ARTISTS TALKING

# 14 [12 April 2010]

Event 10

Blast Theory weekender

Artsadmin, Toynbee Studios, London

27-28.03.10

This was a brilliant way to finish my R&D project because it gave me a chance to put into practice some of the themes I have been working on over the last few months, specifically instruction and text-based work. We did a series of writing exercises, and some pair work in the local streets, devising performance games and methods of negotiating/constructing space (including imaginary space). I will be using some of the techniques in the future whenever I need to get a project started: they were simple tools which could be applied to any project. One piece was to devise a series of points along a journey from point a to point b, where a and b could be ‘a familiar place’ and ‘an unfamiliar place’ or ‘a stranger’ and ‘a lover’, or anything else which opposes. It was a great way to come up with a set of instruction pieces, although half-way through writing mine I realised it was starting to read like a self-help book.

One of the best things about the weekend was the networking and discussion. We’ve all exchanged emails, so we now all have a pool of resources at our fingertips.

Back in Norwich, I have now written and posted my GFTA activity report form (a little later than promised, but I blame that on the later dates of NRLA this year). It’s been a useful project, paying for travelling, tickets and mentoring, and forcing me to write about the things I’ve been to. I’ve not really kept this blog up to date, as you can probably tell, but it is over 5000 words long (which is longer than my BA dissertation was) and has been lovingly re-constructed from scribbled notebook entries.

So finally: on Friday 4^th June I will be performing 12 versions of ‘One-Minute Birdwatching’ in Ipswich, as part of PULSE. Visit twitter.com/pulsefringe for locations nearer the time if you’d like to join in. Hope to see you there.

# 13 [26 March 2010]

Event 9

National Review of Live Art

Glasgow

19-21.03.10

In the spirit of the self-reflective 30^th anniversary theme of this year’s review, I have decided to present my impressions as a list of 30 things about the NRLA:

10 things I liked:

1. Liz Aggiss (humour; a good combination of informative showreels and showing her bum; subverting expectations)

2. Richard Layzell (engagement with the audience and clever deconstruction of documentation conventions and technical set-up)

3. Rosie Ward (good use of site and careful choice of work which allowed the environmental sounds of the trains above to permeate the work rather than clash with it)

4. Kate McIntosh and Eva Meyer-Keller (the work was simultaneously logical and ludicrous)

5. Los Torreznos (best performance of spoken word in the festival: I have never seen anyone count to 2100 in front of me before)

6. Lisa Wesley and Andrew Blackwood/Forced Entertainment (both works created interesting dystopian landscapes and narratives, which was all the more pertinent when visiting a strange city and not getting enough sleep)

7. Iona Kewney (honest use of materials: the box was just a box, not a theatrical prop. Also, she’d obviously considered the role of the performance of the sound track to her piece)

8. Michael Mayhew (disturbing use of eye-contact whilst misbehaving)

9. Kate Stannard (closest I’ve got to shared sport appreciation, and I like imagining what she would have passed on the distance she cycled)

10. Kirsten Lavers (honest interaction with audience, resulting in genuine answers)

10 good quotations from panellists and performers:

1. “John Cage’s ample back”

2. “thousands of years of mothers and daughters”

3. “if we don’t document this then it’s not going to have a life and we won’t be able to talk to people like you”

4. “both are equally unreliable” (documentation and anecdote)

5. “part of the taxonomy of performance tropes”

6. “embodied approach to historiography”

7. “here and now”

8. “re-enactment with meaning”

9. “Can we have the sound please, Johnny?”

10. “no more queueing”

10 things to think about including in my practice (with varying degrees of seriousness):

1. Dance and movement.

2. The verbal element, greeting the audience.

3. Site-specific projections.

4. Head mic/lapel mic.

5. Humour. More of it.

6. Documentation is not necessarily a fitting subject for the work.

7. Playing with technicians.

8. Staged photographs to symbolise a performance.

9. Investigate the use of the words ‘score’ and ‘instruction’.

10. Should I bite the bullet and finally join Facebook? Does it quantify friendship or provide important networking? Will I actually get round to checking it?

At the end of Sunday night we were each given a little plastic man, who had in previous years guaranteed your entry to a performance. Mine looks like he’s dancing. I had an impromptu photo opportunity on the train back, when I realised that Wayne Rooney was in fact the same as my plastic NRLA man. Here’s a photo.

I now have one more event to go to before my Escalator project is done: Blast Theory’s weekender at Artsadmin tomorrow and Sunday. Watch this space!

# 12 [26 March 2010]

Mentoring with Bob Levene

Sheffield

29.01.10

I had posted the DVDs of the ‘Cans’ re-shoot and of ‘One-Minute Birdwatching’ as the focus for this session. I wasn’t convinced with them as objects in themselves, so I was eager to get some feedback at this stage. The first one we discussed was OMB (as I shall now refer to it!):

The first point raised was that I should make it very clear that the DVD was documentation, not a performance to camera. I had framed the image when recording it, but due to the limitations of the space I couldn’t get all the performers into the frame, and the sound wasn’t presented as a spatial stereo representation of the space, so it can only ever indicate the potential sound of the live event rather than represent it accurately. I was more interested in the experience and the live-ness at the time, and so documentation was there only for personal reference. I did make a separate stereo recording at the same time as one of the films, but I’ve not glued them together yet, and probably won’t get round to it for this version. It has made me consider the role of the documentation of the performances I will be doing at PULSE this summer: it may work better to have someone else doing it so that the spatial qualities of the performance can be recorded without me compromising the performance by arranging it for camera.

The second point we discussed was the spaces it could be performed in, and how it would change. Pulls Ferry was small, but the arrangement of windows was good: it would be interesting to do a version in a long office space, perhaps with restricted vision (smaller windows?), to get the sense of a performed sound travelling in relation to a passing bird. This led to discussions about visual framing and helmets!

Other points: the piece would sound very different if performed by people with a greater or lesser knowledge of birds: there would be multiple syllables from twitchers, which would change the rhythm of the piece. It would be interesting to try that at some point. Also, if I were to log the precise time and location it becomes much more about the ecology of the location.

The feedback on the ‘Cans’ video was that whilst the scale and structure is fine, it has lost its investigative qualities, and has become more careful. I felt that when I was making it, as I was very aware of the multiple video and audio takes I was stacking up, and it made me very precise. I think that is a general problem in repeating a work: it becomes too rehearsed. I need to play around with it some more (and just happen to film it at the same time!). I may go back to the imperceptible sounds, and also the playing with the acoustic properties of glasses and funnels which I did on one of my residencies and then forgot about. We also discussed the possibility of a version with other people moving the objects over my ears. One to come back to, I think.

FrenchMottershead at Site Gallery

Sheffield

29.01.10

I had a quick look round just before my mentoring session, and my favourite bit was a catalogue ‘Handpicked’. It was made from Romanian shoppers’ recollections of food produce, and was then printed and re-distributed amongst that community. It was gaudy, and not at all like a classic art catalogue. I’m glad the concept for the piece went as far as the design of the ‘artefact’.

# 11 [26 March 2010]

Event 8

Miroslaw Balka: How it is

Fluxus room (part of permanent collection)

Tate Modern

20.11.09

In between performances I also went to Tate Modern. Miroslaw Balka’s installation in the turbine hall could be heard before it was seen, with the sound of small children jumping up and down in the vast metal tank. I enjoyed the sensation of descending blindly into the void, but felt that it was too short to give a total sense of immersion. The effect was also ruined by the narcissists who felt it was important to photograph themselves in the dark using their phones. A couple of A4 posters at the entrance isn’t going to stop people using their phones, Tate Modern.

The Fluxus room was really interesting: I don’t see much detailed Fluxus work in books very often, so it was brilliant being able to read hundreds of instruction pieces and event posters at close range. I’m constantly aware that a lot of my work is influenced by Fluxus, from event scores to sound experimentation. Simply the awareness that these things occurred allows contemporary work to function in a context, but I will have to be careful that I’m not repeating 1970s work by accident. More historical reading needed, I think.

‘Cans’ re-shoot

03.12.09

I decided to prepare a performance-to-camera version of ‘Cans’, with binaural audio and a head-and shoulders shot, again facing away from the audience. It is intended to be watched on a tv monitor, by one person at a time, so that the scale is almost life-size. I have also simplified the sounds: they are much more physical, and use the handling sound of the cans, rather than the musical elements I used in my original performance. I don’t think this is the finished version of this piece; I just wanted to try it out. I’m showing it to the rest of other/other/other at the weekend in a group crit.

other/other/other at Pulls Ferry

Norwich

05-06.12.09

This isn’t strictly part of the Escalator project, but I did some new work this weekend that I will talk to Bob about, so I thought I’d mention it. We hired a space in Norwich so that we could produce some site-responsive group work and also develop our own practices through group crits. We decided beforehand to prepare some instructions/guides for group performance/activity, and so I presented a new idea I’d had: ‘One-Minute Birdwatching’, an instruction piece, to be performed by a group. The rules are:

1. Start when instructed.

2. Whenever you see a bird, say either its name (if you know it), or ‘bird’ (if you don’t).

3. Name each individual bird only once.

4. Stop when instructed.

I repeated this both days, and filmed the results. It produced a babble of sound like a flock of birds, and was a really interesting group dynamic, with people getting louder collectively. It was performed inside, looking out of the windows. I would like to develop the piece for other sorts of spaces.

I have since learnt that I will be Associate Artist for PULSE Fringe Festival with this piece in June.

# 10 [26 March 2010]

Event 7

AURORA

Norwich

13-15.11.09

The festival highlights for me were:

1. Shezad Dawood ‘Feature’, which was an interesting Western-themed film of performed scenes, set in the landscape at Wysing Arts Centre, and using a cast sourced from very specific local groups (such as the Cambridge Chinese Community Football Team). A performance to camera, in the most public sense, this film conveyed the complexities of the process in its final manifestation.

2. The panel discussion about distributing video work on YouTube, the pros being access to out-of-print films, the cons being lack of control over screening context. One speaker proudly stated that he hooked up his plasma screen to YouTube. I wondered about the beautiful abstraction the pixelation would do at that size.

3. Ben Rivers ‘I Know Where I’m Going’, which was as much about the filmmaker’s process (a deliberate attempt to get lost on a British road trip to the Isle of Mull) as it was about the people he found. It made me think about Richard Long again, and other journey-based live art: it’s often close to fiction, as it requires the audience to imagine the distance, route and duration. Only a tiny part of the experience can ever be communicated to an audience, and I liked Ben Rivers’ choice of presenting encounters with people and stories.

4. The communal spirit: eating meals with international filmmakers is the best sort of networking.

Live Art Development Agency Study Room

London

19.11.09

I went to London to perform ‘Longwinded in Five Parts’ with other/other/other at the Royal Opera House, and after the technical rehearsal I had enough time to go to the Live Art Development Agency Study Room. I’d never been there before, and I would strongly urge anyone who is interested in live art to make a visit. There was so much material, but everything was catalogued and easy to find, and there are brilliant artist-produced study guides to help you navigate by theme if you are just browsing. I knew I wanted to look at the FrenchMottershead guide: ‘Making it your own? Social engagement and participation’, and so spent a while looking at work on DVD and VHS that I would never have looked for otherwise. I also read Luke Jerram’s ‘Art in Mind’ book, which is great for anyone interested in perception, and creating artwork in spaces at the edge of consciousness. Brilliant. I have since bought it, for future musings. My favourite quotation was: “I expect much of the research in your project area was done in the 60s and 70s. Research was more flamboyant then.” Dr Alison Diaper (p37).

I also listened to all of Janet Cardiff’s ‘The Missing Voice (case study b)’, although technically I should have walked down to Whitechapel and done the walk for real, but I think it was cold outside and I was feeling lazy. It became an interesting exercise in listening to site-specific work out of intended context, although she has released the piece alongside publications, so perhaps the interaction with the physical space isn’t so important. Anyway, I was interested in her use of voice and stories, and the disconcerting feeling of having those stories whispered into your ear. The obvious mixing points between two binaural recordings also helped to turn the otherwise straightforward field recording into a fictional space. 

# 9 [26 March 2010]

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.

# 8 [26 March 2010]

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. 

# 7 [8 January 2010]

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.

# 6 [29 November 2009]

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. 

# 5 [11 November 2009]

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.