20,000 Centimetres (or so) Under the Sea

Mans relationship with water takes various forms. It can portray mythical stories of creatures in part human form and the cultural superstition surrounding a life dependent on the sea, to the realities of this dependent life. This oceanic environment that is inhospitable to the majority of the seafaring population, requires a certain mindset and respect from the participants who engage with this reality. Many who live this life feel part of the movements of the deep are part of them, and can be both mesmerising and soulfully intrinsic in a mind that thinks it recognises the link between the fluid body and the sea. This Romanticist notion however is indeed destructively different from the reality of a human body immersed into this awkward substance where breath and movement become alien, where temperature chills instantly and where life is suspended at the threshold of water and air.

For this work I will assume the role of the wannabe mermaid and swim in cold open water until I am too tired/cold to to anything else. Working within a performative context, I intend to question and illustrate the line between myth, feeling, fantasy and the realities of the the body’s reactions in water, which are simply to survive as long as possible.

To help illustrate the involuntary actions of my body, I will place a hydrophonic contact microphone to my chest which will record my breathing and heart-rate alongside the movement of the water against my skin. I will wear only a swimming costume, flippers (fins) and a snorkel mask to enable me to hold my breath for longer in the cold water. I will swim partially under water and only come up for breath when I need to, which will be relatively frequent given the temperature of the water. The experiment will be filmed from the start when I get into the water, and will also be filmed from above and below the water line until I feel that I have had enough, which is usually when I can no longer move my fingers.

I am not quite sure how this could be shown/heard yet in a gallery but I’m working on it!

Audio and video to follow ASAP after I have found

1)  a man with a boat that is up for a camera being strapped underneath and above and

2) someone who is willing to be in charge of audio while I gasp for air in freezing water and

3) a rescue crew

The Orchestra of Communicating Instruments

 

Again there is an orchestra involved but herein lies two proposals:

1) Using scientific instruments as antennae and exploiting the fact that each shape will vibrate at a differing wavelength (thus produce a different electromagnetic sound), this work proposes to make an orchestra out of differing instruments. Therefore instead of the brass section we could have the obstetric section. This proposal could be done on a small scale, as medical/scientific instruments can be small, cheap and lend themselves (through their metallic nature) to becoming an antennae. Each instrument would have to be separately wired to an individual amplifier and some sort of central control system installed to switch the sounds off and on.

2) As this is just a proposal on a blog, the chances of finding funding, a venue, other artist/technical collaborators and a supporting, sympathetic curator are slimmer than a knats dick, I can therefore be as fanciful as I like and select from any venue, any budget and have as much technical help as I require. 

Using existing musical instruments as antennae, an Orchestra of Communicating Instruments could be initiated, allowing the objects to play their own tune of electromagnetic vibration and frequency. This would be a performance without musicians, yet still conducted by a traditional Maestro. Perhaps through sensors on his body that corresponded to sensors in each musical section, the Maestro could conduct some sort of compositional communication performance with the instruments themselves. Like the above proposal, each instrument would have to be separately wired to an individual amplifier and some sort of central control system installed to switch the sounds off and on. This would of course also have to be set in a traditional opera house. Cities that contain opera houses of the calibre that I would be looking for are  Prague, St Petersburg, Vienna and Budapest, although because of the Austrians not wanting to be outdone, they insisted that this opera house be smaller than the one in Vienna. 

Comments and suggestions on how to develop work are always welcome.

 

Obstetric Antennae

Obstetric forceps can also be used as an antennae, and can be opened and closed by the user. This varies the electromagnetic sound that comes from the ‘instruments’ suggesting that they can be played. This notion asks if electromagnetic musical instruments could be made, such as an accordian, that would vary the ‘notes’ produced by altering the wavelength of the antennae (instrument), and if an orchestra could be constructed out of a range of scientific instruments, each shape corresponding to a unique frequency?

These forceps are cast from an original set of instruments that I borrowed from a consultant obstetrician at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. They were cast in bronze by the lost wax process then gilded in 9 carrat gold (2001). Audio from the instruments to follow.

Your Touch is Electric (performative object)

Hollow bronze cast finger plated in gold and insulated on the inside. The finger is attached to an oscillator circuit enabling the finger to release a small electric pulse when it comes into contact with another’s skin.

This object was originally made for my undergraduate degree show and was a cast of a male ring-finger, raising questions of power in relationships with particular reference to gender and the social constructs that hold these notions in place. It was a performance object that was worn over the ring finger instead of a ring. After becoming interested in EM phenomena and learning the basics of circuit building, I decided to re-mix some of my old ideas and turn these slightly bizarre casts (obstetric forceps, contraceptive coils and others) into newer ideas, in effect turning these objects into various forms of antennae.

A Symphony of Un-Established Connections

                    

A Symphony of Un-Established Connections attempts to track the dialogue that unites the material world with cyberspace, asking how this spatial concept may be explained by audio or visual means. 

Each laptop has its own timed signal that it releases periodically in its attempt to look for an internet connection. By viewing the computer as humanesque and cyberspace as the coded universe, these interactions, connections and random meetings between energy and space could be viewed as fateful. By placing a series of laptops together, the symphony becomes the correlation of attempted connections; the electromagnetic pulse released by the machines turned into noise by sensors placed over each keyboard.

Each pulse would be turned into a note by a central system that plays a theme tune such as the one from Dr Zhivago (please see below). A wireless connection could be randomly timed or switched on or off  by viewer interaction which would allow one note in the composition to be held for a short period of time. The result would be a bizarre version of a famous tune, sometimes connecting, sometimes not, mapping the points in which fate by human intervention allowed the architecture of the material world to blend with cyberspace and the computer to connect with its coded love.

 

As with other proposals, this idea seeks dialogue and input form other artists/engineers/theorists…

Dr Zhivago: Dr Zhivago is the film epitome of unestablished connections, where Lara and Zhivago are intertwined by fate yet their timing in life being the downfall of their love match.

 

Hertzian Cottage

We take for granted the amount of wire that surrounds us in our homes, the electron infested wall, roofs and floors buzzing around us. Does this protect us from the radiations of the natural exterior environment, or does this harm us in our hermetically sealed faraday cages of cable that we call a house? 

Hertzian Cottage wants to make this wiring visible by placing it all together in a randomesque heap, letting it tell its tale by converting its energy into noise.

This is not a final proposal, and seeks to create dialogue with other artists/engineers that may want to develop it with me further…

Good Vibrations (Love Me Baby)

Good Vibrations (Love me Baby) is a comment on attraction and repulsion and how low-frequency emmisions can affect the human body, mood and emotions.

Copper wire is attached to an IUD coil cast in solid gold. This in turn is connected to a circuit that creates an electromagnetic field. The copper-wire and IUD device therefore emit low-frequency radiation, which has the potential to make one feel uneasy and strange. The oscillations start at around 30Hz and can be increased by a switch on the side of the fabric heart that contains the circuit. The image shows a prototype.

 

 

Tuned City

Tuned City

Tuned City - Between sound and space speculation is an exhibition and conference project planned for July 01.-05. 2008 in Berlin which proposes a new evaluation of architectural spaces from the perspective of the acoustic.

The project draws the traditions of critical discussion about urban space within the architecture and urban planning discourse–as well as its strategies and working methods–into the context of sound art. This expanded discussion reenforces the potential of the spatial and communicative properties of sound as a tool and means of urban practice.

At the foundations of this event are artists’ works and theoretical approaches which examine in a critical and sensitive way the given urban and architectural situations alongside their resulting socio-political implications, that re-use existing spaces or that conceive and open new spaces.

A dialogue will be built at the intersection of both disciplines which traces out the complex relations and interactions of space-sound, both presenting and testing new strategies, methods, possibilities and potentials of sound work within the artistic and applied context.

Tuned City is structured in two main segments – symposium and site-specific installations.

On the individual days the symposium will approach the topic from five different theoretical and spatial perspectives. Spaces built for the production and reception of sound or acoustically flawed or impossible spaces, public and semi-public urban space, finished and planned spaces, wasteland or cultivated spaces, indoors and outdoors – the chosen venues correspond with the individual topic of the day and offer plastic illustration and demonstration. Tuned City will try to break down the conventional conference format and to catalyse the discussion via the space in a mixture of academic talk, artistic presentation, performances, reports from working practice, demonstrations, and walks.

The five days will be accompanied by a dense workshop programme and a performance programme corresponding with the individual topics.

Workshop with Martin Howse

Demons in the Aether

A three day workshop at HMKV in Dortmund led by Martin Howse, on the practical aspects of circuit building, EM theory and the uncovering of the EM substance by way of sound.

Read about the workshop.
Martin Howse
HMKV

(Atmospheric) Two-Way Radios

A two-way radio that is always switched on will always be difficult to leave, but some things simply have to be left behind. She had come to this conclusion after two years of waiting for a man that never had the guts to do anything. Big G, as she called him had worked at the same place, and had sometimes made excuses to pass her office stopping to say hello or just to check that she was in. He nonetheless seemed to bounce between being a little boy and being impenetrable, almost like he was scared to let himself go. He often hid behind an air of superiority, like a teacher does to separate themselves from pupils. She had however tried to give him hints and messages to indicate the depth of feeling she had for him, hoping that this would reassure his confidence. Continuing to be her friendly and mischievous self, she had once quite abruptly asked him to dinner via email… he was busy of course; but a few days after he had textually rejected her she felt an impromptu pain in her heart which lasted all day. Sometimes she felt that he was there with her, it was not so much a sexual feeling but a deep care. She could feel his presence around her, their eyes meeting, some strange feeling passing between them and a tentative moment where their faces met. On the odd occasion that they were alone and not talking about work, his guard slipped, this strange energy meeting for real. Their eyes connected allowing a slow rush that moved from her head through her spine over her breasts and nipples into her hips, the warm feeling lingering around her inner thighs and vulva. She flushed with embarrassment, could not look him in the eyes and as her mind went blank, was at a loss for words. She had never experienced this in her life before. With her partner she had had a connection, but it was one of friendship and trust, a safety embedded in familiar cultural backgrounds, certainly not one of intellect and this apparent level of connective telepathy. She knew that this could grow into something special and was prepared to put up with his seriousness, knowing that her light-hearted optimism could provide counterbalance. She knew that he understood her inquisitiveness and her need to experience work that took her away from home. She was aware that the passionate gypsy side of her character both unnerved and attracted him, but she thought that his working-class background would be able to understand her past, her need for fun and her flirtatious nature. She diligently waited for him to make a move even though he worked away for weeks at a time. Yet after months of hoping and anticipation had passed, the feelings of pleasure, goodness and understanding that she had felt towards him started to turn into defensiveness and hurt. Her suffering wait for him to decide started to become obvious, his ostrich tendencies only exacerbating the situation. An emotional ineptness at saying how he felt came across as dismissive, and his apparent ignorance of the depth of her affection started to eat away at her happy nature. She began to feel like he was using her fondness, stringing her along as a potential backburner for the future, perhaps hoping that she would accept this without question and not rock any boat at work that may have jeopardised his valuable position. This lack of judgment poked deep into the psyche of her loyalty, seemingly questioning her trustfulness and honesty. For one year she cried into her pillow at nights and awoke at first light to saturate the pillow again with the initial tears of the day. Her heart stretched with pain and frustration at a situation she felt she could not change. Trapped in a place of work with no escape or way of explaining a lingering torment, caught in a circle of thinking she cared for someone who could not bring themselves to reveal their intentions, she made the decision to leave, and with it, a decision never to see him again.

The two-way radio that is always switched on will always be difficult to leave. It takes guts to switch it off, and strength to leave the handset on the sidewalk for the next person to pick up… but some things simply have to be left behind.