how to add a photograph.

i haven’t managed to do anymore on my collaborative project recently, for various reasons, mostly to do with editing the material from the grotto, but I decided to go to a talk arranged by Artquest about collaboration for obvious reasons. It was given by Andreas Lang, an architect who works with others in a collective called Public Works.

Their collective seeks to involve members of local communities and members of the public (citizens was a term Andreas liked to use) and in fact members of the public are seen as collaborators, and genuinely have an input into the group’s projects. See their website http://www.publicworksgroup.net/

In fact, we could probably say that members of the public become citizens in the course of their collaboration and participation in these projects. So there is collaboration among and between members of the collective, and the public who become involved. They do some really worthwhile things to do with recycling, reclaiming spaces, building community and civic values, affordability etc and are based on notions of sharing and gift giving. I can’t really give a summary of Andreas’ talk here but it made me think quite a lot about the collaboration i’m doing with the a-n bursary.

I wonder if i want to be in control too much, or, how much control and direction is needed while still entering into a fruitful collaboration, where all parties gain something? Andreas emphasised that letting go, opening up, and sharing are key factors in his own collaborative approach. He also emphasised that successful collaborations are not based on competition with others. At one point the discussion mentioned failure, as a means of learning and moving forward and it reminded me of a book i read not too long ago which i wrongly told the others was called Art and Failure. In fact it’s called Art and Fear, but actually i found it useful when i read it because it’s about fear of failure. It’s a short publication by David Bayles and Ted Orland. I think i may have been drawn to this advice in the book as a parent, but it did strike a chord. The authors say ” ASK YOUR WORK WHAT IT NEEDS, NOT WHAT YOU NEED. THEN SET ASIDE YOUR FEARS AND LISTEN, THE WAY A GOOD PARENT LISTENS TO A CHILD.”

This may be a bit touchy-feely but it’s got something. But i also think i need to ask myself what I need as well, and what others need, as well as what the work needs. And what do my collaborators need? i suppose this comes back to something i was wondering before about differences between assistants and collaborators.

I should use this quietish period as a time to reflect on the a-n collaborative project so far, and how to continue to build on what we’ve got so far, while doing something genuinely different.

I’m going to use some of my own money as well as the bursary money to pay Lucy for ten more lessons, as despite my feeble efforts to take massive abdominal breaths and sing, i am thinking of more things to try and ways that i can put my ideas into practice, and Lucy is supportive and creative. so, on we go…..

well the weather was kind yesterday and Lynn Dennison and I went off to the grotto to film, record and sing. we could have done with a lot more time but a kind volunteer had opened the place up especially for us for a couple of hours and we felt we couldn’t really impose on him longer. I gave him a donation to the upkeep of the grotto from the collaborative bursary funds with thanks.

One of the main ideas i put into the proposal was to experiment with the voice, sound and images, in a way that wasn’t just a video with a soundtrack. So we tried out various things in the rooms and tunnels of the grotto, which are just lovely. The tunnels which are covered with flint are better than the concreted ones, and the acoustics in the grotto are wonderful. Unfortunately i had a sore throat from singing against a load of other soundworks during a performance at the De La Warr pavillion on Saturday, so my voice not at its best. But what great atmosphere! what a presence of time, space and a special kind of air within the underground spaces!

Some of the better material we got was when i turned away from the camera, or the camera wandered over the lovely shells and various stones set into the walls of the grotto and away from me, or the camera came upon me singing as if just discovering me there. Lynn had spoken about trying this out and i thought it worked really well.

If only we’d had longer. but it was a good start to the serious of visits i’m hoping to do. On the train home we looked at the footage and i listened to the sound files last night. Despite my creaky voice we should have someting. I was sad about the state of my voice because i’d been practising the song for the grotto at home, trying to deliver the music in an 18th century style full of trills, and little runs and flourishes…..

Also yesterday i thought about the difference between an assistant and a collaborator, and how sometimes one would be required, and at other times, the other. But then there’s a bit of overlap. Surely a good assistant would also at times offer collaborative input….Lynn is great as a collaborator. She’s far more experienced than I am in all kinds of artistic media, and is much more of a perfectionist and has a very good “eye”. Also she is more bothered about intrusions of “unwanted stuff” in the material eg. nearby modern houses being visible in parts of the video of the outside of the grotto. I, on the other hand, at times don’t mind this at all, and feel it is part of the meaning of the grotto now. it stands in a small remnant of a one larger wooded park, the rest having been taken over by developers to build houses on. These houses are really close to the perimeter fence of the grotto and its greenery. To me, this is the history of the grotto and its present. Yes, we have to make things look good, but sometimes it’s more telling to include things which “unprettify” things, if you see what i mean. However we both agreed that the contemporary front door of the grotto was an eyesore!

So, my collaborations are going well, and Lynn is putting in effort way beyond the call of duty. I should have put more money in the budget to increase her fees. !

I also decided to have a meeting with Lucy, my other collaborator who is a voice coach and singer, and Lynn, at some point in the not too distant future, so they can meet and we can all discuss and review what has already been made. I’ll pay them for their time here as well. Next stop the ancient yew tree in a few weeks for some more experiments.

i’m putting off updating my website as i always hate doing that, so i’ll write a bit of blog instead. the joys of procrastination….Having visited the grotto and the yew tree, i spent the last few days writing a melody for the grotto song, which seems quite good..it’s very 18th century and i tried to do it in the style of Thomas Arne (composer of Rule Britannia as far as I recall) and Where the bee sucks) . That’s about the same period as the construction of the grotto and the poems written by the man who had it built. I just have to memorise it now.

The yew tree song…well there’s a voiceover in the first part of the video which i’ll record somewhere else, the bathroom cupboard i think, it needs to be in a quiet and muffled place, so i’ll put loads of towels on the floor. then there’s a song to be sung inside the yew tree itself on site and recorded there with all the ambient sound . It’s not exactly cheery…poisoned berries, possible suicide, rejected love etc but the main thing is for the person and the tree to become entwined, physically and mentally. I’ve been writing down the music in a very basic way using my nice yamaha E333 keyboard (a great ebay find) which displays the notes you are playing on the keyboard as you play them so’s you can write them down on a sheet of music.

I had a couple of discussions with my colaborators as well, Lucy and Lynn. It’s so useful to get another perspective on your work, especially from someone from slightly outside the area you are working in. Something i think very ordinary, seems to others to be good, and sometimes vice versa.

I’m feeling rather restless tho, wanting to get on with another level of making the work, but have to wait for access to the places and my memorisation of the material to be completed.

It’s also time i went to see some exhibitions. It’s easy to become so focussed on your own work that you end up lacking a distanced perspective that you can bring to other people’s work when you see it in a show, or a performance etc, but you’ve forgotten how to bring that critical and appraising eye to your own efforts.

I’m going to think more about the project as a whole as well, rather than working on each individual project one after the other. I need to experiment more as well i think, as that’s the main point of the bursary really.

I’m also wondering how you can put still images into this blog!

i think i’ve done it….