not listening. listening.

last week i did a small performance/occupation/process work at west space gallery, as the first in a series of project about the role of headphones/sound in the public sphere. it was an impromptu work, facilitated by the presentation of the great sound art show magnetic traces, curated by philip samartzis and eric la casa.

my particular work was in response to the piece by jean-luc guionnet, lac. lac was the sound object of a working lake in france, transported to the gallery in melbourne - the rush of water, the sound of boats and littoral public life was amplified into the main space.

i did a feedback loop of sorts - me sitting in the space for the duration of the lac work with headphones on: not listening to the ambient sounds of the public which are transported into the private domain, by listening to the sounds from a private domain, by a member of 'the public'.

being and not-being, whilst being and not-being.

it was quite an enlightening experience and valuable research for my masters, which looks at the reconfiguration of space through headphone use*. i found myself regularly switching between being 'present' in the gallery, and then remembering the last time i heard the particular song, or some other kind of connection. it was interesting to be hangin' out, experientially speaking, in the interstitial space of real time and nostalgia.

and in terms of heaphones as a social 'code', headphones in a gallery say 'participation' in a way that they clearly do not in the public realm. in fact, they're more in line with adorno's sense of 'we-ness' than at any other time. and in the gallery, i confused some poor chap who couldn't hear anything in the peace and assumed it was being transmitted into headphones. he asked phip if he could have a set and she had to explain that some slightly potty artist was doing an artwork and that it wasn't a headphone piece. i'm glad, though, that i found out about this little 'interaction' - it did reveal what i thought to be true anyway about some of the clear 'messages' that headphone-wearing has in the crossover between public and private.

it was also a great chance to respond to another artists work on an authentic level, without paying homage, or critiquing the work, but creating an echo of it from a place of appreciation and connection.




tomorrow some friends and i will be listening to the sounds of the city using/not using headphones. it's the extended remix of the listening to the city work from earlier in the year. expect to see more soon.




*extending from theory about the effect of radio and walkmans on the public by kracauer, bull and adorno.

quick! to the gallery!

holy happenings batman! in my masters-inspired self-absorption, i almost forgot to remind you about a fantastic show by an awesome australian artist, whose work has been more influential on my own than he probably realised.

lucas ihlein, lucazoid to some, has been exhibiting the 'sham piece at george paton gallery and it closes today! it's the work which resulted from his residency back in 2006, in which he didn't leave the boundaries of petersham, in sydney. the suburb in which i last lived in sydney.

anyways, lucas blogged the whole process of really inhabiting his local neighbourhood, highlighting the goings-on of this funny little suburb and focused on the process of action and occupation as an art practice. his blog became one of two that properly elevated blogging as an aspect of practice (that, and the art life back in the day) and he continues to use it as one of the tools for action/process/fluxus works.

today is the last day of his show, so you really should go to the gallery. end of story, really. check out the 'sham blog (in zine format, that you can make yourself) and his totally beautiful prints - done on the big fag press, you know - and feel good about the rest of the day, knowing that you can tell your grandkids that you saw lucas ihlein's the sham when it came to melbourne.

public space has a soundtrack now

apologies for the lack of posts on this blog of late. i've had a big project hangin' over my head, causing me a whole swag of stress. and as much as i love procrastinating in times of stress, i really haven't been able to justify blogging :)


as i keep alluding to, my masters research this year is focusing on sound in the public space, especially within increased urbanity. i'm specifically investigating the divide between public and private sound - the choice over the kind of 'noise' you hear, through the groovy development of headphones, and what it is in public that we don't hear when we choose to wear them.

the research i've done so far has involved a couple of smaller projects which are starting to flesh out the crux of what i'm looking at. and the main thing i've learned is that, actually, the crux is a whole lot further away than a final year's project. which means two things: that i'm going to be presenting more of a 'study' rather than a final 'masterpiece' and, that both mayhem and lucazoid's evil suggestions that i do a PhD is looking scarily feasible.


mobile privacy units




these are headphone-based objects that play on the social codes and language surrounding the wearing of headphones and their role in creating acoustic privacy in public space.

Headsets have been augmented with art materials also associated with soundproofing/creating quiet: cardboard, felt, cotton wool (in your ears, mate) and take on the oversized form of DJ heasets. And a range of text has been added to state explicitly the kind of language and messages that are often and/or unsconsciously conveyed through the wearing of headphones in public whilst listening to portable music..

Just the image of headphones over ones ears can be enough of a ‘do not disturb’ sign.

These MPUs shout this need for acoustic privacy:‘sssh!’; ‘private’ ; ‘!sssh’ (in arabic); ‘quiet time’; ‘mon moment tranquille’ (‘my quiet moment’ fr. trans); ‘please leave me alone’.


the measure of the public soundtrack



Psychoacoustics, or the perception of sound, has links with psychogeography as one way to map, or
experience the city and die Öffentlichkeit (the public sphere). This project measured public/ambient and
private sound taken into the public space - primarily music through headphones and externalises this
liminal space through drawing.

Images were made by occupying a selection of public spaces and mapping the ambient sound using a variety of capture technology. The primary device was the online Voice Drawing Tool by ze frank, which responds to sound through basic form from a laptop in-built mic: low volume curves counterclockwise, medium volume is straight, high volume curves clockwise. HD Video, Microsoft Word and still images were also used to record sound environment.

The iphone/ipod touch application, Wide Noise was intended to be used, but didn’t function without an external mic on the ipod touch.

This has become a comparitive study of place through its sonic output and the images represent the nature - aural and otherwise - of these places in visual form. The drawings also mapped the conceptual action of being in the public space, listening and measuring sound through drawing and technology.


listening and dancing to the city



This project aims to draw attention to all of sound in the public space, the action of listening and headphones-as-device through the process and/or performance of actively listening to sites and their rhythms in the CBD.

By performing the acts of listening and then dancing to places in the city, over a reasonably prolonged period of time (well, an hour), the artists involved will become attuned to the city and its soundtrack. Passers-by will also notice the sustained process
of engaging with the sound of the city and question their own engagement or response to sound, listening, dance and the ‘soundtrack’ of the urban environment, both public and private.

This project also uses the artists’ occupation of space as a vital basis from which to make observations and to elicit change within the public realm. It places itself within the ‘political’, people-focused, process-based aspect of arts practice.


audio guide (test project)

using the mobile privacy units, i made an 'audio guide' for the underground art space at collingwood housing estate, during their Living Art project. the work, which caricatures gallery audio headsets, encourages the viewer to note what they see in the gallery, and what they hear. and when i say 'note', i mean it - the work comes with little cards with a list of 5 things they've seen and 5 they've heard.

whilst it wasn't an absolute hit in this setting, i think i'm going to push it a little and see where it goes, in terms of gallery settings - maybe even public gallery settings.


the next lot of projects are slated to include:

emergency dance zone: public permission to rock out. for when you've got a killer track in your headphones and you've just gotta dance. kind of like a porta-loo for dancing. changes afoot, dates and locations TBC.

the listening to the city XL. i think i'm going to work this one up into a larger scale - 20 or so artists in a smallish city block.

the cone of silence - a 'silent' space in a public gallery. in september/october in melbourne.

i'd also love to do a workplace-based work, plugging into the whole culture of open-plan offices using headphones as privacy devices. but we'll have to see.




these images and some of the text are from my first publication for uni - a durable visual record - which was made in the vein of a 7" rekkid. with a DVD of 'bonus material', liner notes and a booklet. i've uploaded the main part of it as a PDF here. and as a presentation here. if you feel like it.

art isn't important.

let's face it, in the whole scheme of things, a lot of artists make a lot of useless crap. me included. we take up resources that could, in a more conscientious society, could be used for those less-fortunate, or could be saved in order to take better care of our planet.

sometimes i think that maybe the world would do ok without artists. and i could be forgiven for disappearing down a nihilist path and refusing to come out of a cave until the world was perfect.

but the other day i had two complimentary conversations with friends that made me realise that, apart from other, more obvious reasons, artists are important. and it's not necessarily for what we produce, but the process we go through to get to that outcome. by what we see, hear and then pass onto others. in another forum, i might use the word discourse. or even dialectic. luckily, this isn't one of those forums.

i go to a fair amount of exhibitions. i'm always thinking, looking, reading - keepin' an eye on what's out there - it could be said that i 'consume' art. i certainly mainline it most of the time and i am hardly ever 'not working'. when i go into my day job, or catch up with other friends, i regularly talk about the shows i've seen, articles i've read, cool blogs, podcasts i've heard, stuff i'm working on, ideas i'm thinking about, or other random, quirky bits and pieces related to arts and culture.

i mostly do this because i'm a chatty, caring-sharing, annoying type. but i didn't realise that, in sharing my process in this way, my friends (and family) feel connected to what's going on in the arts, feel that they can discuss aspects of art/culture and that they feel more "cultured" through knowing me. that's a nice compliment istn' it? and it's quite a nice gift to give someone too don't you think? one where they feel that they can get access to areas of society that are attractive, but possibly seem off-limits. it makes art truly political.

granted, what i make may not have people feeling "connected" to art or culture, but it seems the open process i go through in order to make those things is just as valuable to those around me.

i like that idea.

using a fashion device.

Over the last year, i've been doing more and more conceptual work, primarily about the process of measuring spaces.

Not being a natural born killer on screen, and not wanting the work to be about 'me' per se, i've taken to using a fashion device as a costume of sorts: my black st pauli cap and a black hoodie.

It has been interesting to see it creep into my process on a semi-conscious level and to notice the relationship between what i wear when i am doing these process works and how it fits in with what other artists have used when making similar works, primarily joseph beuys, eminen and every graf artist in the history of the world.

I certainly didn't set out for it to be that way. It just happened to be what i was wearing the first time i documented the measuring and patterning of the RMIT toilets. In fact, most of my friends will attest to the fact that black jeans and hoodie are pretty much my uniform during winter anyway. But the fact that it has moved from happenstance to choice is interesting to me. It has become a symbol of anonymity, comfort and specificity for me now. I step into a mode through this moda and it enables me to focus. Same goes for costume throughout the history of theatre.



The thing with the hat is kind of fascinating and little embarrassing in its obvious (although unintentional) link to beuys. i'm sure that mr beuys used the hat in similar ways- as a screen to hide behind, regular symbol of his process and a personal motif, so maybe it's unsurprising that there's a sartorial link.





And then of course there is the uniform of making (often uncommissioned) work in public- the black hoodie. Contemporary fashion device of blending in and hiding- a dime a dozen. Which also also happens to be bound up in political action, as suggested in the pics of G20 protests on flickr and eminen's cool mosh vid from 2006. The hoodie has become a fashion item of the public space, in terms of interacting with it. It's the street version of the black cloak and wig of law, or the black polo of architects (i jest).

if i had more time, and i was a fashion grad student, as opposed to half-arsed blogger, it could be an interesting point of research: fashion devices used in public and performance art.

In the mean time, you have this.

As long as Im walking,
Im not:
Choosing
Smoking
Losing
Making
Knowing
Falling
Painting
Hiding
Counting
Adding
Crying
Believing
Fucking
Drinking
Closing
Stealing
Mocking
Facing
Crossing
Cheating
Talking
Reaching
...
...
...
I will not repeat
I will not remember

Francis Alÿs, from The Walker

[thanks to eddy for sending it to me, not once, but twice AND posting it on her blog - just in case]


Here's my list from my occupation at Knox.

When i'm in the toilet i will not:
Shop
Buy stuff
Think about buying stuff

Worry about money

Worry about whether I’ve bought something I shouldn’t have

Wonder if my husband/mother/friend/child will like what I’ve bought

Feel bad about myself because the jeans I wanted to buy were too small, even though they were a size 12

Support sweatshops and slave labour by getting those Nikes.

Drive around for 30 minutes trying to get a park nearest the door, then forget where I parked my car.

Shoot up smack. I’m not a heroin addict.

Smoke. I gave up smoking years ago.

See sunshine for a couple of hours.

I will:
Read

Draw

Write
Think
Day dream
Make myself comfortable
Have some time to myself



Interestingly, i'm writing about the role of occupation in public art/art in the public space and it seems that in any kind of occupation, what's not being done is just as important as what is being done - that the negative space of action (inaction) supports and equally defines the positive. Who would have thought that such formalist ideals as postive/negative space and form could translate so beautifully to post-modern manifestos about process.

oh, and take this as a warning - there'll probably be a post about occupation soon. tune out either tomorrow or wednesday if you can't be arsed reading more art/political rhetoric.

no pens or pencils allowed

i know the ngv went through this a while ago. i know they've got some good reasons for it (mostly financial, really), but can i just say that i'm fucked off that i won't be able to take a pen or pencil in to sketch their winter masterpieces Art Deco show next week? i'm a student and will be taking advantage of their extra discount, but what's the point in encouraging students to see the show, if you can't actually learn from the show in a way that is helpful: ie, writing about and sketching about the show? ok, so as i write that, i can see that there are other ways to learn from the show, but as an artist and a student of art, architecture, design, craft, etc. [ie, all the good stuff of the art deco era], i get the most out of an artwork when i can stand in front of it and draw it. i process it on a very deep level and can learn by imitation from master artists and craftsman.

if a public institution is serious about having educational quality, surely allowing people to learn on this level is important? or am i just being selfish?


UPDATE: this says it all, really

early designs

early designs is a global 'revelation' kind of project online, whereby a selection of designers, artists and illustrators show a comparison of their 'college' work to their current work. it's set up by designer/blogger andy whitlock.

andy describes it on his blog now in colour:

"Early Designs is an open project where (hopefully) hundreds of designers, artists and illustrators from across the world will - on the same day - upload pieces and sketches from their college years.

On that day, we'll get a glimpse into the past of 'creative types' everywhere and hear the stories, learnings, late nights and bad hair that made them what they are today."

i don't actually know if this will be all that interesting to anyone else, but i kind of like the idea. in fact, one of my lusted-after books is vik muniz' no.1: first works by 362 artists. as a practitioner, i find it consoling to see artists' early works. as an appreciator, i find it somewhere in the realm of horoscope, or nominative determinism. or perhaps looking back at baby photos: the evidence of some kind of fate.

anyway, here it is.

college work



Notre-Dame, 2002,
C-type photograph,
121 x 81cm.

This work is one of a series of 3, all featuring French Gothic Cathedrals - the others being Amiens and Chartres.
I had quite a bit of success with this work - what started out as a one-off, quickly sold out as an edition of 6, with the most exciting purchase by one Brian Kennedy, director of the National Gallery of Australia at the time (for his private collection).

and then it's all down hill from there.. heh.


current work



[right]
White, Red, 2007
Dye on hot-pressed watercolour paper
140cm x 140cm

[left]
Hello, Daniel, 2007
Motor, MDF, acrylic
40 x 40 x 43cm (approx)

There's some even more current work in the last post, plus i'm in the middle of a project, but the work I chose to compare it with is work I made for a group show last year at Kudos Gallery, curated by Sarah Mosca, called He Said, She Said, about dialogue. I did works that reflected the dialogues between artists: White, Red, being an extrapolation of Rachel Whiteread's 25 Spaces, and Hello, Daniel as a conversation with a work from Daniel von Sturmer's Field Equation.

The difference between the works and how they have been purchased is quite interesting to me, really. I know that I had far more of a focus on selling the recent work (mostly because I was on my way to London and the thought of having to deal with storing that huge work was nauseating), but was far more willing to cultivate a relationship with my audience than when I was younger. White, Red was purchased by an anonymous collector ([hank you, if you happen to read this blog] , which was both exciting and maddening. Maddening because I'm too polite for my own good and wanted to contact them to thank them. Plus, I like to know who my audience is, who likes my work, and perhaps why. Anyway.There's something seductive about the relationship to the anonymous audience, as I guess there is to the anonymous artist too (see under The Banksy Effect).


Anyway, there you have it. College work and recent-ish works. Check out now in colour for other early designers.

UPDATE: Other Early Designers so far:
Alistair from We Made This
Susanna Edwards

UPDATE 2: There's a flickr group: Early Designs - The College Years.

UPDATE 3: for uni, i have to do a quick presentation of 3 slides about my practice, so thanks andy for inviting me to do this, it means i've got two-thirds of that presentation done! ha!

getting rid of not-sculpture

michaelangelo was famously quoted as talking about his sculptural process in terms of "getting rid of everything that isn't the sculpture". as i hit my first panic phase with this next show, a very lovely lady reminded me tonight of mr buonarotti's quote.

in terms of installation and conceptual work, this is kind of an interesting idea.

i'm spending a lot of time 'sourcing' elements for the work at the moment. in fact i feel more like a set props buyer from a film than any kind of artist, but that's the way life goes sometimes. but i guess, rather than seeing it as a sourcing process, it's interesting for me to look at it in terms of discovering what is not the installation and the process becomes something pro-active towards an anti-matter.

each time i get a knockback, or a postage problem, or a timing issue, specification glitch, financial hiccup, it's actually a positive element of the process: a not-sculptural piece of the puzzle. and, as i get less and less obstacles, less and less not-pieces, i slowly arrive at the final installation.

for some reason, this changes my perspective of the creative process and makes the idea of process less about less and more about more. or is it less about more and more about less. either way, the final content becomes less of an entitled product and more of a resulting product. i kind of like that idea.

a la peanut butter sandwiches!

ok, so christmas is done, both kinds of new years are done and dusted, the new job is not-so-new and full of fabulous deadlines, and the new house is still great, but officially old news - now that i've cleaned the toilet, burnt the bamboo steamer and had to clean up cat shit.

which must mean that it's time to start artwork again, make some serious headway on the abracadaver exhibition at allan's walk in may. funnily enough, that involves spending a helluva lot more of time on the computer: the old art of seduction, rather than production trick is in full swing.

i've been drawing plans for the fabricators of one of the major pieces; researching a source for another basic material (and it's looking like amazon may be the treasure trove - who would've thought!). not to mention the inevitable grant application that comes with needing more money.

this is a bit like the beginning of the third trimester of a pregancy really. the application process being a bit like the conception process - all fun, excitement and possibility. the honeymoon period after you get the go-ahead is like the first trimester: a bit nervy, but it's still too far ahead to stress about. between 3 and 6 months out from the exhibition, you do a few things to get stuff happening: research, a bit of promotional stuff, organising, making sure that you're on track - but mostly preparation work - mentally and logistically.

and now that it's under 3 months until the opening, it's on. deadlines happen, last-ditch efforts for more money, time, space, ideas happen. there's a starkness about what's going to end up, it's way too late to abort and a mild panic sets in (even if you've 'given birth' a few times before) that your partner-in-crime is going to decide to just pack it all in. you end up just hoping that it will all work out OK.

yes, with this analogy, that means i've just compared the installation and opening night of an exhibition to childbirth, but am i really that far off?

process at loop

kyoto splash, büro north

ok, so despite every intention of getting to dorkbot and pecha kucha in the last couple of months, i finally made it to an informal presentation night, a là pecha kucha and interesting! woo hoo!

and thanks to arkatekcha's tip-off, it was process at loop bar in meyer's place [between bourke and little collins] on monday night. unlike the speedy gonzales taste-test of the afformentioned socialinfo things, this one was just two designerish types who spoke for about 20 minutes each. that's it. with some time for beer and skittles in between.

if i'm brutally honest, soren luckins' piece was more informative, well-illustrated and clearer than martin bird's, but i enjoyed being challenged by his boundary-pushing and found them both utterly engaging talks to listen to. especially because the focus for the evening was multidisciplinary practice, which floats my boat to no end.

it's all about coming up with a creative solution, specific to a client, no matter the media. and in terms of a studio practice, it's a focus on collaboration and sharing of expertise. which, as an artist, i'm always excited by (although i hear that architects aren't always so..)

like at interesting, i scribbled away at my notebook. and in it i found a couple of points which i kept jumping out at me:

• the tree form (including beanstalk) kept appearing in büro north's stuff and i found that incredibly interesting. when asked, soren was pleased to hear it, but it wasn't intentional. i'll be interested to see if that comes up in the next creative meeting.. ha!

• "rework scale to create imaginary spaces" - martin bird, from studio bird.

• it's more about seduction than production. the reality of spacial design practice seems to be more about the art of seduction than anything else (at least up until a certain point in your growth) with those early years spent mostly developing a way to chat up a client into realising a project. all using sumptuous textures, beautiful rendering, clear planning and a shit-hot presentation.


all that thoughtful goodness, coupled with rob's hassling me, has inspired me to get drawing and doing stuff again (not to mention the looming deadline of a may exhibition). more on that later.