TRAVEL DIARY

A weblog regularly updated by Jodi Rose.

  

VIEWING ALL POSTS FOR: NOVEMBER 2002

Monday, November 25, 2002

11:26 AM
Posted by jodi rose

melbourne uni
yes it's been a while, working hard to prepare my talk and then fell in a hole for a week - a bit run-down, slightly flu-ey and melancholic. Back with a spring in my step now, had lots of positive feedback and interest with people from various backgrounds at my talk, one guy who was a bridge fanatic, and the very fabulous Ros Bandt who said "I've been looking for you for 5 years!!" She has just published a book on sound sculpture and I'm in it - with the earliest incarnation of the bridge project in sydney. very cool and lots more to come I hope.

Anyway, climbing back out of the hole (.....what was I thinking, this is a grandiose delusion, I should have been doing small projects and building up a solid base with exhibitions and peformances over the years, 'paying my dues') then had a great chat with Justin last night - one of the finest philosophical minds of our time!
He said 'NO! Don't give way on your desire" (which is, according to Lacanian ethics of psychoanalysis the only moral imperative - we've had this conversation before!) and told me that Thomas, who was also at my talk said the sheer ambition and scale of the project is one of its defining characteristics. Which is good to be reminded of, as I need to start focusing on what makes it unique, and work with that more and more.
Not sure about the 'language' thing, I think it came out of imagining that the bridge is speaking through the cables, but that doesn't necessarily mean it has to be speaking a language - it can be pre-post or anti linguistic, the important thing is the vibrations connecting around the world to invoke a dissolving. And of course dissolution is in itself a project of transcendence, not necessarily religious, but dissolving this world into something of another realm, who knows what, light, energy, sound? So that's what I need to focus on, and the acoustics and history and mythology of aeolian instruments, which are generally 'speaking' through the wind. But it is not the wind that speaks.
Anyway, enough of these theoretical concerns, time to get it together and play with sounds, and go out and become the art-super-star that I am. Get out from under that bushel, girl! Stop giving myself a hard time about being financially challenged, it actually is fine right now, somehow seem to be keeping the ends from fraying and our great government in its infinite wisdom may see fit to start paying me soon.
Had drinks with richard and sharon and john and kim last night at monties bar up the road - yes, a bit dodgy, but on sultry evening, anywhere is good as long as it's outside - Kim's trying to convince me to go with her to pump class on wednesday, hmmm maybe, need to remember not to spend too much time alone and get all maudlin and discouraged. Soak up energy with other people and just keep moving.

Friday, November 15, 2002

1:19 PM
Posted by jodi rose

anywhere or nowhere
Hmmm. Can't quite remember who I am or what I'm doing. Something about sound.... and bridges.....? strange.
Looks like this will be a philosophical musing today, preparing for my talk on monday at melbourne uni - if you're in town email and I'll send you the details - reading susan sontag on the aesthetics of silence and wondering is a retreat into silence the only possible move for an exhausted art genius?? Not the silence of absence or mute indifference, but a silence rich with possibilities, a silence full of sound - a cagean silence in fact - a silence that allows space and depth in language. Yes I know it's all that wittgenstein and derrida going to my head!
Struggling to find a place in the mundanity of everyday life, retracing paths along once familiar streets, all too quickly fall into the habit of taking the same routes each time, partly I relish this repetitive occuring, after the last 6 months of change and new places it is reassuring to find myself back inside the map in my head, but it also makes me sad. I miss the sense of adventure, of heightened awareness, of constantly renegotiating my place, identity, reorienting my self. I miss being the new girl in town, and carrying with me that aura of far away places, I miss the easy camraderie of the road, being around people who are not fixed, but always mobile, floating above the concerns of 'ordinary' life, I miss being able to defer all my anxiety and commonsense to a time when I return 'home'. And I miss the insouciant confidence of american and european cultural centres, where movements are born and spread, any day you could find yourself in the midst of an auspicious significant moment, while here in aus 'we' always seem to be chasing after someone else, trying to catch up with what's going on elsewhere, following where 'it's' happening, discounting our own unique inventive creative hatchlings and cultural validity. Or is that just my lack of confidence revealing itself - no I think it may be a genuine reflection of a social personality and time.
I never seem to catch up even with myself, the lists of tasks to achieve, people to stay in touch with, exhibitions to propose, sponsors to contact, books to read - it's no picnic being a slightly grounded nomadic sound artist, I can tell you!

Monday, November 11, 2002

2:53 PM
Posted by jodi rose

Point Lonsdale
cargo tankers, ships come and go. low tide this morning watching a row of jets of spray from a row of tiny blowholes in the rocks. insanely blue sky and aquamarine ocean, white caps on the waves in the strait, through the redwood pillars of the pier.
back to the city today
more later

Thursday, November 07, 2002

1:20 PM
Posted by jodi rose

by the way, anyone who thought this journal rambling bricolage st(r)eam of consciousness thingy was all going to stop when I returned 'home' - nein nein nein!

es ist eine fahrt ohne Ende

it is a journey without end!!!

besides so many of my international readership are now scattered all over the globe, everyone being in one place is no longer a possibility.

Thursday, November 07, 2002

1:11 PM
Posted by jodi rose

post-grad computer lab
yes back in the dark airless confines of the tiny cupboard that passes as the post grad technological facility, with two old grey beasts, a scanner, printer and cd burner - ah the joys of media art! Slowly making my way through the list of conferences in honolulu, exhibitions in melbourne and ephemera everywhere, yet to hook the minidisk with the digi-design sound program in the lab upstairs, maybe next week. Made a motivational date with Robbie next week, for him to listen to what I've done so far, and tell me what works and what doesn't.

Also fumbling with the logistics of collecting my stuff - really missing my queen size, sleigh back, dark wood princess bed with masses of cushions and vivid geometric op art patterns, but just can't seem to deal with arranging to actually pick it up. Removal challenged - think it's an unconscious disinclination to admit that I am actually back in the one place for a while, and having to deal with the realities of life again. Miss that floating, dreamy totally open to the world headspace where i can just keep moving, meeting people, transforming. Of course, theoretically this is all possible here at home, keeping those horizons fluid, staying curious and excited -maybe it takes a different perspective. Time to experiment with mood altering technique, I'll let you know how it goes. Picking up my bicycle when I catch up with georgia tomorrow - yay! that'll make me feel (and be) more mobile, the wind rushing past, cruising downhill through the park sprinklers at night - life doesn't get any better! Was over meeting new people for a minute, but then melbourne is full of cool folks I don't know yet, and lots happening with music, cafe 'good morning captain' up on johnson st has bands, film and poetry (eeek!), the rob roy apparently installed a great new sound system, going to see lachie's band play there on friday, there's lots going on, it's just finding the energy to do any of it.

Today's update is brought to you by the letters A and G and the number 16,453,298, 543,776.1142004, the colour beige and the word discombobulated.

Now go play in the fabulous glowlab where the 'unreliable networks' event images are available - you may remember that some bridges were heard that night (even though I didn't make it to remote lounge on bowery), follow the trails of social fictions generative pychogeographical experiments, check out christina's work http://www.glowlab.com/ray.html - lots of gorgeous nomadic whimsy, interactive poetry, free flea market, and pictures all too familiar from the window of airplanes.... and also mention of yours truly! http://www.glowlab.com

Latest news from radek, one of my art spies in new york, who tells me that 'compulsive pluralism' is the art movement of the moment, and directed me to the work of bob and roberta smith at pierogi, encouraging the end of bad art. I sent them a link to my anti-art certificate (on the artist page if you haven't seen it yet) and swore that I promised not to make art anymore, although the propinquity of my previous cultural production is questionable. http://www.pierogi2000.com/current.html

Monday, November 04, 2002

2:43 PM
Posted by jodi rose

room 303 SCA, Melbourne
Oh yes really hitting the ground now. Life was so glamorous for a minute there. Coming down from the high of arriving home to find that I'm still exactly the same person, no less zaftig (well marginally but not enough to really start registering on the social acceptability scale), dramatically financially challenged, with a heap of work to do for the project, finding paid work, and facing the logistics of collecting all my stuff back from its various resting places in sheds and under beds all over melbourne with no car and no drivers license. Being back at home now it's a little frustrating not having my own bed set up, and all those boxes, can't even remember what's in most of them but no doubt can't live without any of it another day! Decided that I really need the gold peugot 504 for sale at the end of my street, well maybe it will motivate me to get that license.
Point Lonsdale was gorgeous, life is so simple in the country, wake up, go for a walk on the beach, come back, read or write for a while, make lunch, maybe another walk to watch the ships passing out through the heads to Bass Strait, on the last night even saw the lighthouse start-up - very exciting. return to melbourne and full social whirl again, saturday heard jon rose concert in his 'bowing fences' (www.jonroseweb.com) exhibition at vic arts centre, he's been playing fence wires for 20 years now - imagine a concert with the bridges, fences and alan lamb who plays telegraph wires. Must be something in the water, that or the songlines dreaming, singing the landscape seeping through.
Saturday continued with day of the dead music at the melbourne festival closing night, hanging out in the warm evening on the steps with matt and sue and narra until texicali rose started playing - although matt said they took him straight back to mexico, it was too jangly for my still foggy head, so dropped in to Milla's birthday party in the laneway with richard and then home to bed.
Sunday rested up for "the crick" limited appearance one night only party at john and kims, featuring lots of old and new favourite people, delicious food, many mojitos, champagne and conversation, then reconvened at newotwn s.c this morning with rachel, maudie and crick for brunch and energising spirulina. Now a little dazed and dreamy still, but made it to uni for meeting with peter to discuss the next steps in my academic career. Excited about playing with the sound, writing and making collages - life is way too busy all of a sudden.