TRAVEL DIARY

A weblog regularly updated by Jodi Rose.

VIEWING ALL POSTS FOR: MARCH 2002

Monday, March 25, 2002

4:38 PM
Posted by jodi rose

Very refreshed from sleepover in cheltenham with the luscious ricardo. He's doing amazing things with the garden, had fabulous japanese food at yamato and slept in until 11. It's all much easier to cope with now, I can only get done what is humanly possible before I leave in one week. Sometimes forget that and call on superhuman powers, but they inevitably wear out some other vital energy source, fade away or snap at a crucial moment. Richard pointed out that I am dealing with the physical stuff of my life again, that's why I feel so dragged down and grounded. Have to go into storage tomorrow and wed and sort through all that junk in life, find a home for the few precious things I need to keep - bed, stereo, bicycle, bookshelf - and give the rest away to friends or the brotherhood. Makes my neck ache thinking about it. At least even if I do come back in 2 months, will have a totally minimalist attitude!
Excellent meeting with my supervisor, Peter today. It's so cool to be able to go in having done some actual work. Looking forward to making the practical aspects of recording and editing sound, having a physical object - as much as sound can be physical - to play with. I think it will give me a new perspective on the theoretical aspects of the project. Peter was all for writing simply and clearly, which is great as I become very nervous about the hyper academic discourse that masters degree seems to require. As long as I can communicate sophisticated concepts and ideas in a clear and accessible manner, that will satisfy the university. It's good to make sense in general, read way too much deliberately obscure and obtuse theory in art school, the effects of which still haven't entirely worn off.
Keep thinking of more proposals to send out - kk sound for their rockin' piano mike system, with 3 piezo mikes that pick up low, mid and high range frequencies, STA travel for travel grant fund. Soundbug - very cool UK device that makes any surface into a speaker - imagine, turning the entire bridge into a speaker. How exciting. Wonder if the feedback would hit the resonant frequency and collapse it?
Going to SIGGRAPH down under event tomorrow night, hopefully meet some interesting people and network. Work that room baby!

Friday, March 22, 2002

2:05 PM
Posted by jodi rose

A bit blurry round the edges. In Melbourne now, feeling dislocated but totally at home simultaneously. It's great being able to just drop by and have lunch with friends, Karen at VCA on Wed, Kim at Blue Train yesterday, Haydie at baby Brunetti today. Still have heaps of work to do, trying to manage my anxiety level with yoga and just doing whatever I can from the many lists of stuff to do. Wandering around campus at Melb Uni is lovely as always, the trees and old stone buildings meld into a nostalgic atmosphere.
Picked up my crumpler bags, they're excellent. Bright blue stripes on the small one and big padded pockets in the old banger for equipment. Time to follow up with tascam and sony, still haven't heard from them.
Learning to be very patient, and trust through this process. Sounding like a new age therapy victim. Oh well, it can't be helped. I want things to happen now, instantly and it's hard to believe that they ever will when I have to wait. If I was a princess before, I have become an uber-princess in the last few weeks. Leaving town endless goodbye treats, ma and julaine especially kept taking me out, dinner, breakfast, drinks, movies. It was a festival of lusciousness. And being in Melbourne for only 2 weeks it's new and exciting to see everyone again. Matt and I drank Campari at Lady Luck the day after I got here, he made me delicious fresh pasta for dinner and then it was so cold, I'm not acclimatising very well to this sudden autumn chill, had to borrow a very funky warm jacket. Red and black retro sports number, not sure I can give it back.
Going to do a test recording on the Westgate Bridge with the schaller oyster mike I picked up in Sydney. Recommended by one of the sound engineers at ABC radio, who all walked past John Jacob's door as he was talking to me, when I called for his advice and gave me lots of tips. Very useful!
The computer is making my head spin now, have to try and cancel leave of absence early so I can borrow from the music library, apply for some funding and sort through the scary multiplying bags of stuff. I'm meant to be eliminating things, not accumulating more.

Thursday, March 07, 2002

11:47 AM
Posted by jodi rose

Woke up this morning to a cacophony of Kookaburras outside my window. They were delighting in creating amazing polyrhythmic counterpoint, in complex patterns. All fell silent as I stuck my head up out of the skylight. A half dozen big fluffy birds sat lined up on the street lamp looking nonchalant. "No Ma'am, wasn't us makin' all that racket", they seemed to be saying. Wished I had a tape recorder beside the bed, along with the notebook I always have to catch those fleeting moments of lucidity just before going to sleep and on first waking.
Everything seems to be happening again, about to book flights almost fainted when I got the quote for the ticket. Maybe I should cut down on a few countries. Then it's not nearly as exciting and trans-global, I may just have to work in a Finnish Fish factory for a while.
Still wrestling with the concept page, the lovely Ben downstairs read it for me and told me what made absolutely no sense and where it needed to be cut and expanded.
What would I do without this place and these people? It's so incredible being able to walk down the hill to the ocean every evening, go for a swim, see how the tide's going, watch the sunset.
The other day when the moon was full, swimming in the pool at high tide was scary. The ocean was swollen to the same level as the water in the pool, so the waves were breaking right onto the wall and sending huge volumes of water smashing into the rock face at the back. The spray was up to 20 feet high, the waves throw you around in a 2 metre swell in the confined waters creating multi cross currents - quite hard work. One European looking man, very white skin with thinning black hair and a moustache, kept swimming laps on the ocean side of the pool. Every time a wave would crash over him and throw him offcourse, he'd look around in astonishment. The funny thing was it happened every few minutes, and he was equally surprised every time.
The water has subsided a lot since, and sea level is back down around the bottom of the steps outside the pool. That's my natural history rant for the day - effect of the moons pull on the tide. Being a Cancerian, I also feel this quite strongly.
The web-site is almost finished, a few bits and pieces to write and edit. I'm amazed by how all this disparate work becomes a whole entity in the space of a web-site. Mind you Jonathon is a legend, and has done wonders with making the design look effortless and minimal.
Spoke with the delightful Roz Cheney and she is happy to be playing the cables in the picture on about page, and John Jacobs who recorded the original piece gave me some excellent advice about contact microphones.
Time to logoff and go to the dentist. Ah joy. Better look after those teeth now than have excruciating pain in the Mekong Delta or wherever I am.

Friday, March 01, 2002

11:14 PM
Posted by jodi rose

Inspired again. Just talking with my lovely friend Ben who lives downstairs, wandered in to have a cup of tea with him. Discussing ideas for musical composition, experimental - he told me about a song he wrote for his newborn nephew, using the letters in a sentence to translate into notes. The piece sounded beautiful - a strange, otherworldly music from space. He didn't believe at first that it was a valid way to create music, thought he was 'cheating' somehow. We can modify that system and choose a piece of poetry about each bridge, or some local writing relating to it, to base the system on. This could be for rhythmic structure, duration, kind of striking the cables, anything. Very exciting. I'm going into the Conservatorium of Music library to look at experimental notation for rythym, and playing strings.
For the actual notes to be played onto the cables themselves, isolate the curves, parabolas of the bridge structure and superimpose them back onto the bridge. Finding the natural scale of the bridge itself. Find the parabolas used in construction, the golden mean, the natural physics of the structure. Also the actual resonant frequency, what is it, are there any recordings of it? - Cool found a bridge in Helsinki which according to the website has a frequency of 1.3hz.