life between buildings

Light Show Faces The Axe

2008-05-28T12:46:00.002+10:00

Looks like one of my favourite directors also likes the idea of the Last Supper:

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/news/story/0,,2282177,00.html

not quite back to the real world

2008-05-24T20:59:00.001+10:00

It’s been less than a fortnight since I left Bundanon, but already it’s feeling like a fairly pivotal turning point in my creative life.

Having moved fairly smoothly from school to university to the workplace, finding myself in jobs (journalism/newspaper editor) that offer plenty of challenges and require a substantial amount of attention from my mind, I’ve never really had the opportunity to spend any great stretch of time on creative projects.

Those that I have pursued have been, invariably, either spontaneous or reactive. My two novel length works-in progress both began life as short stories that simply got out of hand, taking on a life of their own. On the photography front, I’ve been very much of the verité school, shooting what I see, the world ‘as it is’ without my interference. I acknowledge, of course, the choices I make in subject selection, framing, composition and the like, but have rarely been active in setting up or directing a scene or an image. I’d figured this was a stylistic choice, a philosophical consideration of photography as documentation and momentary, but am now wondering whether it was simply a lack of time.

On the writing side, the hope entering the fortnight had been to finish a few projects, in any spare time that may have emerged around our main major ‘life between buildings’ project. Yet after two weeks these never even made it out of the suitcase – this was a place and a time for thinking afresh, for inventing/crafting not polishing; opening doors not closing them.

So instead of wrapping up existing projects, I seem to have started more than I can keep track of. Central is the life between buildings song cycle, to which I intend to co-contribute text along with Rhiannon and Danielle, and work on more visual ideas that will hopefully augment its final presentation.

‘The Last Supper’ is to be a 12-song song-cycle, co-created by the life between buildings team of Serena Armstrong, Danielle Carey, Rhiannon Cook, Julian Day, and, in there as well, me.

The cycle will build upon written texts exploring the last meals of condemned death row prisoners, combining the irresistible motifs of Food and Death.

The idea is to create a work that can stand alone in a traditional performative sense, incorporating visual elements , but there is also strong interest in looking at the ‘event’ possibilities the idea holds, to explore its potential in installation or even ‘happening’ terms, such as incorporating the work into an actual meal with audience interaction, a blurring of the active performer/ passive audience lines.

This idea developed throughout Bundanon and grew richer each day, particularly in the second week. We would share our thoughts and ideas for it, discussing its difficulties and problematic aspects as well as what intrigued us.

Once the idea had developed to a point where we could all see where it might be heading, we were each able to work on bringing our various strengths to it, working on potential texts and some basic musical possibilities.

Amidst all this, as I was being drawn further and further into the surrounds, I also found some windows to experiment with some visual ideas. With a fortnight to spend free of daily concerns (cooking and grooming matters notwithstanding), my early ideas for some photographic series developed, expanded and then shifted quite substantially. For reasons I expect I’ll explore at greater length down the line, I’ve developed a fascination bordering on obsession with red. Red in all its forms, but particularly red as a thread – in this case wool.

‘Threads’ are a theme I’ve begun to quietly follow, but the red is quite recent and appeared quite suddenly, almost violently. Apart from its symbolic elements, which I’ll discuss down the track, I’m quite taken by the difficulties cameras appear to have in processing reds of this intensity.

My early red interventions at Bundanon were quite rushed and quickly executed. I wasn’t sure if the idea even had any lasting worth, and hadn’t fully understood what it was I was trying to say. Spending more and more time wrapping objects, winding the wool around the man-made or natural items that drew me, that seemed to be asking for a red challenge, or echo, I found the time and space to think more about what it was I was trying to do, and say.

I had gone into Bundanon thinking I would look at spending more time on photo manipulation – working with layers to get my photos to look at the relationship between the ‘observed world’, text and music. But instead of post-production and scanning, layering disparate images for a common cause, I found I was more and more drawn towards creating these layers in real-time and real-space.

The poetics of the bush and its musicality was utterly enthralling. I couldn’t face sitting at my computer trying to recreate when here was a chance to create directly, to interact with the natural surroundings and enter into a type of direct dialogue.

Hence the paperbark/paperback project, the Byron rock, the Haydn gum, and variations on the ‘poe-tree’ project. Many more ideas have also been sifting through since my return, with the urge to create kicked along again after seeing Jeanette Winterson, a favourite author, speak at the Sydney Opera House to open the Sydney Writers’ Festival on Tuesday (more about that for another post).

While perhaps seemingly like a fairly haphazard hotchpotch of concepts and threads, each, in their way, has been spawned by the Bundanon and life between buildings collaboration. In the past I’ve tended to work fairly individually, drawing upon my own ideas and bouncing them up against, well, myself.

I think what I’ve taken from this experience is not just the amazing time I had working closely with such creative, inspiring artists (and good friends!), but I have learned how ideas bounced around can grow and develop and take on a life of their own, thanks to the enthusiasm and input of others.

So while we have a common cause in our central project, we all each have other strands to follow, other threads to explore, that each developed, to some extent out, of the collaborative process. The actual ‘practice’ part, the writing or the photography is, for me, still a fairly personal path. I tend to process ideas over a longer period than some, then quietly chip away at them, channelling through my work things I can’t always explain in discussion. I think my strength in working with others is more likely to be a piece of text or a photo that tells a story, rather than ‘discussed’ input as such – that may change, but my work seems to come from a part of me I don’t necessarily have access to in conversation form.

To spend two weeks immersed in this, in such a deeply inspiring place as Bundanon, has been an experience that will ripple through my life for some time.

This was an inspiring group of artists to spend time with, and I like to think we’ll be able to keep working together, even if loosely, under the life between buildings umbrella.

- Benjamin

it's oh so quiet...

2008-05-15T21:05:00.004+10:00

Actually, it's anything from quiet. My head is buzzing with ideas, thoughts and inspiration; my heart is singing and the world around me seems crazy and surreal...

We're back. If it's seemed a little quiet here at the life between buildings projects, it's not that we've slackened off. The internet went down in the last four days of our residency at Bundanon. Gasp. Horror. Just how did some of us cope... Well, it was tough. Believe me. But we survived. And we're now back grappling with the real world and yearning for quiet solitude, strolls along the river bank, wanders through the bush, and endless hours of creativity. Oh to be back in creative la la land again...

Anyhow, give us a few days to readjust back to the chaos of life and we'll tell you more about our last few days, along with some reflections about our residency.

In the meantime, pop on over to alittlehummingbird's and benjamin's photos to get a small taste of some of the things we captured on digital film.

Art and Environmental Sustainability discussion

2008-05-09T11:02:00.005+10:00

I've reached a turning point in my creative practice and I'm confused about where to go next (you might want to read more about this over in a little hummingbird land). Reduce, reuse, recycle and educate is a mantra I've adopted in most areas of my life - transport, food consumption, communal living etc... Yet when it comes to art, I'm full of contradictions: I often use chemically-based paints on newly-acquired sweatshop-made canvasses; I'm creating material objects that people can add to their collection of consumerables

So what does it mean to make environmentallly sustainable creative work? Is it simply about the material we use? Or is it about artistic intention?

Jules, Rhi and I over the next few hours will chat online about our ideas on the function of art and their relation to environmental sustainability. Feel free join in with us!

Bundanon - Day Nine

2008-05-08T17:56:00.004+10:00

I bounced out of bed at 7am yesterday, despite my insomnia pushing my body through until about 3am the previous night (crawling into bed at 5:30am isn’t unheard of around these parts either – who needs sleep at times like these!). Aside from wanting some alone time to reflect, I was keen to spend the morning by the river… To think about where I’m at, maybe take advantage of the soft morning light (for photography), but mostly just to meditate and soak up my surroundings. I was surprised at the amount of bird life by the shore – willy wag tails, magpies, wrens, kookaburras, king fishers, crimson rosellas all within a few metres of each other. To be a part of that! Wow!

Of course I wouldn’t dream of breaking the Bundanon Artist’s In Residency ‘no swimming’ rule, so I just…um…errr…danced naked across the sand and dipped my toes in? Yes, that’s what I did. The cold certainly didn’t force a sudden intake of breath as I dived in. And I didn’t shout songs of excitement to the birds as I spooned handfuls of icy water over my head. Neither was I able to experience the cool rush of water swirling around my naked body… so… um… yeah I just sat…. oops, I mean danced… and imagined all of the things that might have happened if I’d swum… As I basked in the sun pretending to let my imaginary drenched locks of hair dry, I watched a willy wag tail flit along the shores, glancing quizzically every so often in my direction (HA - he reminded me of the raven and goat that Boyd obsessively painted as a symbol of voyeurism). I wrote in my journal, took a few photos and breathed in deeply… Ah!

Anyway, it seems the sheer power of imagination made for a sensational day. The dreams of an entirely imaginary morning swim refreshed my mind and soothed my spirit. On returning to my studio, a few tangible ideas for writing began to emerge. Fingers itched. My pen began dancing wildly across the room. And so I wrote! Words. On paper. There’re still very raw, but I’ve started. It’s all very exciting.

Let me explain my excitement: I wasn’t sure how much writing I’d actually do while down here. Having experienced intense writer’s block in the last few months, I’d made the decision to focus on photography, painting and sculpture during the residency. In the lead up to the residency, however, I felt like my blockage was starting to dissipate. This was mostly due to a rediscovery of my passion for letter writing. Through a series of letters to a friend, I found words began flowing from my fingers again. It was a fascinating process. And prompted me to commit, while at Bundanon, to daily blogging and scrawling out morning pages. It’s still a slowly unravelling process, however, and I decided to only write creatively if my fingers started itching to throw words on the page. No expectations. No pressure. But this morning my fingers started itching! Hoorah!

These ten days have taught me a lot about my creative process. Like Julian, ‘lounging about, unwinding, enthusiastically talking up ideas, and idly noodling’ – and I’d add, debating hardcore issues, cooking, reading, watching movies and teasing Jules himself – has been crucial for getting the creative juices flowing. Yet so often I’ll feel guilty if it isn’t immediately obviously that what I’m doing is directly productive towards my end goal. Here I’m learning that so much time for me is spent thinking conceptually about an idea – planning, discussing, exploring abstractly - the nitty gritty craftsmanship of creating a work, words on paper, paint on canvass, emerges much later. I love creating first in my head and bouncing those ideas around, exploring all the options and thinking laterally for further options… So talking, lounging around, cooking etc. are really important and valid! Hmm… brains are such strange things…

Speaking of my brain, the contents of it are currently sprawled across our newly acquired second art studio. Not actual brain bits, of course, just a symbolic representation. With paper, textas, nails and creative enthusiasm, I created a giant mind map of our song cycle/installation when I got back from my river adventure. It isn’t often that I have so much space to spread out, so why not! I also thought it was time for the group to start focusing in on our project. What was actually achievable? What ideas should we keep exploring? Were there actual components that we could start writing/composing? Who wanted to do what? What was the scale of the project? I figured having a central space to summarise our ideas – one drawing board rather than five – would be useful for 1. Ensuring that we are on the same wavelength, 2. Nutting out some achievable goals for the final four days of our residency, 3. Ensuring that we found a model that allowed each one of us to use our strengths to their advantage.

Our discussion in the evening demonstrated just how far we’ve come in finding a collaborative model that seems achievable, despite all our initial concerns. We’re finding ways of working together. We’re moving forward. There are still challenges ahead, but I think we’ve reached another turning point. I’m really excited.

We’re going on an adventure tonight… To sleep in the rundown shack across the paddock – the one in which the Swiss artist built her embroidery installation. A night of creative storytelling, poetry reading, insomnia, mandolin playing and – if Rhiannon actually manages to find her way ‘home’ this time – chocolate munching!

Dammit I don’t want to go home…

Bundanon - Day Eight

2008-05-08T15:14:00.003+10:00

I'm writing this entry two days late. In fact, that day was a bit of a washout for me; I was hungry, grumpy and tired and to be honest I can't remember much about it. So instead I'm going to share with you a few micro-observations from my last few days.

1. The Island
Apparently somewhere near here there is a mystical island that has held fascination for many of the AIRs (Artists In Residence - official Bundanon lingo). Yesterday I was passed by Maggie our English visual artist comrade, her shoes in hand and clothes hitched around her waist, whispering to me about her quest to wade to the island in question, high tide or not. Later Dan mentioned with eager wide eyes about the same fabled land.

This morning Rhi actually found the island and said it's no big deal.

2. Grasshopper.
Yesterday at dusk a green grasshopper flew out of nowhere and landed on my camera. Dan and I took about 90 or so photos of him. Or her. He (or she) was extremely photogenic and seemed to enjoy posing: lifting each leg one at a time and grinning the whole time. Good chap.

3. Pulpit Rock.
In recent months I've been obsessed with the time-lapse feature on my digital camera, taking endless shots of the Bendigo Prison before it closed. I have found very few interesting things to capture in this way here at Bundanon, however. My one idea has to mimic Arthur Boyd's obsession with Pulpit Rock, a fairly grand bunch of rocks on top of one of the biggest hills around here. He painted those rocks endlessly it seems, mostly captured at the scene from across the river. I've been doing the same from different times of the day using my camera. I've discovered that still this is a fairly uninteresting idea. The most interesting thing about it is the way that the water changes over time, prompting Danielle to suggest that that might be the angle I'm looking for. Perhaps. So far it's entailed braving endless lantana at high tide, although the resulting peace and quiet waiting for the shots to unravel has been really rewarding. Enforced reflection.

4. Snack.
I have lived an enforced Snack-free diet these past two days (i.e. Cadbury Snack, the cheapest and crummist chocolate around to which I am hopelessly addicted). Despite the fact that Rhiannon has gone on a Snack-run to Sydney for me I am doing surprisingly OK. Dan has helped by making me non-Vegan rice pudding as have others with their superb cooking. Except whoever took the extra mandarins this morning shall get a stern talking to.

5. Piano.
It has taken 10 or so days of lounging about, unwinding, enthusiastically talking up ideas and idly noodling but I have really recaptured my interest in playing the piano. It's been great having a grand piano right outside my bedroom upon which I can muck around at any time of the day (except, it transpires, at 10am when certain people are sleeping).

That is all.

Forcing others to suffer for your art

2008-05-08T15:00:00.003+10:00

The other night we watched Irreversible and Funny Games, two films that deliberately target our vulnerability to manipulation through our trust of the art object, or any structure for that matter. This has led to us to ideas of manipulating our audience in various ways - through disruption, playing with the theatrical 'fourth wall', toying with narrative flow, injecting 'twists' along the way, inflicting mild (and hopefully harmless) forms of torture, delaying or denying gratification, et al.

Irreversible played with this obviously through its structure (told backwards, so that your point of view towards the situations and your sense of empathy towards the characters need continual readjustment) but also through more insiduous means - the first 30 minutes, for instance, feature a sub-sonic tone imperceptable by the ear but felt strongly in the body, creating a very tangible sense of unrest, whereas the final 10 minutes feature very strong strobe lighting that could potentially trigger seizures in those suffering from photosensitive epilepsy (I think there's a warning to this effect on the DVD cover).

Whilst I have great empathy for people with epilepsy (my father being a sufferer) and would therefore never condone this, I nonetheless wonder if the following scenario taken from today's paper could be interesting to us from the 'disruption' point of view.

Hackers' posts designed to cause epileptic fits
Computer attacks typically do not inflict physical pain on their victims.

But in a rare example of an attack apparently motivated by malice rather than money, hackers recently bombarded the Epilepsy Foundation's website with hundreds of pictures and links to pages with rapidly flashing images.

The breach triggered severe migraines and near-seizure reactions in some site visitors who viewed the images. People with photosensitive epilepsy can get seizures when they're exposed to flickering images, a response also caused by some video games and cartoons.

The attack happened when hackers exploited a security hole in the foundation's publishing software that allowed them to quickly make numerous posts and overwhelm the site's support forums.

Within the hackers' posts were small flashing pictures and links - masquerading as helpful - to pages that exploded with kaleidoscopic images pulsating with different colors.
"They were out to create seizures," said Ken Lowenberg, senior director of Web and print publishing for the foundation, which is based in Landover, Maryland.

He said legitimate users are no longer able to post animated images to the support forum or create direct links to other sites, and it is now moderated around the clock. He said the FBI is investigating the breach.

Security experts said the attack highlights the dangers of websites giving visitors great freedom to post content to different parts of the site.

In another recent attack, hackers exploited a simple coding vulnerability in Senator Barack Obama's website to redirect users visiting the community blogs section to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's official campaign site.

The hackers who infiltrated the Epilepsy Foundation's site did not appear to care about profit. The harmful pages did not appear to try to push down code that would allow the hacker to gain control of the victims' computers, for instance.

"I count this in the same category of teenagers who think it's funny to put a cat in a bag and throw it over a clothesline - they don't realize how cruel it is," said Paul Ferguson, a security researcher at antivirus software maker Trend Micro Inc. "It was an opportunity waiting to happen for some mean-spirited kid."

In a similar attack this year, a piece of malicious code was released that disabled software that reads text aloud from a computer screen for blind and visually impaired people. That attack appeared to have been designed to cripple the computers of people using illegal copies of the software, researchers said.

May 8, 2008 - 1:41PM
AP

The Digestive System

2008-05-08T14:50:00.002+10:00

Hey groop,

A short article on digestion I found on line for your 'digestion'.

Jx

Overview
To supply the body with the materials it needs for energy and the building of new tissue, nutrients have to pass through the digestive system. The latter is composed of organs (an organ being a group of tissues and cells, organized into a particular structure, that performs a specific function within an organism) and other structures through which nutrients move. The nutrients pass first through the mouth and then through the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, and large intestine, or colon. Collectively, these structures are known as the alimentary canal.

Nutrients advance through the alimentary canal to the stomach and small intestine, and waste materials continue from the small intestine to the colon (large intestine) and anus. Along the way, several glands play a role. A gland is a cell or group of cells that filters material from the blood, processes that material, and secretes it either for use again in the body or to be eliminated as waste. Among the glands that play a part in the digestive process are the salivary glands, liver, gallbladder, and pancreas. (The last three are examples of glands that are also organs.) The glands with a role in digestion secrete digestive juices containing enzymes that break down nutrients chemically into smaller molecules that are absorbed more easily by the body. There are also hormones involved in digestion-there are, for example, glandular cells in the lining of the stomach that make the hormone gastrin.

From the Mouth to the Stomach
The first stage of digestion is ingestion, in which food is taken into the mouth and then broken down into smaller pieces by the chewing action of the teeth. To facilitate movement of the food through the mouth and along the tongue, it is necessary for saliva to be present. Usually, the sensations of sight, taste, and smell associated with food set in motion a series of neural responses that induce the formation of saliva by the salivary glands in the mouth. Amylase, an enzyme in the saliva, begins the process of breaking complex carbohydrates into simple sugars. (The terms simple and complex in this context refer to chemical structures.)

By the time it is ready to be swallowed, food is in the form of a soft mass known as a bolus. The action of swallowing pulls the food down through the pharynx, or throat, and into the esophagus, a tube that extends from the bottom of the throat to the top of the stomach. (Note that for the most part, we are using human anatomy as a guide, but many aspects of the digestive process described here also apply to other higher animals, particularly mammals.) The esophagus does not take part in digestion but rather performs the function of moving the bolus into the stomach.

A wavelike muscular motion termed peristalsis, which consists of alternating contractions and relaxations of the smooth muscles lining the esophagus, moves the bolus through this passage. At the place where the esophagus meets the stomach, a powerful muscle called the esophageal sphincter acts as a valve to keep food and stomach acids from flowing back into the esophagus and mouth. (Although the most well-known sphincter muscle in the body is the one surrounding the anus, sometimes known simply as " the sphincter," in fact, sphincter is a general term for a muscle that surrounds, and is able to control the size of, a bodily opening.)

From the Stomach to the Small Intestine
Chemical digestion begins in the stomach, a large, hollow, pouchlike muscular organ. While food is still in the mouth, the stomach begins its production of gastric juice, which contains hydrochloric acid and pepsin, an enzyme that digests protein. Gastric juice is the material that breaks down the food. Once nerves in the cheeks and tongue are stimulated by the food, they send messages to the brain, which, in turn, alerts nerves in the stomach wall, stimulating the secretion of gastric juice before the bolus itself arrives in the stomach. Once the bolus touches the stomach lining, it triggers a second release of gastric juice, along with mucus that helps protect the stomach lining from the action of the hydrochloric acid. Three layers of powerful stomach muscles churn food into a thick liquid called chyme, which is pumped gradually through the pyloric sphincter, which connects the stomach small intestine.

The Small Intestine
The names of the small and large intestines can be confusing, rather like those of Upper and Lower Egypt in ancient history. In both cases, the adjectives seem to refer to one thing but actually refer to something else entirely. Thus, it so happens that Upper Egypt was south of Lower Egypt (because it was "upper" in elevation, not latitude), while the small intestine is, in fact, much longer than the large intestine. The reason is that small refers to its diameter rather than its length: though it is about 23 ft. (7 m) long, the small intestine is only 1 in. (2.5 cm) in diameter, while the large intestine, only 5 ft. (1.5 m) in length, is 3 in. (7.6 cm) across.

The small intestine, which connects the stomach and large intestine, is in three sections: the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum. About 1 ft. (0.3 m) long, the duodenum breaks down chyme from the stomach with the aid of the pancreas and gallbladder. The pancreas, a large gland located below the stomach, secretes pancreatic juice, which contains three enzymes that break down carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, into the duodenum through the pancreatic duct. The gallbladder empties bile, a yellowish or greenish fluid from the liver, into the duodenum when chyme enters that portion of the intestine. Although bile does not contain enzymes, it does have bile salts that help dissolve fats.

Digested carbohydrates, fats, proteins, and most of the vitamins, minerals, and iron in food are absorbed in the jejunum, which is about 4 ft. (1.2 m) long. Aiding this absorption are up to five million tiny finger-like projections called villi, which greatly increase the surface area of the small intestine, thus accelerating the rate at which nutrients are absorbed into the bloodstream. The remainder of the small intestine is taken up by the ileum, which is smaller in diameter and has thinner walls than the jejunum. It is the final site for absorption of some vitamins and other nutrients, which enter the circulatory system in plasma, a watery liquid in which red blood cells also are suspended.

As it moves through the circulatory system, plasma takes with it amino acids, enzymes, glycerol (a form of alcohol found in fats), and fatty acids, which it directs to the body's tissues for energy and growth. Plasma also contains waste products from the breakdown of proteins, including creatinine, uric acid, and ammonium salts. These constituents are moved to the kidneys, where they are filtered from the blood and excreted in the urine. But, of course, urine is not the only waste product excreted by the body; there is also the solid waste, processed through the large intestine, or colon.

The Large Intestine and Beyond
Like the small intestine, the large intestine is in segments. It rises up on the right side of the body (the ascending colon), crosses over to the other side underneath the stomach (the transverse colon), descends on the left side, (the descending colon), and forms an S shape (the sigmoid colon) before reaching the rectum and anus. In addition to its function of pumping solid waste, the large intestine removes water from the waste products—water that, when purified, will be returned to the bloodstream. In addition, millions of bacteria in the large intestine help produce certain B vitamins and vitamin K, which are absorbed into the bloodstream along with the water.

After leaving the sigmoid colon, waste passes through the muscular rectum and then the anus, the last point along the alimentary canal. In all, the movement of food through the entire length of the alimentary tract takes from 15 to 30 hours, with the majority of that time being taken up by activity in the colon. Food generally spends about three to five hours in the stomach, another four to five hours in the small intestine, and between five and 25 hours in the large intestine.

The transit time, or the amount of time it takes for food to move through the system, is a function of diet: for a vegetarian who eats a great deal of fiber, it will be on the short end, while for a meat eater who has just consumed a dinner of prime rib, it will take close to the maximum time. People who eat diets heavy in red meat or junk foods are also likely to experience a buildup, over time, of partially digested material on the linings of their intestines. Obviously, this is not a healthy situation, and to turn it around, a person may have to change his or her diet and perhaps even undergo some sort of colon-cleansing program. There is an easy way to test transit time in one's system: simply eat a large serving of corn or red beets, and measure how long it takes for these to fully work their way through the digestive system.

www.answers.com

two pepper jack barbecue burgers with crispy onions, baked potatoes with sour cream, bacon and cheese, and a large strawberry milkshake

2008-05-07T19:21:00.002+10:00

I found this article in today's paper:

US executes first inmate since moratorium
May 7, 2008 - 10:47AM

Georgia has executed a convicted murderer, the first person to be put to death in the United States since the Supreme Court ended a de facto moratorium on capital punishment last month.
William Earl Lynd died by lethal injection at a prison in Jackson, central Georgia, at 7.51pm (0951 AEST) today. Lynd, 53, was convicted of shooting his girlfriend to death in December 1988, said a spokeswoman for the prisons department.

In the hours before he died, the US Supreme Court rejected a final request for a stay of execution filed by Lynd's lawyers.

Lynd's execution is the first since the same court on April 16 rejected a challenge to the cocktail of three drugs used in most US executions, which opponents had argued inflicted unnecessary pain.

A nationwide pause in executions had been in effect since shortly after the court said on September 25 it would hear an appeal by two death row inmates in Kentucky against the use of the lethal drugs.

Last year, 42 people were executed, the lowest number since 1994 when 31 were put to death. But the 2007 number was artificially low because of the Supreme Court case.
Fewer than 20 protesters who oppose the death penalty demonstrated outside the prison in Jackson where Lynd was executed in an apparent indication that the subject arouses few passions.

Demonstrators said they also planned protests in five other cities in the state.
After shooting Ginger Moore three times in the head and face, Lynd buried her in a shallow grave. Soon afterward, as he drove to Ohio, he allegedly shot and killed another woman but was never convicted of that crime.

The Georgia Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a bid by Lynd's lawyers to stop the execution. They argued that experts who described the murder scene in court had exaggerated.
Several states have scheduled executions since the moratorium ended, including Virginia and Texas, which carries out more executions than any other state.

Lynd is the 1,100th person put to death since the Supreme Court lifted a temporary ban on capital punishment in 1976. Since then, Texas has had 405 executions, followed by Virginia with 98.

Lynd's last meal consisted of two pepper jack barbecue burgers with crispy onions, baked potatoes with sour cream, bacon and cheese, and a large strawberry milkshake, prison authorities said.

Reuters

not so grey

2008-05-06T22:07:00.005+10:00

Today marked the seventh day of our Bundanon stay, so why does it feel like we just got here?

I realised upon waking that while I had walked back and forth across the property many a time, had traversed its open fields, dipped a toe in its river, skirted its grand homestead and returned many times to the swallowing bush, I still felt strangely disconnected from the environs.

The visual sweep down from our cottage to the homestead and the river beyond, back up the treed ridge on the far side of the river, allows us to see much of the 300 cleared acres of the working farm. While perched on the very edge of the bush – which makes up the bulk of the 1100 hectare property – the cottage has its back turned to the trees. It’s their presence I feel strongest, but until today it had been a looming feeling rather than a deep awareness. I could hear the birds and had seen plenty of the kangaroos, wombats and even snakes that came and went, but all my time in there had been active; imposing art ideas and projects without spending enough time doing another of the things which I had come here to do – listen, learning, find what inspiration it could impart.

I realised in doing so, I was repeating a lot of the mistakes artists made early in Australian colonial history – their cultural and artistic baggage so heavily laden with British sensibilities that they – quite literally – couldn’t see the forest for the trees. Paintings from that era, pastoral projections onto an untameable bush, build from a palette entirely unsuitable for the subject matter; pastel tones and wan light borrowed straight from a British sky that simply does not exist here. I was reminded of a discussion with a Brazilian photographer who is often criticised because the skies in his photographs are deemed ‘ too blue’ – it seems we cannot conceive what exists outside our own engagement, comprehension and direct experience.

I wasn’t bringing this particular sensibility, but I certainly hadn’t taken the time or set up the mind space for meaningful exchange. I had come with ideas for how to interact and ploughed on with them with barely a moment to see what suggestions it might make.

Feeling it was time to try and move beyond the same mistakes, I took a new route up the ridge to an area of the bush I’d not yet visited. Clearing my mind of potential projects, of photographic or textual possibilities, I was there simply to be. To see, hear, touch and smell, though stopping short of taste. I wanted to hear what the bush had to say, before trying to speak for it.

Selecting a place in a small clearing, beneath a towering silver gum, I lay, considering what I saw and how it compared to D.H Lawrence’s description in Kangaroo:

But the bush, the grey charred bush... It was so phantom-like, so ghostly, with its tall pale trees and many dead trees, like corpses, partly charred by bushfires... And then it was so deathly still. Even the few birds seemed to be swamped in silence. Waiting, waiting – the bush seemed to be hoarily waiting... it was biding its time with a terrible ageless watchfulness, waiting for a far-off end, watching the myriad intruding white men.

Was this accurate? Did it capture something essential about the harsh, unforgiving, unlovable Australian bush? Not from what I could see.

The green of fern of leaf of palm of moss of mottled bark; the countless browns of stripping bark of fallen leaves, their neighbours orange and red. Purple toadstool red berry golden sun silver gum cobalt sky. The white of flowering gums, the black of soil below – the one colour I couldn’t find was grey.

There were ghosts and phantoms aplenty, but these corpses spoke not of death but of life – every corpse-like tree and charred stump was swamped by viridian ferns and proud gums, played host to teaming life.

In place of stillness or silence was a ceaseless treetop chatter, gum tree crowns rustling their rasping dry leaves, while from beneath the soil a sub-aural hum, worms and ants and termites and beetles (not to mention the ubiquitous Bundanon wombats) rumbling about their business.

A passing fly with buzz in trail showed the first sign of life between soil and sky, but was soon joined by the melodious melange that made up even this tiny segment of bush. In the space of a few minutes, my ear slowly attuning to their song, there were chirps, twitters, flute-pitched whistles, twitches, wit-woos, zupzups, vupps, tzetzetzes, zharps and a dozen more songs that leave our alphabet adrift in their sonorous wake – the further from our language and ability to replicate they were, the more indelible their mark.

At first I couldn’t see from where any of these sounds were coming, but a few minutes of lying still and they soon started to emerge, swooping, fluttering and flapping their way across the clearing, from tree to tree and branch to branch, adorned in feathers blue, brown, red, orange, gold and green.

Amidst all of this, thinking once more of this ‘grey’ nothingness, fell a peerless light, a gold and silver gilt; dappled streaks of honeyed tones that seemed a rich and precious gift.

Seven days in, I had finally arrived at Bundanon.

- Benjamin

2008-05-05T09:49:00.002+10:00

I've escaped again!

Just letting you guys know that I won't be back till after lunch... There is a five-minute solution that could ruin the entire computer or a two hour solution that's a bit safer...

Guess which one I chose?

Bundanon - Day Six

2008-05-04T18:43:00.000+10:00

Food is something I'm very passionate about. Vegan cooking and talking about food ethics is a huge part of my existence. So the idea that was thrown around yesterday about a song cycle focusing on the narrative about the last meal of someone who is about to die (in response to "the last moments of life") has been haunting me...

In conjunction with this idea, I've been thinking about how we could present the song cycle + images (our major group project) in a more cohesive way than a conventional concert setting with screen back drop, or a concept album with accompanying cover art. One idea I've had is a "dinner party installation". The installation would be the creation of a dining room, which would stand alone as an exhibition. The room could reflect the life of our protagonist (eg. through the selection of books on the bookshelf, type of decor, meal choice) as well as being a space to present some of our Bundanon work - there's the potential for a lot of symbolism and layers, which is something we've all been drawn to in the last week...

At various times throughout the exhibition viewers could participate in a "meal sitting". The "meal sitting" would be the presentation of the song cycle, which would occur concurrently with the serving of a four course meal which we've cooked ourselves: the last meal of our character (the singer) is actually shared with dinner guests (the audience, who become performers in the installation)... The meal courses could define the structure of the song cycle and perhaps we could explore different narrative techniuqes so that the drama unfolds in a way that the viewers don't realise this is the last meal until desert... We've been watching a few different films which play with manipulating the psychology of the viewer and exploring with non-linear narrative and these ideas seem to be influencing a lot of my ideas...

Aside from the obvious biblical connotations (which Boyd himself has explored throughout his works), there are also many connections with various films and plays (eg. Chocolat, The Last Supper, Delicatessen). And there is an interesting irony in the fact that food is usually associated with human connection and building community, but in this context it highlights separation and loss.

I think it's a fun idea to at least explore and it would be interesting to set ourselves some environmentally challenges when creating the room: eg. all the furniture might be hard rubbish; food might be vegan...

An exhibition opening and the long dinner party afterwards

2008-05-03T18:18:00.000+10:00

Today we finally met properly with the other artists at Bundanon. There are the five in our group, and in addition to that there are two German writers, a Swiss visual artist/jeweller, an Indigenous photographer and an English visual artist.

The Swiss artist is coming to the end of her four week residency and she put on an impromptu exhibition so that we could see what she had been working on over that time. She had fallen in love with the Australian bush and many of her works brought together the bush and aspects of colonialism/settlement.

One of the works she had created she had earlier set up in the Singleman’s Hut. This hut is a simple, one room hut made out of rough hewn planks. She had placed doilies on the walls and on the table had placed beautiful Australian nuts/seed pods which she had crocheted into flowers. The table was set up to include the crotched objects, a long, steel crochet needle and a pair of small, surgical looking scissors.

I discussed the work with the artist in the morning and commented on the scissors and how the surgical nature of the scissors had reminded me of the precision and skill with which women create their handicrafts. She explained to me that the scissors were the only ones she had and she wasn’t sure about the surgical connotations this had invoked in the work. That evening, when we discussed the work again, she admitted that after our discussion she was reconsidering whether or not the scissors should be excluded from the artwork. Afterwards, she photographed it with and then without the scissors and she told me that night that she would later consider the photos in detail before deciding which she wished to use. The conversation we had was a fun sharing of ideas and of interpretations.

All of the artists in residence attended the ‘exhibition’. I had a chance to meet the writers, who I had not yet spoken to, and to have longer conversations with the other artists. What initially was intended to be just an ‘exhibition’ extended to dinner and over five hours of conversation and sharing of ideas.

I was particularly excited to have the opportunity to discuss screenplays and radioplays with one of the German writers, as I am writing my first radioplay. He had written a number of radioplays and gave me some good tips. I wish, however, that I could speak German as it seems that there is still a strong radioplay culture there (though he did admit that younger people are less interested in the form). There are 15 or 17 publicly funded broadcasters and it is these, rather than the commercial stations, that are producing radioplays. The radioplays are produced with detailed sound effects, sound, music, movement, etc. This differs from the ‘book reading’ approach more common over here where the play is read through and a small amount of music added in a few places. The way it was described to me was that it was like making a film without having the screen (the pictures).

I really enjoyed the chance to share ideas and to find out about how people created their art and how they balanced that with finding a way to make money (which was only occasionally achieved through their favoured artform).

The day was also an excellent one because the previous night our group had decided on the nature of our group project. We agreed to work on a song cycle with images (ie photos that would be projected while the work was sung). It will be for one singer and probably computer backing. We looked at a thematic link of “the last moments of death”.
Rhi, Dan and Julian had watched Memento and discussed ideas of form and structure (Memento, of course, being a film where the story moves backwards in time and thus being an example of an unusual structure). During their discussions they were drawn to the idea of working with 25 songs, being grouped into 5 large groups (ie 5 x 5 = 25).

Rhi, Ben and I spent the morning working on lyrics for the song cycle and then I spent the afternoon composing some songs based on those lyrics. Rhi is also keen to start composing. Julian spent his time coming up with ideas on the piano and blogging. Dan spent most of the day in the studio and also discussing ideas. Our studio is now covered with items from Bundanon: bark, seed pods, dried leaves and strange spindly objects. The southern wall is covered with ideas for the song cycle and some of the lyrics which Ben wrote in the morning. I really like the idea for the song cycle and I’m looking forward to hearing people’s works and seeing different interpretations on the same subject.

Serena.

early morning rambles...

2008-05-03T15:03:00.004+10:00

Jules, Rhi and I were still up to the wee hours of this morning... I'm sure the mountains of chocolate have something to do with it... but night owls we are three...

Part of our conversation evolved quite organically into ideas for the group song cycle. Here is the freely flowing random list:

* Five sections which revolve around 5 different characters. One of these is the narrator who speaks from a very objective perspective. Eventually the viewer would realise this is not authorative though, but simply one of the five perspectives.
* A death narrative involving a climbers last few hours of life
* Human rights issues told from different perspectives (the apology, issue in tibet)
* celebrating the banal (rather than dramatic) eg. Gail Priest's orpheus project
* Setting ourselves parameters with which to work within. eg. "not using the letter e"
* A provocation of Dan and Rhi's vegetarianism: a song cycle devoted to "meat"
* Exploring issues of food (eg. the cook, the theif, the lover, chocolat, delicatessen, the last supper) It's a banal topic, and a focus here at bundanon
*Food topic has potential to explore different perspectives: food ethics, wastage, recipes, health, enjoyment, restaurants...
* A narrative about the last meal of the prisoner
* Explore different writing styles: shopping lists, recipes, restaurant reviews, eating list
* Structure of working as a group: strict time limit; five sections - five characters; follows set logic, rotate each aspect
* Each section within a set could follow the ABCDE structure of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. Activating event, Belief about that event; Consquences of that belief; Disputing the belief; evaluating the disputing...
* everyone does an element of visual; text; music. This might flatten our expectation. Perhaps we could just do one section each. But this seems like an easy, safer, less interesting option?
*Regarding narratives: interested in twists
* Regarding narratives: interested in perspectives
* Also interested in gender issues. ie. set the music for any type of singer. Keep text androgynous. (eg. 'written on the body' by jeanette winterson; the film 'orlando')
* using one of R. Dahl's short stories for adults (eg. murders husband and eats the evidence...
* using fake cows as a chorus (OK so we were starting to get a little sleepy by this stage)
* a comedy about Arthur Boyd's "illegitiamate son starring Jim Carrey (yep, real sleepy)
* a comdey entitled 'All creatures great and boyd' (barely able to keep one eye open...)
* a drama based on the plot of the Da vinci code – boyd reveals a secret just before his death… the religious imagery in his paintings actually reveals the path to hidden treasure (half an eye...)
* a drama about Bundanon's living arts centre actually being a secret cult rather than a home and work space for artists (I can just see the others...)
* a drama about the living arts centre and Boyd's legacy actually being a secret research laborartory where artists are subjected to invasive experiments... (oh dear, it's 3 am...zzzzzzzzzzz)

Bundanon - Day Four

2008-05-02T14:38:00.005+10:00

Putting on our rainbow thinking caps…
Conversation at the 'muso's cottage' is rarely trivial. And I don't think we'd have it any other way. From politics, critical theory, and ethical values, to the current romantic pursuits of certain group members, our daily creative activities are constantly interjected with stimulating, vibrant, humorous and challenging topics of discussion. Take this morning for instance. I step out of my bedroom. Stretch. Yawn. Rub eyes. Search for a clean teacup. Instead of being passed the pot of tea, I’m thrown a handful of questions. Full pelt. Did I think it important to really know someone for an artistic collaboration to be successful? And what models of collaboration are most meaningful to me? The questioner was thrown back a definite NO from me. I think fruitful collaboration – regardless of the model – is possible with anyone. She caught it gracefully, and immediately threw back some further questions. This time I caught them in my cereal bowl and let them soak up some tasty breakfast goodness before responding… For me, good communication is key…

Speaking of which…

When it comes to working on our creative project, I’m feeling we – as a group –struggle with effective communication. We are finding it difficult to reach consensus on a variety of decisions. And this prevents us from moving forward with confidence. Mind you, I don’t think it is just about communication: we have quite a spectrum of life perspectives – a wide range of political and social viewpoints, music tastes, ethical values etc… and very different approaches to the creative process. This makes decisions that respect each individual viewpoint (a vital thing) difficult and time consuming.

But I think if we ensure that strong communication strategies are in place then surely working together will gradually become smoother and more efficient? While I do feel my ideas and opinions are heard, I feel they are often misunderstood or misinterpreted. And I think I'm doing my fair share of misunderstanding as well... I think we all need to listen more carefully and clarify each other’s viewpoints more frequently. For example, I tend to show my emotions immediately; I’m quite a passionate person. I’m generally quite open with how I feel about an issue, but I think I can work more on demonstrating that my feelings about an issue are more fluid than they might seem. I tend to react from an intuitive viewpoint and then analyse and evolve my viewpoint as the conversation flows. Because I’m feeling misunderstood at times, I’m beginning to react by closing off emotionally. I’m then getting frustrated. I think I need to work on being clearer about my personal needs within the group… being more assertive…

Possible solutions? I’ve suggested reading a document I have on consensus decision-making, while Julian has suggested Edward de Bono’s six-hat approach. I like the sound of this. Basically, issues are considered from six different points of view each represented by a different coloured hat: white hat – attention to pure neutral data; red hat – intuition and feeling; gut feeling without justification being necessary; black hat – the logical negative, caution; yellow hat – logical positive; green hat – new ideas and furthering ideas; blue hat – process control, the metacognition…

Anyway, lots of food for our respective thoughts…

Chewing it over…
We’ve discovered the bitter taste of church hymnbooks. Literally. Over the last few days Ben has been incorporating book pages into the papery bark of a tree in the amphitheatre for an installation and a photo series so we all spent some time helping him. A good technique required us to chew the pages in our mouths first and then paste the soggy pages between layers of bark. As we helped him, ideas for incorporating this into a bigger installation began to emerge…

While trying to hold back the occasional gagging reflex, we also spent this time chewing over ideas for a larger group project. As Rhi mentioned yesterday, I’m ready to sink my teeth into something more solid. Having had a few days to relax, and explore the property and a few emerging ideas, I was ready to come together as a group and start honing in on a project(s). We didn’t have de Bono’s hat strategy at this point so it took a while for the conversation to move forward. From my perspective, I felt a strong need to explore more group work opportunities; the beauty of this residency for me, at least, is the opportunity to actually collaborate with other artists. I’m not really interested in working solo: I can do this at home in my own studio.

Julian and I shared with the group our emerging ideas for a song cycle we’ve working on. The interest in working on a group Song Cycle began exciting us. So by the end of the day (and well into the night for the night owls amongst us), we were pleased that today a pivotal point was reached! Hoorah! A commitment to collaboratively write a song cycle… It will be really interesting to see how the next few days pan out. I’m really excited about the project. And I like the ideas that have emerged so far. I’ve never written text for music (except for a few songs my brother and I have written for family functions…) so it will be a very new challenge for me personally. Bring it on!!

Emerging Projects

As I begin summarising the emerging ideas of the group, I’m excited to see how far we’ve actually come in only four days…

Song Cycle | Music – Julian, Rhi, and Serena; Text – Ben, Dan, Serena; Visual – Ben, Dan, and Julian
Tomorrow we plan to start working on this project, generating ideas and gathering material. We’ll probably work in smaller groups and alone for the most part…We’ve decided to initially explore the theme of ‘Last moments of life’ and see where it takes us. We also decided to work as collaboratively as is possible. ie. We’ll all have input in each other’s work…

Song Cycle | Julian (music) and Dan (text)
Jules and I are still exploring themes and ideas. We’re interested in working in a way where the text and music feeds off each other, rather than a situation such as me writing a text for which Julian might then set to music. So far ideas have centred on notions of authority: the questioning of power structures and systems; different political structures; authorities in music and writing etc… and then ways we might be able to play with that in the work. Some examples include democratising the creative process: sharing this with the performer and audience; experimenting with non-linear structures and narratives: eg. Performing different songs simultaneously in different rooms so the audience could choose which order they view the songs… hmmm many more ideas to explore…

The Red Installation/Photo Series | Ben + others
Ben is still wrapping things in bright red wool – tractor parts, wood, burrawang leaves, and trees. He’s also got Serena and I knitting red scarves (eek!). Aside from serving as a series of installations around the property – intrusions and interventions on the landscape – the wrapping is in preparation for a photo series. As far as I understand, the red theme is quite symbolic. Rarely seen in the Australian bush, usually serves as a warning sign: poisonous mushrooms, red back spiders etc… or perhaps it’s simply a reflection of Ben’s connection with his root chakra… (cheeky grin!)

The Book Tree Installation/Photo Series
When Ben isn’t wrapping things, he’s sneaking pages of books amongst the papery bark of a tree in the amphitheatre. Again this project is emerging as both installation and a photo series… Exploring themes of decay and intrusion, the project is starting to extend beyond Ben’s original vision. We all spent a few hours today helping him to insert pages of the books onto the tree (I discovered chewing them first helped the process!) and as we did this other ideas began to emerge… Perhaps I could explore painting on the tree with natural ochres? How could my bark paintings relate to this installation? It was fun working collectively and we were intrigued at the different methods that emerged… oh and we’re using recycled materials, which will literally decay over time…

Photo Series | Rhi + others
This project focuses on looking at the beauty of detail…
Rhi is currently indulging and delighting in her obsessive-compulsive streak by collecting hundreds of close up images from the bush and sorting them by colour (Ben, Dan and Julian are also taking images to contribute to this project). She plans to build some larger images by using these as ‘mosaic tiles’. One idea she wants to experiment with is the image of a naked woman… She might also look at working with Dan to write some text/music to incorporate into the artwork… Tomorrow Ben, Rhi and I are going to work together to take some shots for Rhi’s naked woman, which she will then pixilate and use to then build up her mosaic image (no guesses as to who get to take all their clothes off!!)

Bundanon Community of Artists | Rhi + Dan (and others?)
This project is still in the ideas stage. We haven’t yet talked too much about directions in which we can head. But we’re keen to look at interviewing some of the artists who’ve worked/lived here with the intention of creating a radiophonic work (with Serena’s and Julian’s help?). Our motivation is a desire to explore the importance of community… (the Bundanon community and the larger surrounding community)

Solo Flute Work | Serena
Serena has been working on a solo flute piece. We spent the other night listening to some solo works by Matthew Bienek and talking about what we thought constituted a quality flute work. She is open to the idea of incorporating this into a bigger group project if appropriate.

Bark Painting | Dan
I’ve finished priming some of the bark with white paint and in the next few days will start painting. I’m thinking about using some of the other bark for sculptures. I’m also keen to explore incorporate some of my ideas with Ben’s installation…

Art and Sustainability | Dan (+ others)
I’m really interested in researching ideas about sustainability in art with the idea of developing some projects over the next few months. Being web-addicts, Julian, Rhi and I have decided to initiate this research by holding an online debate between the three of us over the next few days. I think this will be a really interesting and fun way to explore different ideas and concepts.

Time lapse Photography | Julian
Julian’s current idea is to recreate or model some of Arthur Boyd’s images using time-lapse photography, particularly the sceneries that Boyd obsessively created (eg. Pulpit Rock). There is the potential for sound/music as well…

The Cow project
We’re all still quite traumatised by the baby cows (who are still crying and moaning for their parents). Serena has made some sound recording of the cows, while Dan and Jules – who spent the afternoon with them – have taken some images. Whether we do anything with this footage remains to be seen… but the separation of mother and child has certainly made a huge impact on many of us!

Cloud Animation | Jules
Jules has been working on an animation of cloud pictures using time lapse techniques...

hhmmmm... perhaps there are things I've missed??

PS.

Jules has finally found phone reception! Down on the sandbank of the river. Mind you in the time it took to make three long phone calls, the tide began creeping in significantly. And so when Jules turned to head back home he discovered he was standing on a small sand island...

Bundanon - Day Three

2008-05-02T14:31:00.001+10:00

I usually look at the bigger picture. I take in the gist of a story, but never remember names or dates. I’ve been challenging myself at Bundanon though, and forcing myself to look at the intricate details and textures in our surroundings – and using these as ‘palettes’ of colour and texture to build a bigger picture.

Yesterday though, I was so focused on the minute detail that I forgot about the bigger picture and got lost in the bush. It took a very long bush bash through tall, thick lantana, and several hours trying to climb my way around the rocks in the river bend before it got dark and I was finally rescued in a tinny by two lovely people, Keith and Yvonne Hazlewood, who unfortunately lived on the other side of the river. Not exactly how I planned to spend my day.

But while I was walking I came up with two potential ideas to explore – one that would involve Ben and one Julian. I wasn’t sure whether they’d like the ideas though. (Ben would politely nod either way, Julian would be more blunt) But would they make a spark? Would it matter? Or would my vision create enough momentum?

This got me started thinking about the process of collaboration, and how difficult it is to develop, and then work towards, a shared artistic vision.

I’ve been talking to Ben the most about my visual ideas and the kinds of things I want to achieve – and have been stealing his photos as source material (planning to also scavenge from Dan’s and Julian’s pics). I guess to some extent this is collaboration: Ben’s technical skills are much better than mine, and I need his talent to achieve my vision. But at the moment it is still my vision: though as it's not fully formed there is potential for this to shift over time.

These thought processes have fed into discussions with various people. We always planned to stop and take stock part way into our stay, and I feel as though we are reaching a pivotal moment.

There are lots of smaller projects that have been sprouting during our time here: For me, I can see how my work ties in with Ben’s photo narratives and potentially Dan’s interest in bark painting; I am interested in exploring further with Dan and possibly Serena the idea of the community of Bundanon and using this as the basis for a radiophonic work – maybe drawing on Julian’s expertise? And now I’ve had time to clear my head I’m keen to get started on writing some music.

There are a few musical ideas I could get started on, but first I want to know if it might tie into something bigger. My main question is: are all (or some) of us going to start focusing on working towards a shared artistic vision? Or are we going to pursue our own individual and small group projects with the possibility these might slowly merge into a Life Between Buildings group outcome?

There are mixed feelings about this in the group. Dan is really keen to sink her teeth into a group project: to explore an anarchical collaborative model. Julian is more focused on a number of individual projects and doesn’t want to force the process of collaboration. Ben and Serena are both quite happily engaged in a number of individual projects but would be happy to look at how these might become part of a whole group outcome…

Bundanon - Day Two

2008-05-01T15:16:00.002+10:00

It’s hard to believe but we’re finally here. On the land, living the life, away from it all. It’s very beautiful – very green, very open, very rich. A good spot to do some good thinking.

It is, however, nowhere near as quiet here as I imagined. For a start, some bright spark decided to place the two water tanks right outside the bedroom windows rather than against the unoccupied side of the house – I keep awakening to what sounds like earthmovers every morning. Also, being a ‘working farm’ there’s a steady stream of 4-wheel drives, tractors and lawn mowers, not to mention the odd busload of Catholic school kids. I think it’s quieter in Glebe.

Interestingly, though, it’s nature itself that makes the most racket; besides the constant birdsong it’s the cows that you notice the most. For some reason they scream and groan for hours each afternoon, which is not in itself an unpleasant sound. In fact I spent a good half hour yesterday standing among them, fascinated by this primal and chilling call. I think the mum cows were distressed because their babies were trapped within a pen. It seems pretty cruel; I don’t know why they have to be separated.

I’ve found it a little challenging being away from my usual comforts – the local cafes, a supermarket, the harbour, texting, TV, my studio - although I must say that I tried bringing as many of those things with me; the carload was ridiculous. Strangely, though, I’m not bored. The potential of the fortnight is grabbing me. I feel very at home here. In fact, two weeks now seems nowhere near long enough. And it’s a bit of a relief not being in contact with my normal world. I was really craving it early on but our lightning trip last night to Nowra Woolworths very quickly cured that. I’m even thinking of cancelling my planned trip back to Sydney on Monday and simply staying on.

I’m feeling very creative and motivated but there are a few blocks. Firstly, I’m not used to spending so much time on stuff. It’s difficult to organize my day. It’s also difficult suddenly dealing with having to ‘fill time’ creatively – to actually find sounds, find ideas, find material to work with. I have all these abstract projects and concepts in mind – death, sleep, the hidden, night, intimacy, emptiness - but very few tools with which to realize them. All my piano ideas sound wonky and stupid, and my head isn’t clear enough yet to really absorb this site in a deep way. I’m flitting between things, which is not bad (in fact I like to work this way) but nothing is grabbing me much yet.

I’m also finding it difficult to reconcile what I want to do creatively with what the purpose of this trip is. In a way I just want to go off on my own tangent and spend this time working solely on my own existing and future projects, perhaps with one or two members of the group but not necessarily. Yet we’re meant to be generating new material based on collaboration and so forth. Fundamentally I believe in collaboration but my motivation towards it right now is pretty low – probably because I find it difficult to focus on my own projects during my day to day life (this is my first proper time away from the office for ages). I guess the first few days are going to be like this regardless.

Proper collaboration, for me, is much more than simply squashing together a few scantily-related disciplines (writing, music, photography – none of which have much connection really). It’s about foregoing and maybe forgetting one’s skills in order to focus on a greater outcome – privileging a concept or idea and embracing that without individual glory. Very socialist. It’s a very difficult way to work, though, because it requires a lot of mental commitment, trust, humility and vision. I’m not sure I know how to work that way with this group because I just don’t know everyone very well, although the themes that we’ve discussed so far – intervention, memory, reclaiming history - are broad and fertile enough to excite me.

Anyway, so far everyone has been working on individual ideas and exploring the site (Rhiannon more than others). To quickly summarize:

Ben has been wrapping things and taking photos. It’s nice work – he’ll find a simple object like a branch, a leaf, a bit of old farm machinery and bind it in red string. It reminds me of Andy Goldsworthy’s work, tiny interventions in nature like a yellow leaf on the ground or red stones in a creek.

Serena, from what I can tell, has like me been thinking more about her projects from the ‘real world’ – a piano concerto (?), a Kyrie for choir, a flute piece, some plays.

Dan has been reading up on artists, collecting natural materials like bark, mixing up berries into pigment, playing some piano and discussing some thoughts for a song cycle between us.

Rhiannon – well, Rhiannon has been doing her best to escape. She went on a giant walk which ended up a long way away from here requiring a dramatic rescue last night. I’ll let her explain the details in her own time. :-) She has been taking photos of unusual abstract formations in the bush and developing ideas from there.

Me, I’ve set out in a few directions – I worked up a sketch for a short film based on clouds; I’ve written a few pages of ideas for my Lullabies, Nocturnes and Death series’; I’ve ordered a whole bunch of photos; I’ve been collecting quotes from various writers; I’ve read up on Structuralism, Post-Modernism and Shelley; I’ve been listening to Low, David Lang and Bjork.

In the initial absence of strong collaboration I’m looking forward to more sharing of influences, some evening group activities. I’m dying to play some tracks and DVD stuff to everyone, perhaps read some books out loud, have more discussion about art and ideas. That may make me feel stronger about working together. God knows I brought enough support material.

That’s it from me. Over to blogger # 3.

I'm safe!

2008-04-30T18:15:00.001+10:00

Hey there!

I thought this might be the easist way to let you guys know that I'm safe! I'm at Keith and Yvonne Hazelhurst's house, so if you get this message can you try and call them on 44221214? It's on the other side of the river, and I need to work out a way to try and get home...

interventions + sustainability

2008-04-30T17:05:00.004+10:00

I just came across this interesting blog that explores the relationship between contemporary art and notions of environmental sustainability. Lots of interesting stuff relating loosely to some of the things that both Rhi and I are interested in exploring for our LBB project...

Some of the entries also talk a little about process-driven art compared with the commodity of art, which relates to a conversation the five of us had last night about collaborative models, post-modernist theory and artistic motivation.

Rhi: some stuff relating to your intervention ideas, which are worth checking out as well...

xD

Bundanon - Day One

2008-04-29T21:55:00.003+10:00

Guided safely to our destination by two giant wombats, it was a relief soon after 1am to finally reach the end of the long winding dirt road that passes as the link between Bundanon and the world left behind. With the bottom of the car scraping along the last 20-odd metres, Serena and Julian elected to jump out to see if the lighter load would ease the passage.

Danielle had arrived in the middle of Monday, her 30km bicycle ride from Bomaderry to Bundanon occurring with hardly a hitch (although with three enormous dogs in various pursuit), while Rhiannon had survived the epic journey from Canberra through Kangaroo Valley and down past Cambewarra Lookout a few hours earlier.

Waking up this morning it was exciting to realise that there was essentially nothing we had to do but what we wanted. After cups of tea, some breakfast and coffees, we elected to begin our stay by exploring the vast Bundanon property. Setting out from our 1870s cottage, we passed the cluster of studios presently housing photographers, writers and visual artists, visiting from England and Germany. Some have been here for weeks, with Margaret clearly sad to be heading off in a few days.

A little confusion over which side of the fence we should be on – and a pulse-quickening crash course in the difference between a cow and a bull – and we were soon on the sandy banks of the Shoalhaven River. Peering through the gentle water we saw small schools of fish going about their lessons, with balled up snow-white clouds tumbling overhead. A gentle breeze or jumping fish would occasionally ruffle the water, but it was mostly a clear sheen reflecting back grey-green gums and sandy boulders.

Across the river and perched loftily over an upstream bend loomed the unmistakable figure of Pulpit Rock. Pulpit Rock features in countless Arthur Boyd works and it’s easy to see what drew him to it time after time, what spurred that silent, see-sawing tussle to capture its ever-shifting pinkish orange form. A meander back through the Homestead gardens, fingers teasing smells from well-kept beds of herbs, was followed by a peek through Arthur Boyd’s studio windows before it was time for lunch.

After lunch came the serious business of mapping out our next two weeks. We’ve come to Bundanon for the opportunity it affords for a creative escape from the daily routine. A few familariar chores follow us along of course – the need to eat, tidy and occasionally sleep – but the emphasis is on freeing your mind and creative spirit in an inspirational environment; Arthur’s idea of a living arts centre.

Interaction with the environment is impossible to avoid – like nesting birds we each accumulated various leaves, barks and flowers that caught our eye, along with an all-but spent balloon that must have blown in over the trees and fields, a refugee from the distant clutches of a child’s grasping hand.

We’re all here to collaborate on our artworks, and the question of collaboration and what it involves seems to bring as many definitions as there are contributors to this collective. There is a spectrum of views as to what constitutes a collaborative model of art and the best way to get the most out of our time here. Also interesting is the range of views as to goals and hoped for outcomes – while some prefer to see this as an opportunity to learn more about ‘process’ and the act of creatively working together is an ends in itself, others are drawn more to an ‘outcomes’ based model whereby the success of the project will depend upon the measurable output of creative work and its ongoing appeal.

There’s still much to be worked out along these lines, but the immediate plan is to roll up our sleeves and simply jump into it; to soak up the beautiful environs of Bundanon, to take advantage of the rare opportunity to think and feel without a thousand other things – work, family, friends, Big Brother – vying for our attention.

-Benjamin

Bundanon at last + email shenanigans

2008-04-29T18:09:00.007+10:00

Well, we've made it! Our first day of our Bundanon residency... With two weeks of exploring, experimenting and workshopping collaboratively who knows where we'll end up! How exciting! The property is spectacular. What an honour. We've been fairly silent in the blogosphere in the weeks leading up to the residency: mostly from ridiculous work loads, but also a few hesitations about the project itself... Below is a conversation that we had in the comfort and privacy of email. It was interesting that as some of us became a little daunted by the project we reverted away from the public writings of our blog...

Dan wrote:
when can we meet again for next chat session... lots to chat about methinks...

Serena wrote:
What did you have in mind to talk about Dan?

Dan wrote:
re talking: logistics and crunch time for project ideas.

Ben wrote:
'crunch time for project ideas' is at least worth a shot... and seems to be where people are it, in light of Rhi's last post.

Any thoughts welcome, as it would be good to go into this weekend with an idea of how best to use it.

B
Dan wrote:
Hey guys,

I think the biggest thing we need to sort out is what we are actually hoping to achieve in Bundanon. We need to finally decide whether our initial idea of a "site-specific artwork" is feasible, realistic and still inspiring people.

My feeling is that these 2 weeks would be best spent as an initial exploration and workshopping of ideas. Given that the blog hasn't really taken off and that we've only really had 2 meetings about the project I don't feel I have enough idea about everyone's creative work and the way that they work to be able to head down to Bundanon and "make a high quality art work" in 2 weeks. I don't think it is a realistic goal and I think we will put far too much pressure on ourselves.

I'd be more keen to go back to our initial proposal and use this time as an exploration for working together. Explore a few different creative approaches, ideas etc. and then at the end of the 2 weeks look at what we've got, write a few reflective articles about "the collaborative process" to be published in a few different magazines and then decide if we have enough material and energy to put together a collaborative art work in the future. Perhaps even use the time to do some research on site-specific art work itself!!

My reluctance to still commit to an "end product" is three-fold:

1. 2 weeks is a VERY short time frame to come up with a complete product. Especially considering I've never worked with any of you before (except Rhi!). We'd have to be damned kick-arse for the proposed piece of art to be worth anything...

2. I have major issues attempting to create a "site-specific" art work. In my reading I've discovered just how politically-laden the word is and come to the realisation how naive we as a group are about the art form. I think it will be very difficult creating a piece of art in a new art form for the first time in only two weeks without it being ill-informed and naive

3. My approach to the creative process is very spontaneous and intuitive. I'd want to find a method for working in our group that caters for this approach in conjunction with approaches that suit others better. It is mostly by doing, being, talking, reading that I become inspired and productive. We've barely had any time to be together as a group since last year when we put in our application. So it won't really be until we're actually there that ideas will come rolling and bouncing for me. I need more flexibility to be able to feel comfortable with this project.

So this is where I'm at. Possibly not what some of you wanted to hear. But I'm still confident we can find a solution that suits everyone and respects everyone's needs and creative approaches.

Cheers,
Dan

Julian wrote:

Hey there,

I'm not feeling too dissimilar, Dan. My feeling is that our 'collaboration' should really properly begin with the residency.

I was chatting to Luke Jaaniste, one of my long-standing collaborators, and we both agreed that some of the most enjoyable and indeed productive times during our COMPOST days were when we simply went away somewhere for a week or two with no expectations but a great willingness to chat, absorb, play, explore and simply hang. We'd take gear, instruments, books, scores, DVDs and during that time ideas would start to flow organically, from the 'site' or the source if you like. I think for everyone's sanity it would be good to lower our expectations for Bundanon and likewise see it as a journey or process rather than as the only time in which to make a finished product.

Regarding Bundanon's expectation of what we'll do there, keep in mind that Damian Barbeler went to Bundanon in, I think, 2002 and he's only just handed in the piece that he started there a week ago. So I don't think there's any pressure to finish anything right away.

Regarding site-specific artwork, installation and environmental art I have a suggestion. Luke J has spent the last 5-10 years exploring the form and has offered to present to us a 3-hour lecture with images. All we'd need to do is cover the cost of him coming to Bundanon and put him up for a night or so. I'd estimate it'd cost about $50 for the train ticket from Sydney and food. This way we'd get some historical context and understand just exactly what world we'd be entering into. What do you think?

Jxx

Ben wrote:

hey all,

I'll start by pointing out how much I'm really looking forward to this, especially as the time draws nearer, just so anything to follow might be taken in the tone and spirit intended (ie excited and cheerful!)

Exploration and workshopping of ideas is likely to be a big part of our time at Bundanon, and the best balance of chatting and 'doing' should hopefully emerge early on. This should give each of us the chance to work in the way that we each work best - time to be inspired, time to create, time to reflect.

One thing I was quite puzzled by was the "make a high quality art work in 2 weeks" part of your email Dan. I don't really know where 'complete product' came from... it's not something I'd ever thought feasible or that any of us had expected. Far from it! My understanding has always been that this was a brain-storming, idea-forming and material gathering window, with the rest of the year to then hone/develop these ideas and the material into tangible 'outcomes'. Even if we were going in with some possible ideas as to the form of a particular project(s), I never heard it suggested we would have something done and dusted by the final day there.

Regarding the blog and the suggestion that 'it didn't take off' - I've got a few thoughts on that one. I figure people are finding it difficult to find the time for it, so perhaps briefer, more frequent posting is more appropriate? Also, given the resistance to having too much of an idea of outcomes before we go in, then there's in a way not so much to actually discuss there at the moment. My hope is that as our ideas flow and we come up with concepts and spark off each other, more post ideas will flow - moving from conceptual to actual.

The idea of it being a place for sketches and the like still appeals to me, and that's something that will flow from our Bundanon stay as we gather such material and come up with just such sketches. It may serve a stronger purpose once we are away from Bundanon and back working by ourselves, but in parallel - ie i would really hope to see comments on any parts of any works that people put there for discussion.

I'm quite keen to keep the pressure off too, but for me that will mean having a few ideas of things i would like to do/try, then exploring further those that come up while we're there. I too find inspiration in things i read/talk about/ see etc, but at some point need to turn that into something and it will help to have an idea of what form will best suit a group project. I have no intention of 'imposing' these on anyone and don't see this curtailing anyone's personal flexibility, it might just mean I'll be doing a few things that won't necessarily fit into a final group work - fine by me!

Out of curiosity, and in light the most recent emails, are people at least aiming for a concrete(ish) idea of what vein our project(s) are going to be in by the end of the fortnight? I'd personally be in favour of that and think that our difficulty in all meeting up would make that quite important for us to take the momentum of the fortnight with us.

I'd like to hear more about Dan's problems with 'site-specific' but am happy to wait until we next see each other - or perhaps you could point us to any material that might be appropriate reading in the meantime?

Julian, how much notice to you think Luke would need? It certainly sounds like a good idea if we're going to go down that path, but the sense from Dan's email is she's not as keen for that as perhaps before. We should decide on that soon though, as Bundanon have made it clear they're pretty cool about that sort of thing PROVIDED we alert them to it beforehand, which i'm happy to do. Maybe we could even flag it as a possibility with them?

On one hand D and J seem at first glance a long way from where Rhi seems to be at (as per her last post), but on a practical front the gap is probably not really such a big deal - we'll all be there in just over two weeks anyway, and given that's likely to be the next time we'll see each other, it seems to be the best time to work all these things out.

With a yummy meal in our tummy, a glass of red and an amazingly inspirational backdrop - and two weeks to explore all this and more - I think we'll all be pinching ourselves as to what a great opportunity we have. I'm really excited about it and hope people aren't getting too stressed out; we're friends above and beyond all this and i'm really pleased to have been included in this - anything that comes out of it is is simply a bonus on top of a great couple of weeks together.

You guys are all neat by the way, if i hadn't reminded you lately.

Bxx

Rhi wrote:

Thanks Ben! You rock.

I think we all agree we won’t have a shiny finished product at the end of two weeks.

But what do we expect to have? As Ben mentioned, I don’t think that on a practical front Dan’s and Julian’s ideas are so far off from mine. Let me clarify a point in my last post: rather than saying we needed to agree on an expected outcome, I should have said we needed to be sure our expectations for the residency aligned (an expected outcome could be no outcome? a collection of materials?): I was worried that what I saw as differences in expectations could easily lead to tension.

After Blackheath though I was under the impression that everyone was leaning towards a site-specific artwork - am glad I raised the issue…

So, while we’re all getting our expectations on the table.

At the end of two weeks I hope we’ll have a good collection of ideas, inspiration, material etc. I also want to have an idea of a finished product(s) we might aim for (for which we might aim – just for you Ben!) and a commitment to work towards this. If the ideas we come up with don't spark with everyone (and I don’t expect we’ll know until partway through our stay) then I also think it is possible for just some of us to commit to a project or projects.

By the way, I like Dan’s suggestion that one outcome could be writing a few articles on the collaborative process for a few magazines – but am also hoping for more…

I’m also interested in Dan’s concerns about site-specific artwork: (the musicologist in you never sleeps!) I know that terms applied to art forms tend to come burdened with histories and layers of meaning, and without a comprehensive understanding of these it would be easy to create something naïve and uninformed. I think I feel less constricted by this than you Dan, because I’ve been using the term (as lay-people tend to do), much more loosely. I'd been thinking of it as an artwork that relates to a specific site… so maybe I should use another term… place-focused? geographically-inspired? locationally-stimulated?

By the way: I’d love, but don’t necessarily expect, to produce something kick-arse. There are many aspects of art that are like a trade – you have to practise in order to become better, and I know I need to be working towards a commitment to make sure I put aside the time to practise. We are all going to be pracising collaboration - and there needs to be places and spaces in which artists are allowed to experiment (and fail) in order to produce artists that have the skills to produce quality art… and in my mind Bundanon is one of those places...

Two points in regard to the blog:

Are people committed to contributing to this? It would be good to get a realistic idea view of where people are at. If anyone is reluctant can they say so now? Likewise if people see it as being on hold until after Bundanon…

If everyone is still keen, should the last emails from Dan, Julian, Ben and me all go up there?

Some random creative ideas I’m mulling over at the moment:

Five senses art. If at some point some one were to create a site-specific artwork I would be interested in engaging all the senses… expect maybe taste… or maybe also taste… how many artworks are there that include smells? I’m also interested in this from the aspect of wanting to exercise some control over an audience’s reactions in terms of creating a particular mood or ambiance… I find the power of music to manipulate emotions fascinating and would at some point like to explore this further. In a way it fits into our discussions on perspectives. If two people saw the same room from different angles with different lighting and different music playing and different smells but were told the same story, how would their reactions compare? What if the story was different and everything else was the same.

Art within art. I’ve pasted an Arthur Boyd self-portrait below. There is also an Albert Tucker photo of Arthur Boyd in front of this self-portrait that “captures the sense of the shared creative environment in which the 1940s portraits were painted”. I like the idea of art that becomes environment and environment that becomes art… photos of artworks and their interactions with the creator/the audience/the environment would be one way to explore this.

Dan wrote:

well it's good to hear we're vaguely on the same wavelength... but I have to admit now I'm terribly confused because it seemed so clear to me that there was a push at the Blackheath workshop to decide on what we were going to create... anyway, it doesn't matter. It's clearer now... and a huge relief...

so just to clarify :

AIMS:
1. to workshop, experiment and explore ideas collaboratively;
2. explore collaborative process itself;
3. research site-specific/environmental art;
4. assess materials gathered/created at end of 2 weeks
5. decide on possibility of future project at end of 2 weeks

Serena: what are your thoughts?

D
Serena wrote:

Hey All,

Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and perspectives on it all and thanks to ben for the organizational email (which I’ll look at today);

As I said, Rhi pretty much summed up how I feel about things.

I am looking for the 2 weeks to be a major ‘gathering of material’. For me, this will include spending time composing music, writing stuff for radio and hopefully recording for radiophonic/installationy type stuff. If we go for the radiophonic work for ABC then I’m concerned I won’t be recording at a high enough quality because I don’t have the microphones required. I’ve been doing pretty serious research on this and it looks like I need to spend about $800, which is a lot of money for something I’m unsure how much I will use outside of our project.

I’d really like to have us all working on material for a set project or projects - ie I don’t see much point in me composing music for a string quartet if that music won’t get used in one of our collaborative projects. So that’s why I’d like to work out what we think we are working towards.

Looking back to our group proposal it appears we have said we will:

exploring the concept of ‘place’ and ‘environment’ collaboratively and across our different artists disciplines

explore specific sites at Bundanon and/or Riversale – eg river, forest homestead

engage in ‘specifically designed crative tasks’ – inc improve and research

possibly create an installation, music performance, video footage, photographic footage

web-based discussion (which we’ve started, but seem to have shifted to email)

finished product of all/any of the following: multi-media event, DVD/CD-ROM of critical and creative texts, music and images, 20 to 40 minute radiophonic work for ABC; website/blog; articles for Resonate.

In terms of ideas that fit in with the above, I’m interested in:

composing music inspired by Bundanon – ideally this would go towards either a radio piece we were writing or a concert we were putting on - again this is something it would be best to know now, so that when I’m down there writing I am writing for the correct instrumentation

doing radio stuff on the bundanon homestead kitchen – the sounds that can be made there, the role of kitchens across the life of the building (ie how much the role of the kitchen has changed). We’ll need to organise access to the kitchen if this is something we decide to do.

Doing fictional creative writing inspired by Bundanon – but I haven’t worked in this discipline for a long time so I have a few reservations about it. Perhaps it is worth a shot.

I know I am going to have very, very limited time outside of Bundanon. So while I certainly am not aiming for a finished product in the 2 weeks (impossible!) I will be realistic and say that my ability to be part of a major project that takes up a large amount of time is pretty limited.

I’m more interested into a creative response to place and environment than a heavily researched theoretical ‘site specific’ approach – though this is influenced by the fact that I have found it difficult to find good writings about site specific artwork and most of what I have found is about artforms I’m not working in.
Dan wrote:

Serena: "I’m more interested into a creative response to place and environment than a heavily researched theoretical ‘site specific’ approach"

do you mean "place and environment" from a physical perspective? A physical environment? As opposed to "place and environment being a community of people or a more abstract idea. And what do you mean by a heavily researched theoretical approach?

I’d really like to have us all working on material for a set project or projects - ie I don’t see much point in me composing music for a string quartet if that music won’t get used in one of our collaborative projects. So that’s why I’d like to work out what we think we are working towards.

This is exactly what I'm not comfortable doing.

I won't be able to decide what we think we are working towards until we actually start working together. For me these kinds of decisions will evolve throughout the course of the two weeks

D

Serena wrote:

Re creative response:

I’m approaching the idea of “place and environment” merely as instigators of creativity and inspiration. So I don’t necessarily mean “place and environment” from a physical perspective” or from “community idea”. I just mean my ideas will be driven by being at Bundanon. The end work won’t necessarily reflect this particularly closely but it will be what is inspiring me.

For example the four musical compositions I wrote for Illawarra Sea Stories are written to reflect 4 different beach places. I suppose that would be a ‘response to a physical environment’ but it was also driven by my knowledge of each place (which contains more than just the physical).

BEN – you know 4 works I’m talking about. Can you add an explanation?

Re “heavily researched”

A more ‘heavily researched theoretical approach’ – would require reading and research. I think that’s interesting but I’m probably more inclined just to go for an unresearched creative response (purely due to time constraints – my primary interest being in creating art work, not in doing research).

Re working on material:

In terms of you not wanting to agree before the project what it is we will be working on – I’m fine with that given that we’ve all tried pretty hard to work this one through and haven’t reached an agreement. I have a preference for doing it the other way, but if you don’t want to go down that path I’m happy to accommodate that.

Does that clarify?

Dan wrote:

yep, that all makes perfect sense! cool cool!!

Serena wrote:

Ace!

Ben wrote:

I'll try on the 4 works explanation...

What I think Serena means is that you don't listen to the pieces and necessarily go "hey, that sounds just like Kiama in winter, or Bulli in summer", or "that's a sea serpent", yet it's in there - it's about a starting point and a framework, a kernel of truth from which the works sprout and beyond which pretty much anything can happen.

These places and times are carried in there in the way it seems S wants Bundanon to be 'in there', they are a product of and interaction with a 'place and environment' that is both sensory and more, that is the visible and the hidden. It's the social and the natural, but also the ephemeral. Beyond that, it's the vibe/spirit/call it what you will. So it's not just "here's the sound of a wave/ a tree in the wind being (re)produced", but "here's the feeling you get from these things, in this place, at this fleeting moment".

I think I made this point at Blackheath, but I believe our different needs/preferences partly reflect our approach to art, but also the forms in which we are working.

Photography is very much site-based, although I'm planning on messing around with that more than I usually do. It's often responsive, and steered by the moment.

Words are fairly malleable, so writing can spring out of the blue and needs only rely upon itself to make a certain amount of sense, which can then change according to contexts. This is simplistic, but more true I think than for music, where the language is dependent on performance, which has a form and a time and a location that's not as flexible.

Although I don't compose music, my understanding is that it relies to an extent on a 'framework' of sorts, an understanding of what instrumentation it's for, which will depend on:

a) inspiration and sounds that emerge in one's head, and the translation of this into a tangible form, but also

b) practicalities - who is going to play this? how will it be heard?

Writing and photography has its own central form to begin with, which can then mutate into various directions. Music seems to need to start further down the track and need more of a guiding principal.

It's in these differences and crossing-points that friction can occur, but don't forget that friction is the point at which sparks occur.

meanwhile.... Rhi asked in her email:

"If everyone is still keen, should the last emails from Dan, Julian, Ben and me all go up [on the blog]?"

I think this would be a good idea, and I'd also be interested in Dan posting those Real Time links she emailed us yesterday, as I think there's some crucial points in them quite central to our projects worth some comments.

Bxx

Serena wrote:

Well put Ben – I think you’ve mastered the words thing better than I and were able to add some helpful stuff in.

Dan wrote:

some of my photography is probably a good example of this ben. It's very abstract and texturally-based but often contains the essence of a place hidden in there somewhere...

yeah, I guess all this conversation should all go on the blog... it's far less daunting in an email though... less eyes on it.... if I get a burst of energy on the weekend I'll post them up...

D
Serena wrote:

My computer wouldn’t let me open this … maybe you can bring it to Bundanon. I’m interested in looking at photos and then trying to ‘translate’ those into music/sound or composition (and no, I’m not getting into the whole composer/creative artist/sound artist debate, let’s not go there).

Ben wrote:

you should be able to see it here Serena, through the magic of the interwebs...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/daniellecarey/2178047262

Serena wrote:

Oohhh. Lovely. Great movement Dan.

Honing in

2008-04-03T11:37:00.004+11:00

I found Rhi's post makes some quite useful points, and in putting together a response realised this might make more sense as a spin-off post than a comment.

I'm definitely finding 'too many ideas' more of an issue than too few. I guess that's a luxury that beats the alternative! I have a fairly strong impression of Bundanon in my mind, based on previous visits, so find a lot of my ideas are slotting into place in regards to specific things that may or may not work in different areas there.

When considering photographic/film opportunities, my thinking is more along spatial and reflective/responsive lines than historical, yet when I think of text it's the converse - it's more about exploring the time layer and being drawn to a 'yet-known' past, yet very much set in a particular space.

I've been reading a bit about Arthur and the Boyds, but not yet much about their time at Bundanon. I've been doing some 'practice' writing I suppose you might call it, but it's based more on Arthur's paintings than his life or Bundanon and surrounds.

'Based on' isn't very accurate mind you - it's more of a 'response' that touches on some of the themes and images (Greek mythology etc), but then takes on a life of its own. So while I could trace it back to what might have prompted a certain part or idea, it's probably not very obvious that they have any necessary co-relation. Some are closer than others, and some or so tangental as to bear little resemblance whatsoever - even to me by the time they're done.

I know we talked about a preference for a collaborative piece rather than a bundle, but the more I think about how it will work (the project, and the two weeks), the more I imagine it will be a mix. I've been spending the last few weeks and weekends devoting more time to creative work, and realising that creative fatigue can set in pretty quickly if I don't move from one form to another (eg after writing for a while, going and taking some photos to rest the writing mind).

I suspect similar things will happen over the two weeks, and that we will move between a central project and some parallel pieces to break things up. These pieces would still, potentially, fit into the 'umbrella' but also take some of the pressure off the joint work. Is this sort of approach what people are seeing working?

Rhi's concept of 'Distortion' is perfect. It fits really well with a lot of what we have talked about, and ties together that crucial third category of 'perspectives' in a way 'interventions' and 'fabrications' didn't quite.

Perspectives are very important to what we're all interested in, but until now seemed to have stood a little to one side. Distortion brings it in beautifully, and opens up a few more doors for my thinking about certain potential inclusions in the project - especially the visual aspects, but also in terms of writing.

The point about the difficulty of working with histories is definitely worth discussing. We're all under certain constraints (time, work, geographic) that mean a too-thorough understanding of the histories of Bundanon and its surrounds would come at the expense of actually creating any of our own.

What interests me more, anyway, is the imagined histories. Despite being fairly well maintained and set up, and a wealth of primary materials being theoretically available, most visitors to Bundanon only get a gloss of its history. They each carry around their own mix of snippets, the rest they fill in; imagining what life there was like, looking around to see whether they can sense the inspiration in the air.

Personally I think that's what we should also be working with - such snippets and snatches, given we can never hope to get across a 'complete' story anyway. And that's far from our purpose as I understand it. I see Bundanon and her history as a Pulpit Rock style leaping point, not a marsh for getting bogged down in. There is something in the air down there, and I want to spend time with that, not just tracing what somebody else did with it.

In terms of deciding 'which aspects of these ideas we'd most like to explore', I suspect they will all cross over at various points. We're still kind of dancing around our project it seems, rather than getting our teeth truly into it, but I wonder how much of that will chance in the next three weeks? I'm happy to nut down further if people are up for it and this blog is perhaps the best place for that.

Rhi feels we need to decide on what we are aiming to produce with a contingency plan if it doesn't work as planned. She mentioned agreeing on an expected outcome before we go away, else risk disaster. These seem good ideas, though I sense a little trepidation on people's behalf in this approach.

I'd like to hear what everyone thinks, but will go first. I'm still very much interested in exploring the potential for a site-specific work, but also remain aware that's one of the most logistically difficult. I think we could produce quite a strong project based on our two weeks there and subsequent work, but there will always be the matter of the location's remoteness. We've discussed tying it in with another event (eg FlameTree if it returns in 2008) but it does suggest we should consider opportunities beyond the location. I'd also like to talk more about the potential 'bundle' of works we could bring together if the site-specific aspect proves unworkable, so we can go into the fortnight with a pretty strong idea of what we are working on ourselves, but also what everyone else hopes to achieve.

- Benjamin

After Dan's arrival

2008-03-25T18:56:00.003+11:00

Before our meeting in the Rocks I'd been doing a bit of thinking about the project (those long car trips from Canberra do have some upsides...)

I don't think our problem is going to be getting stuck for ideas, I think we are more likely to have too many ideas. So I tried categorising some of the ideas we've all had and seeing how they fit into an overall pattern - and the picture I came up with has the word DISTORTION in bold in the middle of the page. Around this, are three other main ideas that all relate to distortion, and all relate to one another (imagine lots of double-headed arrows). They are:

INTERVENTIONS
* Blurring the boundaries between what is real and what is fake in the environment

FABRICATIONS
* Blurring boundaries between what is real and fake in the history of the place and its surrounds

PERSPECTIVES
* Questioning what is real? Whose view is real/fake?
* Exploring the impact of seeing something at different times/from different angles/in different contexts

The line between each of these categories is blurry:
- Some people will see certain interventions, and this might alter their perspective
- All history is to some extent a fabrication - it depends on your perspective

Of course this a simplistic summary of some really major ideas that we have talked about. But I thought it might help us decide on which aspects of these ideas we'd most like to explore.

After talking about the project with her Mum, Dan has become a bit wary about the 'Histories' angle. Thoroughly researching and understanding the multiple histories of Bundanon and its surrounds would definitely take a lot of time and resources. If we did decide to go down this path we would need to really narrow the scope to something very specific so that we don't end up looking stupid, or perpetuating the tradition of overlooked and forgotten stories...

Which brings me to my final point. None of us want to end up producing something which is amateurish or undergraduate-ish. But we are (at least I think we are) proposing to explore a medium which is new to all of us - site-specific artwork. I would hope that we all have enough skill in our individual disciplines, and have developed enough artistic judgement that we would be able to recognise if what we were producing was naive or unprofessional. But I think we really need to therefore decide on what we are aiming to achieve in our two weeks (with contingency plans). If we don't agree on an expected outcome before we go away, methinks this may be a recipe for disaster... What do you all think?

Creative Brainstorming

2008-03-25T18:39:00.002+11:00

Two weeks ago now (time goes so quickly), Dan and Jules and I met up for lunch in The Rocks.

Since it was a Monday our brains hadn't quite kicked into gear, so while we were waiting for Dan, Jules and I did a few creative brainstorming exercises...

We picked 5 random words from the book Julian was reading and separately listed various aspects of that word. We then picked a few of these to talk about in more depth, discussing how it might relate to our project.

An example: WIND

Some of the aspects of wind are: it lowers the temperature, it makes you feel unsettle, it can make music, it can be used to generate power, it is spelt the same way as wind (wind it up). Ideas that flowed from this included ways in which you could try and make an audience feel unsettled - mist machines, lighting, music, viewing a work by flashlight...

Another example: HOUSEHOLD

Aspects: Big brother/Reality TV, fights, chores, division of labour, one person's dominance (hold), morning coffee, sharing.
Relates to the artwork: Different people have different roles in determining aspects of the artwork, we assign the audience to various groups depending on assumptions we make about their appearance (for example, one group might be given a tour of Bundanon from the owner's perspective, another group might hear stories from the cook's perspective etc).

Even if none of this is used, it was definitely a useful method for getting some creative juices flowing...

site-specifity in finland

2008-02-29T16:42:00.002+11:00

Here's an interesting article recently published by RealTime magazine about the antifestival in Finland last year.

- Dan

bloggity blog blog blog...

2008-02-29T16:16:00.001+11:00

Why blog? Is there really a point to writing about our creative work when we could just get on with creating it? At our workshop last weekend, we all seemed to agree that documentation is a crucial aspect of the lifecycle of an artwork. And much of our work in the arts community involves either the documentation of artworks (eg. ABC Classic FM and AMC) or documentation about artworks (eg. Arts reviewing, interviewing etc.): it’s something we’re all fascinated by. Documenting work means it can maintain a life after its completion. It also provides a potential resource for those interested in the creative process.

But blogging allows us to do much more than this. Joining the blogosphere – a complex web of thoughts, dialogue, and imagery – means that we can collaborate without the need to be physically together. This is essential given LBB artists are spread between Sydney, Canberra and the Blue Mountains. And I think more than anything it is simply an efficient means of gathering our material together in one place where the five of us can easily access it.

So it’s probably best to see our blog as a virtual scrapbook: a place to workshop ideas, share sources of inspiration, explore concepts and analyse theory.

And this scrapbook won’t be text-based. We plan to publish documentation about the project using sound, text and image (both stills and video).

Last Saturday afternoon some of us spent time exploring these ideas to make sure we were all on the same wavelength in terms of blogging, particularly because not all of us have blogged before. We identified five different kinds of entries and decided to use the following tags for categorising our materials:

admin: These entries relate to the logistics of our residency at Bundanon and administration of the website itself.

workshop: A large proportion of blogging will be devoted to documenting the actual materials of our creative work and our methodology. And with the blog being a place to store ‘sketches’ of our work, we can then provide feedback on each other’s material and ideas through discussion.

inspiration: links to other work – quotes/images/sound – that inspires our own work.

reflection: an examination of our motivation for participating in the project, exploring the ‘why’ of the project. Also, reflections on our progress with the project. How do we feel about the progress we’re making? Are our achievements successful? What is working? What isn’t?

theory: Material relating to the history and theory of site-specific installation and environmental art.

collaboration: approaches to the collaborative process

There’s a few other tags we decided to use as well to make sure the materials on our site are categorised logically and are easily accessible.

These include:
ben, dan, julian, rhi, serena (this means we can easily access material we’ve written ourselves)
sound, text, image (again, we can easily access material relating to one type of medium)

And the beauty of a folksonomy system of tagging means that material can exist in more than one category...of course, we’ll be adding more as we need to as well!

life between pixels i

2008-02-27T15:47:00.014+11:00

Blackheath, Blue Mountains, February 23-24, 2008

- Benjamin

(Fabric)ations

2008-02-26T09:29:00.005+11:00

In April and May this year, life between buildings will be setting up temporary home as artists in residence at ‘living arts centre’ Bundanon, perched over the Shoalhaven River on the NSW South Coast. Our time will be dedicated to unearthing the rich creative potential of the site, bequeathed to the Australian people by one of our most treasured artists, the late Arthur Boyd. Perhaps 'unearthing' isn't the clearest way of putting it, for the conversations we've had about our project have suggested that while it will be driven in many ways by our creative response to the environment and its past, our work will not necessarily 'reflect' the Bundanon that people may think they know.

Although it will be very much immersed in the natural and built environment of Bundanon, one of the main facets of this site-specific project we've talked about is the site's history. Now there’s a safe place to work - it’s happened, it’s there to be dug up; it’s straightforward documented fact. A cursory read of this and that and we’re set to roll. Except...

I’m much more comfortable with the notion of ‘histories’, and from preliminary conversations over the weekend retreat just held in Blackheath in the Blue Mountains, there’s a sense in the life between buildings camp that there’s a shared interest in exploring the endless potential opened up by this notion. Rhiannon's idea of 'interventions' snowballed into all sorts of ideas being thrown about - some achievable, some likely to fall by the wayside - of how the different histories could be brought to life.

In our art as in our life, it seems we are all endeavouring to open up new possibilities, to rethink ways of seeing and creating. The challenges we set ourselves involve contesting received logics, narratives, histories; spoon-fed stories of easily digestible and non-contradictory factlets. That’s not to say we don’t all love our snippets and stories, the process of learning and understanding, it’s more to do with the grain of salt we each tend to carry in our pockets everywhere we go.

Our first major project together, a site-specific creative response based on Bundanon and its multi-layered recent past (working homestead, Boyd family residence, bequeathed arts retreat), is an opportunity to see where this approach can take us. Initial instincts may be to take the spoonfeeding, to respond in a way that seamlessly incorporates the ‘known’ Bundanon, but far more exciting is the potential for intervening on behalf of the overlooked, the unremembered, the never allowed.

A shorthand term for our approach to exploring such mythologies might be ‘fabrications'. The notion of place and history is so loaded, where is one to begin? The fabric of history will become, in our project, a fabricated history. By blurring the boundaries of the known and the unknown, the likely and unlikely - the possible and impossible – it’s likely to pose as many questions as it does answers. But therein lies the appeal, for we’re each interested in opening up rather than closing off, inviting rather than imposing - asking rather than telling.

Along the way, the very notion of creativity is likely to be brought into question. Does one create something if simply trading upon a pre-packaged past? Or does there need to more, an intervention into that past, an insertion of a new ‘something’ that might owe its taste or texture or sense to a past, but be equally indebted to the now, to a spontaneous eruption of a creative spirit that can’t be contained within the parameters of the pre-existing, ‘known’ past to which it might refer.

By fabricating, our intention is not to somehow elevate the reimagining over any existing, dominant narrative. Its purpose is to highlight the tenuous relation a story has in the first place to a transient ‘truth’. It’s a way to get inside the mythology built around a location such as Bundanon, peer beneath the mysterious aura of a site that played such an important role in the later life of one of our most venerated artists.

Our discussions about what was drawing us to the project, what possible means we may have of providing a meaningful site specific study of Bundaon, kept slipping into questions of time’s inexorable passage; the steady march of the future advancing on the present and outflanking the past, such that the mutability of time rendered impossible the notion of capturing forever an essence or truth claim that could somehow exist as an artefact outside of time/space/place.

Faced with such a slippery substance, the options were to pretend it wasn’t an issue, taking the usual path and pushing such concerns to one side, or to tackle them head on and try to beat them at their own game.

This very concept of contested histories, clashing perspectives and the erosion of a truth when seen through the prism of time, were in ample evidence over our weekend brainstorming session. By Sunday, the interpretations of what had taken place and been agreed upon the day prior were as colourfully varied as they were hotly debated. There were five recollections each struggling to be heard, but coming up against disparate and contradictory ‘histories’ of the day. It was exhausting and not exactly easy, but at the very least such friction illustrated everything we had been discussing.

In the same way, the parallel stories and histories we intend to develop through our Bundanon project are likely to slip in and out of safe ground, to allow some footholds while asking for the occasional leap of faith. Suspension of disbelief is, perhaps, the first step towards learning. Our aim is to lead participants on just such a learning experience into the unknown, albeit one in which we firmly recommend the odd grain of salt be brought for the ride.

-Benjamin

2008-02-25T20:23:00.005+11:00

The long drive up to Blackheath gave me an opportunity to think about ideas for our project. And one of the thoughts I thunk was to do with blurring the boundaries between reality and art.

As an audience member, I thought it would be interesting to be walking in the native environment surrounding Bundanon, and to see a bug sitting on a rock, and need to do a double take in order to work out if it was real or fake. Or to see a canvas stuck to a tree, and not be sure where one ended and the other began – part of the canvas could imitate the texture and colours of the tree while the other part was imagined – a fantastical creature leaning against the trunk. Or to be walking past a fence and be momentarily confused about whether what you saw was a missing paling, or a photo of what was on the other side.

According to Julian, this approach has a label – ‘interventions’.

Perhaps these 'interventions' could become more and more fantastical as the artwork progressed.

I get nervous explaining my ideas to the group because what sounds great in my head is sometimes a lot less convincing when it comes out in words.

But thankfully this idea spurred some enthusiasm. Some of the ideas that grew out of our discussion included the exploration of place and how it changes over time. Maybe one of our ‘interventions’ could be a TV screen set in a particular environment, and events on the TV screen – changes caused by wind, light, weather – could occur at a different speed from the more static surroundings.

Using interventions might also give us a vehicle in which we could explore the relationship between the natural and built environments. Where does one stop and the other begin? Could we exaggerate the overlap?

Thinking about our small scale interventions also prompted a conversation about the impact of larger-scale intrusions. The Shoalhaven River runs through Bundanon, and when it was dammed it apparently caused several species of fish to become extinct. Maybe our project could incorporate interventions on a range of different scales?

-Rhiannon

Approaches to collaboration\creativity

2008-02-25T17:56:00.004+11:00

During the weekend it became apparent that each of us had different ways of approaching the collaborative process and that our minds engaged with the creative process in different ways. The significance of this was that if affected how we worked through topics and the time that we had to devote to each subject.

For example, an agenda item for the weekend was to decide on a specific project. Personally, I find working on something much easier when I have a specific project in mind. I like to know what it is I’m exploring conceptually/theoretically and the medium through which I will express it. Others in the group didn’t want to commit to a specific project until they had collected all the material for the project and then ascertained the way they wanted to use it.

These differences in approach have meant we’ve had to compromise. Those of us that want the specific project identified have managed to get a general commitment from the others to the idea of working on an onsite installation at Bundanon: subject to the proviso that if the material we collect there isn’t conducive to this or if it turns out we’re not allowed to do what we want (eg for public liability reasons or because we can’t afford the equipment we require) then we’ll go ahead with a different specific project instead. We’re aiming to brainstorm more ideas for the onsite installation and in two or three weeks time to get in touch with Bundanon to check that we will be allowed to put on the types of onsite installations we have in mind.

It remains to see whether this approach of ‘sort of but not quite committing yet to a specific project’ provides a workable compromise – but that’s part of this process – exploring what does and doesn’t work in the collaborative context. If it doesn’t work, then at least we will have learnt from the process.

Although we have all worked on various collaborative projects the collaborations have generally been much smaller – two artists working together. Bringing together five different artists to work collaboratively on the one project presents challenges that none of us have dealt with before.

One solution we raised to the challenge of the large size of our group was for the five of us to all work individually towards a collective outcome for project; ie to agree on one concept and then to take five different approaches to that concept. We all agreed this would be the quickest, easiest way to work. Julian explained that this was the approach he took with his collaborative project Compost. We all agreed that this approach didn’t capture what we wanted to achieve at Bundanon. In deciding to work together we all wanted the chance to work together on specific aspects of the work – to get another person’s input and ideas as the works evolved.

We also rejected the idea that all five of us will work together on absolutely everything. We have done quite a lot of work together in the early stages in an attempt to bring ourselves closer to a common understanding of what we want to achieve and in order to be ‘sparked’ or inspired by the others. We’ve brainstormed the theoretical basis of our proposal and some specific ideas for how we will achieve this. Having had these intensive periods of talking, which are to be supplemented by blog discussions, we don’t intend to take this collaborative approach all the way through each artwork. Instead we feel there will be some parts of the installation to which we all contribute, but for the most part we will break into smaller groups of two or three people working collaboratively on the specific aspects.

It has also been suggested that we select five sites at Bundanon for installations. Each person will have one site that they curate and will be responsible for getting the others involved with creating work for that site. Not everyone has to contribute to each site. Some techniques of working will be more time consuming that others, so where a technique or practice is more time consuming that person may find they only have time to contribute to a few of the sites.

We also discovered that conceptually we work quite differently. I grab onto the theory or idea very quickly and immediately want to drill down into the specific examples, to think about the application of the theory and how I will achieve it. I don’t like to spend too long talking about the high level concepts as I feel that’s a waste of time, I’d much rather be getting my hands dirty with writing a song or recording sound effects. Dan on the other hand liked to have the conceptual more firmly embedded in her mind. Rhiannon and I busily threw up ideas for specific tasks, such as creating interpretative signs, or writing a love song to conjure up romance and intrigue in the bushland grotto near the homestead. Dan felt she wasn’t contributing as much to specific ideas during this brainstorming and she was much happier spending more time discussing the high level ideas. On the second day Dan drew up a mud map of all the concepts we had discussed: authenticity, fabricated history, impermanence, etc. Having drawn up the mud map and discussed the concepts in more detail Dan was much happier to move along with the discussions – she told us that before doing that she had felt it was confusing and that she didn’t really understand what it was we were trying to achieve.

- Serena

organising this weekend

2008-02-20T13:05:00.006+11:00

Hi all,

Thanks for your beautifully eloquent blogs Dan and Ben!

This is just about my first ever blog entry, so I'm avoiding the eloquent and just going for organisational.

So, we're all meeting up this weekend to organise and create for Bundanon (our residency is on in 2 months' time!).

Friday night I'm guessing we're meeting at the pub. I'll be there from 7.30pm onwards. If anyone is going to be much later than 9.30pm perhaps it's better just to meet at the house instead of the pub?

Food is almost organised - Dan, do you require further shopping list suggestions or clarifications?

In terms of the weekend itself, I see a rough outline as follows (open to any suggestions of course!)

Friday night - all arrive at Blackheath and spend time catching up and sharing project ideas.

Saturday morning - people get up whenever they want, have breakkie and then spend the morning on their own creative stuff, inspired by being in Blackheath and by thoughts for the Bundanon residency.

Saturday lunch - all come together and share lunch.

Saturday afternoon - let's spend say 1-2 hours sharing the work/ideas that we generated during the morning. The remainder of the day I think should be spent planning a timetable for our time at Bundanon and agreeing on a central project.

Saturday dinner - Serena to cook. Julian is heading back to Sydney for work. The remaining 4 of us should do a creative activity. How about we all improvise songs/music on a theme (ie just to muck around and be creative).

Sunday morning - creative time.

Sunday afternoon - more planning (repeat of Saturday afternoon).

Later Sunday afternoon - all clean the house.

Sunday evening - head back home (possibly via dinner at Dan's house).

How does that fit with everyone?

- Serena

A life of its own

2008-02-11T10:32:00.001+11:00

Where does it come from? Or, as my inner sub-editor would insist I put it (would insist it be put?): from where does it come?

With photography, it seems at times to be a simple matter of ‘capturing a moment’, a scene, a pre-existing slice of life that is there to be witnessed, with the click of a shutter button all that’s required to transfer this graspable, definable, readily perceivable moment to film – or, increasingly, pixels. But of course in that instant a multitude of decisions are being made. For every shutter speed selected countless more are discarded. The edges of the selected scene are determined in part by the parameters of the lens, in part by the judgment as to where the ‘interest’ and 'story' begins and ceases to exist.

How many details are allowed to be brought in? Where will the focus be? What level of implied movement will be allowed, how much will the illusion of time passing be sutured to what is a medium that is necessarily timeless, frozen, terrifyingly still? Because a photograph is implication, a visual fragment redolent of so much more, a form of suggestion that awakens the absent senses to their possibilities, the sound and smell and taste that all existed in that moment.

Working with sound is almost the converse. From the very beginning we are blind. Or, more accurately, we must render ourselves blind to what we have the luxury of being able to see. Again, decisions must be made, certain aspects must be elevated over others. Working with voices, we need to understand that once these voices are recorded, removed from the circumstances and environment of their instantiation, all that is left is disembodied sound that will bear to varying degrees a resemblance to their uttering, but carrying no trace of the visual cues of social interaction.

With ‘found sound’, the exhilaration of the city or exhalation of the earth, there is always a question as to how much of that environment we are trying to evoke, or how much we are content for it to be divorced from its moment of production. On one hand it will depend upon our purposes, our intentions, yet on the other there is always this – regardless of what we may have in our own mind, the message or story we are trying to project, once we use it, release it back into the wild amidst all the other sounds, it will once again take on a life all of its very own.

With the act of writing, it appears even more is left to chance, whim or personal idiosyncrasy. From a seething multitude of words we pluck a random selection and string them into what is hopefully a coherent whole. Like side-show contortionists they twist and turn, toss and tumble, reflecting not a moment or reality, but the inner workings of an imagination run amok.

Yet on closer inspection, one wonders if that is indeed the case. These words are all being drawn from somewhere; they are being placed one after another not as random artefacts, but as known objects being used in a familiar fashion. To make any sense, we rely on certain patterns and concepts, a shared agreement on what is and is not acceptable, understandable. Of course all these rules can be broken, but one wonders if the same is not true of photography, sound, painting, drawing, sculpting, music.

I think it is and it isn’t; there are perhaps common points, cross-over moments, shared traits. But – rather more excitingly - each has its own strengths and weaknesses, each holds a power and a mystery that the others can but struggle to emulate, necessarily failing, falling, yet standing up, dusting themselves off again and jumping out once more into that unknown, where they will either briefly touch that which they seek, or fall into a beautiful mess while striving.

It is this mystery and the opportunity to create work that will take on an unpredictable life of its own that has drawn me to the life between buildings project, as well, of course, as the opportunity to work closely and creatively with Danielle, Rhiannon, Julian and Serena - special people whose own work and ideas and passions I have long admired. I can’t wait to see what happens as we bring all these aspects together, discovering what new spaces are created when all these voices and fragments and ideas collide, coalesce and combine.

- Benjamin

In the beginning...

2008-01-30T21:46:00.001+11:00

If we were to go back to the start – where this all began – we’d find two girls, a kayak and an idea. Throughout 2006, Rhi and I were training for a kayak endurance race. Many mornings were spent (before work) paddling on Sydney Harbour working our biceps while soaking up – from a comfortable distance – the early morning chaos of inner city working professionals. Being on the water also gave us a unique perspective of a lesser-known Sydney: homeless men fishing from the wharf with self-made fishing rods, riggers working on the wharf at Cockatoo Island, old mansions nestled along the shores of Lane Cove River…

The harbour, with its vibrancy, chaos and intricate buzz, gave us energy to keep powering forward. But it also fed our creativity. Although I suspect mostly it was simply the time our training afforded us to bounce ideas back and forth across the kayak. Either way, much inspiration was found during our long paddles. Many new ideas formed: a book to be written, a story to be told, a blog to form, a project to implement, an organisation to begin. How often did we suddenly realise our paddles were lying dormant across the kayak while we excitedly chattered about our latest creative endeavour!

One morning we were lamenting the lack of people we knew who were interested in talking about music – talking deeply about it, tearing it apart and dissecting its layers, exploring its darkest secrets… and so, after a bunch of emails were sent to friends, acquaintances and a few randoms, our Nerd Music Nights began!

At the initial Nerd Music Night we explored the music of Liza Lim, while drinking red wine and enjoying the vegan goodness Rhi and I enthusiastically cooked up for our new friends. And since then we’ve found ourselves emersed in many critical listening and focussed discussion nights, supporting the presentation of each others creative practices, enjoying vibrant colourful (and at times rather raucous!) dinner parties, adventuring in the wilderness of Australia and spending far too much time guzzling beer after gigs and concerts while arguing, bitching and ranting about all that is art…

Curiousity began to grow about our own creative practices: Were there crossover points in our personal approaches to creativity? What would it be like working together to create art? How could we work together? What would we create? Eventually another idea emerged…

…And so here we are…

Where will this new idea take us? Who knows! But it is with great excitement that we begin working creatively together and we invite you to follow our creative process through reading this blog. Stay tuned!

- Dan

The Artists Involved

2008-01-30T21:32:00.000+11:00

Serena Armstrong | composer/sound artist/musician
Serena Armstrong is a professionally trained composer and lawyer. She graduated from the University of Wollongong in 2002 with a Bachelor of Creative Arts (honours) and Bachelor of Law (honours). Serena majored in music composition and throughout her career she has worked collaboratively with visual artists, writers, journalists and actors.

Danielle Carey | writer/musician/visual artist
Danielle Carey is a musicologist, writer, musician and visual artist currently based in the Blue Mountains. A graduate from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, she writes for various national music publications and is editor of resonate - the Australian Music Centre's new web magazine. She self-publishes music reviews, interviews and other writing in her blog and is currently creating a series of mixed-media art works inspired by the township and natural setting of Blackheath in the Blue Mountains, NSW.

Rhiannon Cook | composer/writer/musician
Rhiannon Cook creates music, writes about it, and educates others about these processes. She has worked collaborated on numerous creative projects, has worked at the Australian Music Centre, and has taught music and composition in schools and at the Wollongong Conservatorium. She writes program notes for the Sydney Omega Ensemble and her articles have been published in most of Australia's print and online music magazines.

Julian Day | composer/writer/radio presenter
Julian Day is a composer and arts presenter based in Sydney. A former winner of The Australian Voices Young Composer of the Year Award, Julian studied composition with Gerard Brophy at the Queensland Conservatorium and with Louis Andriessen, Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe at the 2003 Bang On A Can Summer Institute of Music in Massachusetts, USA. From 1997 he co-directed COMPOST, a group of emerging composers that presented large-scale music events around the country. He has also worked extensively in sound, installation and performance art, presenting work at the Queensland Art Gallery, the Brisbane Powerhouse, the Arts Theatre in Canberra and RMIT in Melbourne. Julian also maintains a successful career as a radio broadcaster and writer. Since 2001 he has presented for ABC Classic FM, hosting the award-winning New Music Australia and New Music Up Late. In this role he has interviewed many of the world's best-known composers, including Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Terry Riley, Pauline Oliveros, Laurie Anderson and Gavin Bryars.

Benjamin Millar | photographer/writer/sound artist
Benjamin Millar is a Sydney-based journalist, writer and photographer. He works as a journalist and editor for a stable of community newspapers, produces experimental sound pieces and has written extensively on music, arts and entertainment for a range of on-line and print publications. He keeps a blog of his creative writing and music reviews as well as his photography. He is currently working on a radio play and a novel.

About Life Between Buildings

2008-01-30T21:27:00.001+11:00

life between buildings is a group blog documenting the creative process of a collaborative project between five Australian creative artists working in various disciplines – sound/music, visual arts and writing.

Our collaboration involves the creation of site-specific art work. Our first project centres around a two-week artists’ residency in April/May 2008 at Bundanon, a rural property on the Shoalhaven River where Arthur Boyd lived and worked.

The name of our project is derived from Danish architect Jan Gehl’s classic treatise on the interplay between public space and social life. Central to Gehl’s practice is the consideration of design from a social point of view; his designs focus on people and how they interact within a particular space. By emphasising the relationship between people and the built environment, Gehl’s designs become a means to an end rather than an end in themselves. This resonates strongly with our interest in collaborative practice, exploring concepts of place and environment, and our ideas about site-specific art.

Follow this link to find out more about who we are and this one to read about how it all began.