I did a somersault As I seen him get his gun And crashed through the window At a hundred miles an hour, And landed fully blast In his garden flowers.

My proposal (could do with some second thoughts, but it's too late now!). Hope you like it.




The Making of Mysterious


This proposal outlines a selection of interests I plan on following in my fourth year of study at Massey College of Fine Arts. This proposal is important for my studies due to the nature of my working process at Massey during the last 3 years. I have noticed this trend that I start each paper with a current set of interests in a single field, then branch out in tangents, inspired by, but not easily connected to, the original direction I had taken off in at the beginning of the paper. While I had never thought too deeply about this mix ‘n’ match approach to building up completed work, I have been beginning to want, more and more, a project where I can cover the bases of all my interests in aspects of practical work, but still have everything I produce strung together with a unifying theory or statement.

Previous work has involved interactive performance changing the reader’s views of the space they occupy, or heightening their perception of that space so they are forced to feel uncomfortable or super-aware of their bodies. Other work has included working in self-publishing, sound art/free noise, primitive animation and crude video editing and sculpture, all focusing or touching on political, social, documental and mental hypothesis.

The idea, then, would be to make the postulation that I can combine all of the making aspects from the above mentioned pursuits, as I have a need to make many things with my hands, and string together my small range of theory-based interests into one major project. The most sensible, effective and reliable method to do this, I predict, is a performance practiced over a long period of time. In this case, it would be at least a two-semester performance, with possibilities of it being a longer on-going performance with no proposed end date.

I want the performance to be clandestine. I want it to be secret, non-sign posted, mysterious. I want it to perforate the edges of society, dipping in and out of open knowledge, to appear as an apparition in the lives of those who experience it. I want it to raise suspicion and caution, curiosity and intrigue. I have a plan, and it addresses all of my concerns. First, I need to fabricate an institution of sorts. Perhaps it is a secret society, maybe an underground activist group, or even a previously unknown government department. The point is that an outside observer will not know; they cannot exactly be sure of what they have discovered. Is this organization left or right politically? Is it serious official business, or a group of disorganised activists? How radical are their motives, weak or dangerously extreme? These questions will forever remain unanswered.

The next step is make aware the existence of this dreamt up group through various methods made to leak apparently secret information out into the public realm. Methods I have come up with to do this are based on research into the use of radio communication and various news reports on the accidental exposure of sensitive government and corporate information. Inspired by the international, but never officially recognised, use of numbers stations to communicate one-way with spies on the short-wave radio band through code of numbers, phonetic alphabets or sound modulation, I plan to do similar. Using a personal FM transmitter, capable of broadcasting to most of central Wellington, I can imitate the audio aesthetic and technique of numbers stations, but adding understandable contact information to the broadcast. Staying within the legal terms of use I can keep my transmitter broadcasting full time. The other exposure approach is to “accidentally” distribute documents (on a massive scale), containing apparently sensitive data, in public places. Documents could include notebooks, reports, statements of intentions, proposals; anything that you might find marked as confidential in an organization’s filing cabinet or similar. These documents will contain contact details in their data, inviting whoever finds these secret drops to pry deeper into my web of lies.

Contact details will need to lead to a place where the unknowing performance participants are further sucked in with their curiosity. Options for contact details will work best as an online destination (no effort required, anyone can access, no expense), so a website will need to be constructed, and a fake email address for future communication. The idea, to keep them curious, is to never reveal too much, but offer tantalising information just asking to be further explored. This is the lure. The website will exhibit text, captioned photographs, graphs, diagrams and the like, but always with important bits missing, leaving massive holes in any conclusions that participators may attempt to construct. Photos will leave faces blacked out or pixelated, both ‘official’ and ‘unofficial’ scenes will feature side by side. An office with suited men shake hands while another photo may display homemade do-it-yourself gadgetry. Perhaps photographs of suspicious ‘missions’ being carried out sit side by side with graphs/diagrams of up-coming protests, or intelligence gathered. Short texts can be written leaving out vital information able to stick everything together, or to accuse any one source as the outfit behind this charade. The trick is to not let on that this whole thing is all fake while at the same eluding to more to be found out.

Once I have the attention of my participants it’s time to go interactive. The website will have ways to contact me personally (under a false identity of course), and the radio transmission may broadcast email contact details with/instead of the website address. The approach I take with the website will drive the curious enough to delve deeper into my inviting trap. Through email I will need to assess the situation on an individual basis, but I plan to start off with an automated style email, that leading to personal communication. From this point onwards it will be hard to determine what exactly will happen to the project. It is a delicate situation, dealing with curious, sceptical individuals and I will need to adjust my game accordingly. If I can, though, I would try to get at least one person involved with the fabricated organization. Maybe make them a member, maybe a target. Mostly, I aim to leave participants hanging. I want to give them an unanswered cliffhanger, you could say. This will lead to feelings of confusion, suspicion, creepiness and a questioning attitude to the whole experience.

An important aspect of a work like this would be the question “who is my audience”: the unwitting participants, or the people who end up going through my documentational evidence?

When I was very young I came across an unusual sight in the sand dunes at the beach where I lived. There was (and still is) a large wooden pole hidden deep in the dunes with two big red glass bulbs on the top. This structure is very old, so old that the wooden pole is rotting apart and completely covered in lichen and moss and the glass bulbs look to be hand-cast. Initially I thought it was a strange object, but nevertheless an antique from the past and it could have been used for anything. But then I saw it at night and the red lights were slowly alternating on and off, back and fourth. This was very peculiar to me. I immediately wondered why was something so old still running, what must it be used for, who maintains it, how long ago was it installed, and so on. All these years later I still have no information and I know as much about it today as I did when I first discovered it. Since that point onwards I have always been interested in strange structures, machines, installations and activities with no obvious way to understand them. Other important experiences include stumbling upon a concrete hatch monitored by two CCTV cameras in a forest, accidentally seeing what may have been a drop of/pick up of some sort of illegal items late at night on a back country road (I couldn’t clearly see what was going on, I had to hide) and finding an unidentifiable electronic device in a wooden case on a hill top just west of Nelson, NZ.

Given my interest in the above-mentioned experiences (and more) what I’m trying to do is recreate similar feelings and questioning in the participants of my proposed project. So I am making this project for those who are involved, but it will only be criticised as a performance by those who read and look at my documentation. An unfortunate fact is that those who criticise my work will not be able to completely experience it as those who are not aware it is an artwork. I think it’s important to mention here that if the participants knew what was going on then the work would never become fully realised. The divide is unavoidable, I would never have been keen enough to write this proposal if I knew what the flashing red lights were for all those years ago, let alone even thought of the idea!

As I understand where my inspiration comes from, and it has been with me for a very long time, I know this will be a very satisfying project that will not run out of inspiration and end up disjointed like my pervious work. I will be able to carry on under the guise of a single project, but pursue all my major interests in both theory and practical work. Reaching out further with my performance-based work into the public sphere is a pursuit I have been starting to work with in minor projects, but now I think it’s time to start getting serious and take a big step into this approach. On top of that I can explore a new working method that enables me to incorporate everything I enjoy while creating the opportunity to discover a new, more effective working process.





Bibliography


Albiston, M. (Producer/Director), & Baumfield, S. (Director). (2006). The Living Room: Episode 01 [Motion picture]. New Zealand: Sticky Pictures

Carsten Nicolai (2007). Static Fades. Zurich: JRP⎢Ringier

Conet Project, The. (n.d.). Retrieved August 7, 2009, from http://musicbrainz.org/artist/433c0996-077c-4a28-9261-57858eb31832.html

DISORGANISING ORGANISED SOUND: THE SILENT MODERNITY OF WALTER RUTTMAN’S 'WEEKEND'. (2009). Retrieved 21 October, 2009, from http://reinventingthedial.blogspot.com/2009/09/andy-birtwistle-paper-abstract.html

Dylan, B. (2004). Chronicles, Volume One. New York: Simon & Schuster

Eliasson, O. (2004). Colour memory and other informal shadows. Oslo: Astrup Fearley Museum of Modern Art

Jana, R. (Ed.) (2005). Vitamin D: New Perspectives in Drawing. London: Phaidon Press.

Meza, A. (2009). Sound Sweep: Sonic Territories and Zones of Forgetting. Retrieved August 13, 2009, from http://vagueterrain.net/journal13/abinadi-meza/01

Numbers Game, The. (n.d.). Retrieved September 2, 2009, from http://home.freeuk.net/spook007/

Radice, B. (Ed.) (1988). Ettore Sottsass: Design Metaphors. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc.

Secret Radio Frequencies. (n.d.). Retrieved September 2, 2009, from http://www.hackcanada.com/blackcrawl/consprcy/secretfr.txt

Segal, D. (2004). The Shortwave And the Calling. Retrieved August 10, 2009, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35647-2004Aug2.html

Shachtman, N. (2004). Wilco Pays Up for Spycasts. Retrieved August 7, 2009, from http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/news/2004/06/63952

Sokol, B. (2001). Espionage Is in the Air. Retrieved August 23, 2009, from http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2001-02-08/news/espionage-is-in-the-air/

Were, V. (2008). Spontaneous Architecture. Art News New Zealand, 2(2), 52-54.




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So many roads, so much at stake So many dead ends, I'm at the edge of the lake Sometimes I wonder what it's gonna take To find dignity

Retrospective statement

The last year has been… a challenge. Unfortunately for me my interests are all over the place and none of the projects came together completely succinctly. Trying to sort this out was a problem in itself, as I needed to make so many changes to my work over the year. I only figured out my position with my practice late in the year, too late to make any significant work using the new solution. So what I created as my final work is kind of like a seed for what my more deeply thought out intentions are for next years course of research. I have written a proposal that goes into more detail about my future intentions, and I suggest it be read so you can understand the connection (I’ll give the proposal it’s own blog entry, after this one).
My thoughts on this blog:
Excellent idea, but it probably needs a minor physical counterpart. This may be difficult due to my physical workbook format taking the shape of my bedroom/studio walls (see photos), but things can be worked out. An online workbook is a definite advantage when working with video media: just embed the video. Other advantages are quick web links and the cost is free, rather than paying for the massive costs of all photocopying, printing, blank DVDs, etc…
I plan to revise my blog workbook process and hopefully utilise a more effective online workbook next year, maybe making a website rather than a blog.








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Sometimes I'm in the mood, I wanna lay right down and die Sometimes I'm in the mood, I wanna climb up to the sky

Final statement


Basically, what I want to say with my work is a feeling, a feeling of creepy sci-fi depressing control. And it’s kind of funny.

There’s a little bit of parody in there: the typical broadcast/security monitor showing up messages of boredom, sadness and distress, appearing to show the status of a radio tower of some sort. All this a sign of an authority above us all, an authority that promotes the best, but ultimately gives the worst. The text features quite wretched sentiments, but in a peculiarly passive form of presentation. Is this because we accept the world as it is, even though we know it could be a great deal better for us all?

Shit life – we are all leading one.
Nightmare scenario – how many times has this happened to you?
Veer into oblivion – if only we could.
Existence is theory – this only offers us a little consolation, unfortunately.
Textbook dystopia – our lives suck, but it’s planned to be like that.
DON’T DISPUTE ME – it can’t be ignored.
Horrific depraved perversity – an adequate description of human affairs.
Nothing quickly – and that’s what we’ll all end up doing.
It’s getting worse – this is obvious.
Why bother? – just gotta keep on keeping on, I guess.
Another let down – plenty more of those to come!
Get me off this rock! – and you think that will make things any better?

Sigh, it’s all so depressing, and to think we have no control! My solution? Laugh it off and try not to cry.

Was I planning on naming my work? No, the project name Confused and Possibly Violent was an influence, but I believe that what I want to say is felt in the heart rather than the mind. Thus, a name would unnecessarily cause a reader to think beyond what they are undoubtedly already doing too much of with this work.


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It's easy to see without looking too far That not much Is really sacred.

The hand in:

Project title: Confused and Possibly Violent
Final work length: 4.10 minutes

There's seven people dead On a South Dakota farm Somewhere in the distance There's seven new people born

Screen shots from the video I have decided to use as my final edit.














The filming set up:


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You know as well as me you'd rather see me paraliysed

Trying to flesh out some ideas...
(click on them for a little bit more info and larger photos)





What I want to do is have the sound and the icons read as one item. This zine format is just an experiment. I'm not so sure I'm convinced that the electric bolt icon is necessary, I have been working on the Tower icon for a while now and see it as an important relation to the sound (if only you could hear it!).
I believe they are both (tower icon and sound) sufficiently sci-fi that they compliment each other, and with a name like Confused and Possibly Violent who could disagree???
What I want to do is make a massive version of the Tower icon on a wall with the PA system booming out the sound towards the reader... or something to that effect.
More later

Well, they'll stone ya when you're trying to be so good

OK, so I’ve had some time to reflect on the crit week and I have made some important decisions.

- I don’t want to focus solely on developing the zine idea, though aspects of it will probably come through in my current idea(s).
- I want more of a chance to develop a personal project that comes through in many aspects of all my projects and has only lightly been touched on so far in my schoolwork this year.
- I want to work on an on-going project rather than have a finished piece to hand in at the end of the semester. This stems from the fact that many of my personally pursued projects are on going and I feel this needs to be reflected in my school practice.

Hot chili peppers in the blistering sun

Response to my crit session during crit week:

(I presented a 20 minute totally self produced sound work, no specific set up other than some satellite speakers)

I got fucking grilled! It seemed to me and a couple of others that I talked to after the crit that the fourth years and post grads don’t seem to appreciate that music, art and pop culture can all exist in the same instance. Well, maybe they can appreciate that, but I pretty much didn’t get any positive reactions from them on the topic. The staff were a bit more accepting, but wanted more to “keep us interested.” What I got from that was they liked it, but didn’t feel compelled to listen to the entire track. This is interesting that they want to feel compelled to listen to the whole thing, yet I never intended for anyone to want to listen to the whole piece. What I wanted to give to the reader was a feeling, and as long as that feeling is achieved then as far as I am concerned I’ve done my work (for the crit anyway, this is a plenary work). And I did give people the feeling I was looking to project. Peter said he got a “weird sci-fi narrative” from it, Mike continued in support of this to say that is felt like a “journey through unknown territory,” citing 1960’s BBC style sci-fi TV sets as some imagery (early Doctor Who) he could easily picture in his minds eye. Others were talking about exploring abandoned or mysterious rooms filled with obsolete machines and space and all that sci-fi crap we all love. Dick was critical of the sound asking everyone what the definition of an artist is and when does a sound artist become a musician. I couldn’t care less where that transition happens, I believe scientists are artists, so musicians definitely are in my books. I’m even a bit pissed that anyone even dared to suggest that they needed to feel compelled to listen to the whole piece as a musical track (forgetting that that is not an intention of mine), saying that if it were more like a 20 second track instead of a 20 minute one then it would be more successful in a more traditional musical sense. To say that is to say that an 18 minute song by Roy Montgomery that I love (that goes no where and features no specific instance of a climax), titled At the Intersection of Herzog and Wenders is pointless to listen to, and it’s not pointless cause I like that it eludes to a climax, but never features one. Take that to any song by any band, people listen to music cause they like it, not just because it’s trying to be profound or some other lofty unreachable statement, maybe it just puts them in a mood. Free noise does that heaps, just putting people in a mood. Anyway, whatever: this isn’t an essay, lets try to reflect that.
I am concerned about the approach Maddy had towards my work, not because I dislike her critical voice, but merely because she had been doing crits for something like 13 hours and had a short temper and probably a waning interest in anyone’s presentation. I just hope that this didn’t give her a different reading than if she were bright eyed and bushy tailed and had a clean art-slate. Fuck, by the time my crit rolled around at the end of the sessions I was ready to cleanse my palate!

At the other end of the scale, not a single second year student made a peep! Perhaps they did have things to say, but god knows the cunty students from up above probably scared them all off.

Come sit by me, don't say a word Oh, can it be that I am slain?

I have created some sound work, a piece I consider an early work, but also a finished musical piece as is.
The sound is spacey, very sci-fi, mush like a soundtrack to a movie or TV series.
The making process involved playing two string instruments I made myself, the Eitherorer and the Violog, both going through a Moogerfooger and recorded with a Zoom H4. The individual recordings were then cut and layered with simple sound editing software.
I had already made the Violog last semester to use with my collab project with Neoteric Sound Research Unit No. 0001, but the Eitherorer I made specifically for this project, I needed an instrument that could achieve more bass than the Violog.
If I can figure out a way to get a 20 minute audio track online then I’ll post a link for listening.

The Violog:




The Eitherorer:

Quick, Magdalena, take my gun Look up in the hills, that flash of light. Aim well my little one We may not make it through the night.

I made more sounds with the Eitherorer and the Violog, but this time putting them through a bass synth. I have yet to mix them, I’m not sure if the bass synth makes the right kind of creepy sci-fi sound I’m looking for.
I also had Ellen help me record some video. Earlier in the week I made a simple rig to get a desired spinning effect in the camera lens I was looking for, it’s crude, but that’s the aesthetic I’m looking for. When I get a camera again I’ll post some screen shots of the footage.