this is not sound

See what that says: Catch me at This Is Not Art. And more specifically, Electrofringe. Daniel and Somaya, the awesome peeps at Electrofringe kindly offered me a place in their program, so I’m taking the Cone of Silence to TINA.

Over the last 3 days I’ve been patterning, cutting, sewing, riveting, lining and packaging to reconfigure the Cone of Silence from RMIT’s first site, to create the wearable, mobile version. A quiet costume, kinda.

I’m super excited about going – especially after the ace, but stupidly short time I had there 3 years ago. I’m looking forward to catching at least a couple of good shows and learning stuff.

I’ll be wandering the streets of Newcastle, soundproofing the city – bringing some silence back into the place – especially amongst the glitch of a festival focused on making a helluva lot of noise.




The Cone of Silence is also available to hire for 30 minute sessions from the Festival Hub/Club. So you can have a bit of quiet time in the overwhelming goodness of the festival.

If you’re at TINA, please come and say hey if you see me about. I’ll be there from Thursday - Sunday and will also be giving a more formal artist talk at the Round Theatrette on Saturday afternoon (3rd October), at 2pm. If you’re one of the 3 people there, feel free to ask awkward questions – I’m always up for a challenge. Heh.

And if you’re not at TINA, well, you should be seeing some of the Melbourne Fringe shows – some of which I’ll post about shortly – there are a few little gems about, that’s for sure.

*twitter hashtag: #electrofringe

site-writing

i'm a whole week behind on posting about this, but it's always better late than never, right?*



last friday, as part of the architecture + philosophy series, design research institute and the urban interior research group from RMIT, jane rendell - writer, architectural designer, art critic and historian from the bartlett (ucl) in london- gave a presentation: to and fro: site writing.

she spoke about the role of writing in terms of art/architecture, the role of critique, the influence of ego and the id on critical architecture and the inevitable interstitial space between public and private.

i left the lecture almost bursting with ideas. in fact, i almost left myself a voicemail message as a reminder of all the cool stuff i had heard. i kind of wish i did because, 7 days later, all i can remember is the feeling and a faint connection to the notes i took.

she does have a new book coming out soon - site-writing, in which the process of critique and writing has been developed into a more formal process-based work, in which the various forms of language about site and experience are interspersed, a collage of sorts, even.

and as interesting as that is, a point of discussion which we had included the importance of purely functional writing and/or critique. where the traditional roles of object and outcome remain separated and the writer takes on the role of designer - responding to a brief: to articulate the nuance and visual code of an artist/architect/performer's work

there were a couple of key points, which i thought were particularly interesting.

1. immersive critique - whereby the writer responds to the work, not as a detached observer, or dissociated object, but from within the space. it reminded me about andrea fraser's 'little frank and his carp' - the video work she did where she responded to the guggenheim by literally following the directives of the audio guide - rubbing herself on the smooth walls, etc.

2. repression presents itself through repetition. i thought this was a particularly interesting concept. coming from a 'history never repeats' aspect, but i guess from an aesthetic position, it's something i'd be interested in researching some more.

3. the relationship of feminist theory and psychoanalysis to architecture. luce irigray is prime example, but i love being part of a discussion where the concept of design acknowledges gender politics and sexual identity. goodness abound.


i'm hoping that her presentation/paper will be uploaded to the arch+phil site soon, because i need a refresher course, but in the mean time, here is link to her presentation for one day sculpture in nz.

and some pics of my notes. you know, writing as image and back again [click to enlarge].














*except having your period. then it's always better never.

"it would be impossible to go through life without enjoying swearing."

regular readers may well already know these two things about me:
i swear. a lot.
i think stephen fry is a god of sorts.

you may not know that i also think clem bastow (from 3RRR, Dawn Chorus, Dancing About Architecture) is another god of sorts and that she's team captain of a new blog: boy howdy. it's an extension of my other new favourite blog: nerdboyfriend, but way more camp.

so i was delighted to find this over there.



he pretty much sums it up.

fucking lunatics.

phew!

well, the cone of silence is in. or up. or on. or whichever preposition is most appropriate for the work, really.

i was sleep-deprived, strung out and starving at the opening, so if you came and i ignored you, or looked at you funny, please forgive me, it was a night of little dramas.

but it was also a pretty successful night.

success. that's a word i've never used with a work before, but there, i said it. it feels pretty good to say that, actually.
maybe that makes me a bit of a wanker. *shrug*

loads of people were into the work - in every sense of the term - people were queuing up to get in and have a go. and most people had a pretty positive experience of it too, which is always ace.

it's at first site gallery (on swanston st in melbourne) until the 26th september, so feel free to pop in and get cosy. i'll be there on the 24th and 26th september, so do pop by and say hey.

i call shenanigans

i have no idea what you tube were going on about when that error appeared at the top of my channel. but i couldn't help but share it. [click to enlarge]


and speaking of shenanigans, sadly, i haven't been getting up to many lately. i've been laying low thanks to a spot of theatre - and not the performance type - and a couple of shows coming up.


but there are lots of things to see at the moment, including the kathy temin 1, 2 at heide and anna schwartz galleries, the excellent david noonan and johanna billing shows at acca (remember me going on about 'magical world' on my euro trip a while back. probably not. well, same artist. go see.) and my dear friend jade has work on at gallerysmith in north melbourne which y'all should check out. it's a newish commercial space around the corner from arthur's circus which looks v. interesting.

and speaking of arthur's circus, gemma jones and friends have a sweet-as little show coming up there from the 22nd september onwards. you should check it.

i call shenanigans. over and out.

the doors.

“But is he who opens a door and he who closes it the same being? The gestures that make us conscious of security, of freedom are rooted in a profound depth of being. Indeed, it is because of this ‘depth’ that they become so normally symbolical.”

gaston bachelard, poetics of space.

swoon! coming back to this book is like slipping on an old pair of tracky dacks: cliched, a little daggy, but oh-so-comforting.

battening down the hatches

seems that she sees red is attracting a bit of love from the spamming community at the moment. so i've chucked a bit of a tantrum and, until the fuckers rack off and bother someone else, i've had to turn off anonymous comments for a while. sorry kids.