something to listen to

i just wanted to quickly back up on last week's performance Give Me Something To Listen To.

it was an amazing experience.
sometimes i bit terrifying, right?

i didn't actually know what would happen. i could have sat in an empty chair for three hours, trying to convince myself that 'better luck next time' is adequate consolation.

thankfully that wasn't the case - there was a pretty steady stream of people who liked the idea and had things to bring me. some people knew me and brought things that were incredibly meaningful (or just mean - ahem). others heard about the work, liked the idea and brought things they thought i might like, or that they wanted me to like. others brought their favourite song or even their own work.

performance



my 'performance' in this instance is quite subtle. another artist described it as 'not performing performing'. but with an ever-changing audience, those that stayed and watched me listening noticed a few interesting things about the action of listening in this way.

as each person sat down and i handed over my headphone jack to them (the first person i plugged it into their ipod myself and it just felt a little bit violatory), it was almost ceremonial. as was the end, when they handed back my headphone jack.

each track was quite different and i tried to be as true as i could to whatever i was listening to.

i really listened and the world changed a little bit each time. sometimes my world became a movie, or a film clip. sometimes i was completely taken over by joy and movement - like when heidi gave me 'i want you back', by the jackson 5 - my favourite song of all time. or when gonzalo put jay-z and mc punjabi's remix of blame the boys. we just rolled together.

accompaniment.



each person sitting next to me had a different level of comfort. some were completely comfortable - especially those who almost listened along with me - they could see where i was up to in the track. others were quite uncomfortable, or bored. most started fidgeting at about the 1'30 mark. 3'30 is quite a long time when you're just sitting there.

looking through the early documentation, it's interesting to look at the shape of the space between me and the other 'performer'.



sometimes it really felt like i had a partner in crime. other times that other person became a character in a music narrative, depending on the song/track.

significance



i asked everyone afterwards about the significance of the track they chose and we had some great discussions. after the hypnosis for pubic hair loss, we discussed the idea of gender as a psychological construct (and thus able to be changed through hypnosis).

sarah gave me a song that she knew was one of the first songs she ever gave me. sarah and her brother's collection was incredibly influential on my love of music.

lynda's choice of alvin lucier's i am sitting in a room was an obvious one for her. we were able to discuss the significance of distortion, and of the next level of listening to that work in a room, different to the one i was in.

it was also amazing to see how relevant the tracks became. even by people who had never met me before and knew nothing about my practice. For instance, someone gave me Dreams by Fleetwood Mac and i had never heard the line 'play the way you feel it, but listen to the sound..' before. Wow.






it was the first time i performed that work as a whole and i have to say that i'm pretty happy with how it worked.

thanks to those who came. and for those in other cities, or if you missed out in melbourne, i have a feeling this is just the beginning.

UOW: day 5

For a Monday, i had a pretty good day. 

I spent most of it on the main campus in Building 25 - i started off sorting out some problems with my computer and setting up insurance, which was very adult of me. 

-I did some other application/admin-type things;

-Uploaded the documentation from Thursday's Listening Project and

-Emailed around a call-out for participants in another one, planned for 4pm.

I caught up with Jo Law,  one of the Media Arts lecturers, and whose students i'll was booked in to talk to the next day and we sorted out what I might discuss.

Then i met Robyn Douglass, the TA in the textile studio, with whom I'd booked a textile screen-printing session. I had been trying to print the lists from Listening and Being for ages - having little success at CIA. 

And now i know why - i had too heavy a hand and too narrow a squeegee. Philosophy for life, really.

It was excellent to get a print refresh - i hadn't done any emulsion exposing for ages and my process was a little rusty. Now i feel like i could do it again really easily (and may do, if i get some time).

Mostly i printed tests, albeit nice-looking tests. Red ink on calico and curtain backing fabric, with varying degrees of success. 

The ultimate plan one day is to print some large, long scrolls of the sounds heard on listening projects - replicating old public documents, or manifestos, or creeds. That will require a much larger screen and a large-format printer, but it can be done.

documentation from Day 3

At 4pm, I started my listening project, then had a student from third-year, Jess Millman, join me. 

We listened (in stereo) for 30 minutes, to the same site I did on Thursday. It was great for me to revisit the site and note the differences in the time of day and the quality of headphones i was using as a prop. In the comparison afterwards, it was quite validated to realise we heard similar sounds (the overwhelming sound of scuffing shoes) and had similar difficulties discerning large volumes of conversation. I'll upload some documentation for that later today, hopefully.

Overall, it was a good day. I had booked into a serviced apartment for the night and perhaps because i knew that i didn't have to rush back to Sydney that night, i was a lot calmer.

I set up the apartment as a mini-studio, paid the overpriced internet connection (a future rant on that later) and did a bit of work, made dinner being as resourceful as i could (boiled pasta in a salad bowl full of boiling water in the microwave) and worked on a presentation for the students.

Annoyingly, when it came time to sit down and start working on my arduino, i realised that i left the main board back at the University! Aaargh! so annoying… especially as i've been carrying it around with me for the last 4 days, working on it on the train (and maybe trying to become one with it so that i understand it better).

I really couldn't do anything more, so i did some more research, trying to find code that might fit what i want to do: use flex sensor (input) to create sound with the wave shield (output), use lilypad accelerometer (input) with arduino shield (it included an extra 4051 chip, though), and simple code for flex sensors.

When i knew that i had enough, i did what any self-respecting girl would do in such circumstances: 

I went to the spa and sauna.

UOW: day 3

it's the beginning of day 3, and i'm on the phone to ITS again. 

i'm sure that if i've ever really hurt anyone in this life, i'll be coming back as an ITS worker in some university. surely it has got to be the shittest job in the world. i bet mark zuckerberg spent half a day working it and unleashed facebook on the world as a result (i know, i've seen the social network, it's really 'cos he didn't get laid).

whilst being amongst other artists and educators and students is great for arts practice, dealing with university admin for 25% of that time has been extremely frustrating. 

like, i want to cry.

i can see why artists prefer a studio/independent cell model to an institution model because simple things like accessing the internet are relatively easy. even on an overloaded multi-router tangled mess like the one that CIA had. 

so far i've had a very lovely time meeting loads of great artists and teachers. i've had lots of coffee and talked quite a bit. i've met up with an honours student whose work crosses over nicely with mine and all that has been great.

i've now got two workstations set up - one in the creative arts faculty, which i am using for admin garbage and sewing, when i get to it. and i've also got a tech set-up on at the digital media centre on innovation campus, for working on my arduinos. it's in a small black-box room, with amazing sound qualities, lighting, space, great flooring and access to all kinds of gadgets and media things. projector? sure!

i met glenn anderson, the UOW geek overlord who has recreated Orac from  Blake 7 with arduinos, who has kitted out these great electronics kits for everyone to use and is super nice and helpful. actually, being over at the innovation campus is very welcoming and i have a feeling i'll be spending more and more time there.

i think ideally i would like the tech setup to be amongst other students, but actually it's also nice just being around students who are there for media arts and interested in that kind of thing. and glenn and i have already compared notes for arduino shields. i might help him make a chucky-doll :)

not being able to access the internet, though, is majorly problematic.  are you seeing a pattern here? amazing equipment, friendly people, infrastructure breakdown. i think this is the main drawback of the institution.

open source programming is all online, so again my work on arduinos has stalled. argh! i want to tear my hair out. luckily, i have a multi-headed practice and can find something else to work on until the admin_sys jerks send paperwork somewhere. 

by the end of the two weeks here, i really wanted to have a prototype of a garment, that i could at least start to test at electrofringe and two listening projects.

at the moment, i have had coffee with sarah miller, brogan bunt, boni cairncross and lucas ihlein; lunch with derek kreckler, michelle elliot, mike leggett, lucas ihlein and brogan bunt; three blogposts, bookmarks on lilypads, the wave shield, planning diagrams, research notes and two workstations. 

i'm known for my impatience, so take all of this with a grain of salt. but it's something for me to bear in mind for the future.

i think i'm going to get coffee and do a listening project. hopefully the act of listening for 30 minutes in the middle of campus will help calm me down. and at least i'll have some documentation of that, and an understanding of the university that way. perhaps i should have done this on day 1.

UPDATE: i've done a listening project - it was very successful and firmly grounded me back in my practice and on the site. i'll write about that later, and will post it on the listening to the city blog later.

i now also have net access. i'm a happy camp(us)er again.

artist in residence, again.

out of one bed and into another, it seems. 

for the next two weeks i will be an artist-in-residence at the faculty of creative arts at the university of wollongong. two former perth amazing artist peeps have invited me to be here, lucas ihlein and sarah miller and i'll be working on some early prototypes of my wearable tech project.

i'll also take the opportunity to blog a little more regularly about it - because it's much closer to my regular practice than the geek was. and, as you lovely readers might remember, i use this blog as a process place. a sandbox for concept, or, for those that way inclined, as my text-based github-esque code repository. with plenty of forks.

listening garments

i have been trying to kickstart a link between listening and fashion for a while, with not so much success. probably because i'm neither a fashion designer or a sound artist. so i'm smushing things together that i have no idea about. and maybe these things just take time.

some of  you may have been familiar with my garments for listening project and some of my loose sound/listening-based fashion works. 

well, the main aim of the game is to be able to create garments that, based on the pose either switch sound on/off, switch between sounds or actually play a score based on the on/off-ness of the sound (like a pianola and binary code).

over the next two weeks i'm going to be prototyping one of those garments using arduino and some very rudimentary patterning.

listening projects

i'll also do a couple of these performances on the grounds whilst i'm here. especially as i've started reading a new listening/philosophy text which has not only reignited my focus on my act of listening, but has rekindled the place of heidegger in the act of listening (see? i wasn't just making it up)

plus, i've been able to catch up with boni cairncross who is doing her honours here and is interested in performance art and documentation. she and i have already tittered over tino sehgal's work and perhaps it will be interesting to discuss documentation of my fairly dull-looking performances with her. i may even do some more test ustreaming. although web access in universities can be a leetle restrictive, so we'll see.

i would have loved to shown you all loads of exciting things i did today, but sadly, it's been a day of administration, meeting people, struggling with zero access to the interwebs and an all-out crash on my mbp. not v. productive.

but, here's a pick of the wave shield that is balancing together, and some diagrams of the collar i'm working on.

listening and being live

hey peeps,

here are some links to some live channels i've set up for the listening performance today (28th june).

it's the first time i've done anything like this, so please forgive tech difficulties or straight-up operator errors that may occur.

ustream:

UPDATE : I CAN'T GET USTREAM TO WORK WITH MY iOS DEVICE stay tuned..


Live streaming video by Ustream

but you can video call me

skype:lauren.listen

listening and being thoughts

my exhibition is open at bus now and i've done two small performances there. and i feel OK about it so far.



after opening night and a two-hour intense performance amongst a packed room full of artists and art-lovin' hipster-types i felt fantastic! i thought the work looked good and conveyed something of what i'm trying to say about the place of listening in public.

and then in the few days since, and after a second performance on friday - a four-hour durational task cut short due to pain and logistics - there's been the ubiquitous doubt creeping in around the edges. it's so boring -  the nagging question about whether the work says what you want, and the discovery that sometimes it says things you don't want it to.

but, here are some of the little surprises, ideas and snippets of something-or-other that have been raised in the long hours of listening to my own dialogue, some of which might be interesting to you guys. and, if you've seen the show, i'd love to get your feedback.

things about listening i considered
what am i really listening to?
am i thinking things in order to have something to listen to?
listening to oneself is a frightening concept for many. under the guise of "not understanding", many people are afraid of what the work asks them to do.


things about being i considered
if i wasn't here, at this time, doing this work, could i exist?
being didactic and direct does not necessarily achieve understanding. and neither does being loose and aloof. can art ever purport to give understanding?
is listening the action between the nothing and being?

things about art and performance i have since considered

1. tino sehgal makes work in which movement and energy (including singing/sound) changes the dynamic of a space when a person enters it, creating a situation.
i noticed that when i am sitting and listening in the space, and someone enters the space, a situation is similarly created, in a subtracted way: stillness and the sound being absorbed by me changes the dynamic and the nature of the space and their relationship to it.

invariably people quieten themselves and become aware of their own sounds.



2. a lovely elderly painter came into the gallery the other day and whilst the work reminded him of happenings from 40 years ago, his criticism was that the work was too reliant on text. we discussed the lack of imagination in audience and the academic nature of art. and he suggested that artists who were doing those happenings in sydney all those years ago, were doing them because they found it the best form of expression.

i took it to mean that i am not performing these works because it's the only way to express what needs to be said, but that i'm doing it this way because i'm responding to written work. ouch.
i can see his perspective, but i have to say it was nice, at midnight last night, sitting up in the bath and saying out loud 'no, fuck you, listening IS the only way to talk about listening. and text ISN'T a substitute - it's just the next best thing.






i've posted the list of what i heard (recall only, not direct transcription) on the listening to the city blog, which i have started updating. i'll upload some pics there too.


on tuesday 28th june, i'll be doing an 8-hour performance at the gallery, between 7am and 3pm. if you're in melbourne, you're welcome to come and join in.  i'm also going to be setting up a video stream so that you can 'come in' to the gallery, even if you're not physically there.

it will probably via skype and ustream.

keep an eye out and i'll be spamming the networks on monday with the links.



photographers:
sarah barber
jared harris

blatant self-promotion #243

for those who are heading to melbourne any time soon, i have a solo exhibition at bus gallery. listening and being is a simple installation and a series of performances about the act of listening and reflecting.

i will be doing a performance on opening night, plus on the 24th and 28th june. and it's the kind of installation that i encourage gallery-goers to interact with. it's a massive mirror that disects the space, and expect loads of ear-prints on it.

you'll see what i mean when you go there.

there'll be a little catalogue you can pick up at the gallery, but if you can't make it, and would like one - leave a comment, or email me lauren [at] sheseesred [dot] com and i'll send it to you.


here's a little reference material [heidegger warning]
and an earlier version
and a map of where the gallery is

deets

listening and being

where: bus projects
basement
673 bourke st
melbourne

when: 21 june - 9 july, 2011
opening: 21 june 6 - 8pm
gallery: wed - sat 12 - 6pm
performances: 21, 24 and 28 june

easy rider

in the 6 weeks that i've been in perth, i haven't done a lot of gadding about. i've actually used the time (and the lack of social life) to focus heavily on being here in the studios.



i've been trying to implement a day a week to get out of the city and check out a bit of the rest of state - to no avail. until today.

i hired a scooter for the weekend, which has been trés cool. damn those little things suit my style and i think i have to get one when i get back to melbs. i've not ridden one before, so had a few days of riding around perth to get used to it, then hit the highways today.



i made a few errors (like following google maps' directions to a highway bypass, which is basically a freeway. not good for scooters), but enjoyed the trip out to lake leschenaultia. it's about an hour on the scooter from perth and had a nice big pontoon to dive off, some scary signs about amoebic meningitis and a nice big long track to walk around.



i deviated from the path a little, following the mtb track and reminiscing about the days of loftus/royal national park bush-bashing (until i broke my arm at thredbo).




i did my first listening project out there, which is very different to listening to the city. i found it a bit hard. there is lots of space between sounds, but a lot of white noise, as the wind rushes through the trees. and i don't know what the different birds are, so writing high-pitched bird call and answer feels a bit, well inadequate.



but i found the walking and listening to only the sound of my own crunchy footsteps pretty easy. i've come back feeling a bit windblown, but refreshed. next week, i think i'll try and head further out.

nothing but the humming of wires in the wind

there's something in this..

[from john wyndham's day of the triffids]

what lies beneath

lucas ihlein is a great artist, super nice man, excellent teacher and one of them go-getters you just want to be. well, i do anyway.

he's part of this great tiny stadiums festival and has made a cool work about sound and sleeping and alarms, in conjunction with some of the media arts staff/students at UOW. in my old 'hood: wollongong.

i've signed up to receive a customised alarm each day and will be doing a daily sleeping work at CIA during the festival.

partly as a fun way to interact with the festival from afar. and partly as a chance to do an extension of a work i did in berlin (kunsthaus quartier), where i slept for six hours through an alarm that played jim white's song it's a perfect day to chase tornadoes on repeat.

i know some of you love a bit of sound. and a bit of download fun. and cute things you get to keep every day. go and sign up for the daily track here. and go see some other stuff during the festival if you can.

UPDATE: I'll just post a little report in the comments section each day. i'll upload documentation to flickr and post a link in the comments too.

blatant self-promotion #241

tomorrow night (wed. 3 november), i'm in a group show in berlin, within the studio i've been at for the last 2 months.


if you're in berlin (or you can send a proxy), come along, it will be ace to see you.


i only have a couple of works in the show, but i realised during the selection process that i've made a STACK of work about sound and specifically listening in public, even in the last 6 weeks. maybe i should find a space for a more comprehensive show.


anyways, here are the deets:


Wednesday 3 November
19:00 - 23:00
one night only

Rooftop Studios
5th Floor
Chodowieckistraße 35
10405 Berlin

the sound i love most is silence

i love john cage. i derive a lot of my practice from what he speaks of and this video just made me fall in love with him all over again. AND he's a cute boy with a cat.

the listening to the city project that i did last year looked at a whole bunch of these ideas: the act of listening without judgement to the city, the actual sound of traffic (although i think cage's experience of traffic as silence is from behind the filter of 6 floors up and behind glass), and an engagement with the desire of silence and the means to obtain it.

his definition of sound acting is exactly what propels me to respond to sound through performance, action, occupation and installation-based works. my relationship with sound is a verb, not a noun.

just as a heads up, i'm giving a lecture on sound, listening and silence in the built environment next month, so don't be surprised if there's a few cage quotes in there.

thanks to nella for this one.

85 decibels, baby!

the anode festival opened in melbourne on friday night and i remembered that i should really tell you all about a work i have in it.

it's the third in a series of city listening works and this one, 85 decibels, baby!, is a durational work - a long one. i'll be attending to the sounds of city - listening to as much of that cacophony as possible - for 8 hours straight.

8 hours. a traditional working timeframe and the one deemed 'safe' to listen to 85 decibels.
85 decibels is the apparent sound level of city traffic. from inside a car.
i'll be out in the open, with headphones on as that muffler.
i'll be subverting that desire to make the unwanted, the 'noise' subliminal.

the performance will be on saturday 14th november, 2009: 1- 9pm. on the corner of bourke and elizabeth sts in melbourne CBD. feel free to pop down and say hello.
listen with me if you want to.

i'm hoping to post an image each hour and, if we can find a way, hopefully webcasting it somehow. although that's still to be worked out exactly. i will, however, be making notes and images in a series of books and i'll post those images afterwards.

for more info about the rest of the program, check out the anode site.

art in the public space lectures

after lunch today, andrew reeves, historian and chief of staff to senator kim carr came and spoke to us about the history of public art in melbourne. he has a specific interest in the art associated with the trade union movements, which is interesting seeing as i mentioned the 888 monument here, and that it's labour day on monday. but he spoke to us about a wide range of topics related to public art and history.



other aspects of his discussion:

• 8-hour day march banners - beautifully painted with allegorical history painting of inspiration and virtue on one side, and social realism of the breadth of the union's trade on the other. initially in silk, but the south-easterly up collins street quickly took care of that. painted canvas: painted by union members. up in smoke.

• exhibition buildings as evidence of early public art forms in melbourne - dating from 1889. debate about the worth of the building ensued - more a puffed-out chest showing of intellect from student than relevant discussion [imho].

• liebskind's holocaust museum extension to berlin museum: best use of building as public art ever. leads the visitor from old berlin museum (german mansion) into dark tunnel, up a significant number of steps, to the exhibits. education through an experience relative to those suffered by the jewish in concentration camps. and that's not just because it's a holocaust museum, as there are many holocaust museums around the world and only liebskind's does that.

• other historical public art to check out, following the old march route from trades hall, down swanston, up collins to parliament then spring to exhibition buildings:

newspaper house, collins st - frescoes
mural paintings of geoff hogg on lygon st, north of the cemetary
t&g buliding russell and collins (old foyer)
melbourne club. kind of.
windsor hotel
pediment ofathenaeum theatre
town hall, stained glass: best example of non-religious glass in australia (as well as leonard french's ceiling at the NGV)
drummond st: greek and roman gods, plus the portrait of zeus where you wouldn't expect it.
parliament house
villa alba in kew - being restored in order to re-present private-ish collection to the public. a little like the wallace collection, methinks.

• museums and galleries are the prime institutions to commission and engage public art, but are lost opportunities: case in point, windswept wasteland between melbourne museum and exhibition buildings.

• public art can provide a sense of humanity to large areas dwarved or vacated by buildings "abominations". it's imperative in the age of intervention/extension/cover-up of architectural mistakes.

"public art survives in the most random of ways."

feel free to browse

Following on from Interesting South, I've decided to go to more stuff like it more often:

pecha kucha flick thanks to paisdelasmaravillas from flickr

Pecha Kucha
Started by a couple of architects, Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham, it began as a place to network and also to check out their eventspace. It has since gone on to be a global thang, a place to hear interesting people talk about interesting things.

I almost got to one at the ICA when i was in London, but missed the last one. Bugger. But, filed it under EXCITEMENT PLUS, the last Pecha Kucha Melbourne for the year is on Tuesday night! Yay!

At the Blue Diamond Bar on Queen St from 6-ish, I'm looking forward to checking out a variety of creative/brainy type presenations. 20 slides, then get the fuck off the stage. Love it.

coffee morning flick thanks to russell davies from flickr

Coffee Morning Melbourne

Regular readers will know that when in London, I did as Londoners do and went to Coffee Morning at the Breakfast Club in Soho. I met some amazing people there, including many who I call dear friends now. There are a few Coffee Mornings around the world. Sydney has one, Melbourne tried it a while ago and so I've decided to try and resurrect it. Mainly for the selfish reason of wanting good coffee and conversation.

The only thing is, I don't really know what works for the Melbourne bloggery types out there, so I'm putting forth a bit of an option type thing and if people can put their suggestions in the comments section, that would be ace. [I should probably put up a spiffy poll, but I honestly couldn't be fucked]. And if you know others who might be into it, get them to tell me too.

Now, I've stuck to the CBD, in the interest of being central and I'm sticking to Friday, in the interest of continuity (not to mention it being a lazy-ish kind of day and perfect to have coffee on).

VENUE
Option 1
Journal Cafe on Flinders Lane

Option 2
Section 8 Container Bar/Cafe in Tattersalls Lane

Option 3
Nick's on Queen St

TIME

Option A
Friday, 8am

Option B
Friday, 9:30am

Option C
Friday, 11am

Discuss.

*Sorry to those for whom that was an interminable bore. Now, back on topic.

dorkbot tee flick thanks to chesh from flickr

Dorkbot

I saw Pia, fabulous Dorkbot Overlord speak at Interesting and have decided to go to one of the Melbourne Dork-bot meetings. Now, the last one for the year was last Sunday (while I was wandering lost around Wollongong, great.) but I thought I should just give it a bit of a shout-out anyway. Go to the Melbourne Dork-bot wiki for more info.

* It also reminded me of the fantastic Chris Northcote's Forkbot, reconstructed EggsBaconChipsBeans at Interesting in London.

And what's the point of all that garbage for? Well, the thing is, it's the Real Life 2.0 version of a browsing, or going through your blog reader. Hearing about a range of stuff from strangers is fantastic for expanding your experience of stuff: great for empathy, brilliant for jiggling an idea around and, dare I say it, good for the soul. I like the way I feel when I hear new stuff and I feel like a more informed member of the human race. Surely that's a good thing, right?