Hope is sublime when it is experienced as positive pain…

but sometimes it is nice to hope when one is not caught in that in-between place that has no root, that hollow, that emptiness, that in-between place that is lost in a pattern before the relation of value wants or can be assessed.

Sometimes it is nice to hope when a hope is realistic, when the hope is simple, when the hope is there for the taking and wants to be took. The hope is only sublime when we are offered a glimpse at the answer that evades our natural grasp…

but sometimes the grasp that holds the answer is simply saying not to hope, for to continue to hope would mean to exist in the intangible world; a world where there is no thingness, only experience through imagination.

See text Ethics of the Sublime in Post Modern Culture Emily Lutzker

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

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 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.