TRAVEL DIARY

A weblog regularly updated by Jodi Rose.

  

VIEWING ALL POSTS FOR: JANUARY 2005

Monday, January 31, 2005

2:06 PM
Posted by jodi rose

SINGING BRIDGES VIBRATIONS : VARIATIONS

CD RELEASE 14th FEB 2005

Melbourne CD Launch @ Loop 23 Meyers Place
Wednesday 9th Feb 8pm
Launched by Dr Ros Bandt, Director The Australian Sound Design Project

Sydney Launch Lanfranchis Memorial Discotheque
Level 2/144 Cleveland St, Chippendale
Thursday 17th Feb (TBC)

CD Featured on the following Radio Programs

http://www.realambient.de
RADIO LINK

Cologne WDR 3
Broadcast 5th February 05
23:30 - 0:00

Real Ambient with
Michael Rüsenberg

http://www.resonancefm.com
http://www.furthernoise.org

Furthernoise Radio
Resonance 104.4 FM

Thursday 10th February
7- 8.30pm GMT

Furthernoise will be airing a host of new cross genre experimental music and art noise on Resonance FM. Jodi Rose chats to Roger Mills about the harmony of Bridges and the launch of her Singing Bridges CD and we feature a net jam in Visitors Studio featuring sound artists mixing live from locations around the globe.

Monday, January 31, 2005

2:05 PM
Posted by jodi rose

It's an interesting life this week. Deadlines on 4 major projects today - ok with 2, way behind on 1 and almost there with the 4th. Really need to clone myself. Or find an enthusiastic bright young assistant... but even that wouldn't really help.

The CD is almost out on the street - ready to be picked up or stepped on, depending.

I've had virtually no feedback on it, which is strangely OK. I reached a point where I'm actually happy with all the choices made along the line, and even though there were some things I could have changed, especially on the compositions CD - I decided not to. Leaving them as relics of where I was at that time, and experiments in working with the sounds in different ways. It's really pointless trying to make something that is essentially a document of a 10 year (on-and-off) journey into one stylistically coherent, smooth polished audio object.
Although I think it does have a consistency of it's own, and really at this point it's not worth worrying about. Moments of doubt mainly about there being too much wacky panning - but when I listened to a few tracks while selecting the samples for bridge tones (bridge ring tones - they will be available for download to your mobile phone at the CD launch!) the panning sounded quite natural. I mean, c'mon, it's a bridge, stuff travels across it, from one side to another. :)

Roger Mills said good things about it in his email - having a phone interview with him on wednesday for show on resonance fm - more info above. He praised the mastering on the field recording compositions - not sure wether to tell him we actually didn't master them at all. See, maybe it was the panning! And importing them into another computer, spacing them at 2 seconds each then re-burning. Ah transparency, I can't really keep anything secret. Especially not when stepping into the limelight.... here goes!!

Saturday, January 29, 2005

11:12 AM
Posted by jodi rose

Seem to have switched over into infinitely replenishable energy source. Decided to stop complaining to myself about how much work I had to do, and just get working on it. Much better attitude, and somehow managed to get focused so I can do some work on one project, then switch over to another, shimmy across a third - chipping away at them all. Day by day by day. And nights.
Very energised by getting out and about in the world again. Didn't realise how bored I was by my own company and just being so overwhelmed by creative work and admin all the time.

Went out on Thursday night to 'The Butterfly Effect' opening at the australian museum - Joyce invited us along the other night, then didn't see her there. Did hang out in the skeleton room, which is totally fabulous, and really enjoyed wandering around the museum with Kate after a few champagnes, trying to find the art amongst the exhibits. The curator had to install orange dots because apparently visitors were unable to distinguish the two - which I think is very successful. All the works responded to different exhibits - the tiny model workers digging out crystals in the gemstone/mineral/rocks room were my favourite - looked like lots of fun to install - miniature trucks, and security guards around the perimeter of the 'quarry'. Louise Weaver's crochet works also really gorgeous, they appeared in the cabinets on exactly the same scale as the other birds, first with the owls in a lovely orange knit, later a skunk and some rocks under some blackbirds. Also Nigel Heyler piece in the marine areas was joyous - suspended digital theremins in the shape of perspex jellyfish/squid, you changed the sounds by waving your arms around under them - although not with anything like the virtuosity of Clara Rockmore [the famous classical theremin player].
Came back to ABC after that and worked very productively until 10pm.

Friday went along to Dual Plover gig at the Marquee, some of the strangest performances I've seen in a while. Dr Z with his ventriloquist from the vampire planet was... pretty strange, and Nora Keyes absolutely extraodinarily peculiar. High pitched, cackling tones with cheesy keyboard, and dark gothic vibe - hard to describe, better review here:
"the highlights of Apocalipstick belonged to Nora Keyes. Nora Keyes displays the seductive charm she honed working the door at the Silverlake Lounge. For those of you unfamiliar with Nora Keyes, her unique talent could best be described as an injured bird lost in someone's attic. Her distinctive sound of organ and hauntingly painful vocals was a rare treat and a nice break from the usual hipster artists trying to be the next White Stripes!"
review of nora's apearance at Apocalypse or Apocalipstick? 220504 in LA by Amanda By Night.]

Also have confirmed venue for Sydney CD launch, at the fantastic Lanfranchis Memorial Discotheque - time to start planning those parties!!

Chatted with Sophea on the phone about particle wave stuff until 2.30 am, then got up and came back into the abc. Multi-tasking with 3 different rooms going - I love being here on weekends when no-one else is around, call it the abracadabra. Magic.

Must get back to E55 selecting samples from my bridge compositions to encode as ringtones with the phone book lovely ben and fee, then P53 to upload the audio documentation of all the mobile journeys and start listening to it, while writing press releases, pw rationale and ozco grant acquittal. Don't know where all this energy comes from - but it's all natural, I swear!

Today is the Reclaim the Streets party - at a secret location, which happens to be the park around the corner from our house. Loving the DIY party ethic - and in case you're thinking it's all just another excuse for a party, there are social and cultural ethics and values expressed in these events, about community, power, capitalism, and the redevelopment of redfern and waterloo.

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

10:55 PM
Posted by jodi rose

another interesting and varied night.
The last few days waking up to crashing dolby surround thunder bouncing across the sky, and juicy torrential rain - just gorgeous.
Tonight is muggy and the gumtree outside my window outlined against the clouds, making me think of the highwayman. riding riding up to the old inn door. the moon was a ghostly galleon.

ahh bad poetry. just helped Lisa with her screen printing for tomorrow, filming with her students for Yabun indigenous concert at redfern park. cut out 'film crew' in contact and screen with printed red paint - looks surprisingly good and was a fun reminder of high school art projects. which after many years of conceptual sound art, is a good thing :) we just have to do 'eora college' in the morning on the front, and the kids will be happy.

previously, had a two hour meeting with sophea in helsinki on ichat during her meeeting with juha at kiasma, then skype (internet phone only 1.7euro cents a minute) when she got back up the hill to siba.

It's so exciting to be going back, and with a great project that's all about facilitating dialogue and collaboration between people working in different forms of radio. After the demise of platforms for radio art and experimental sound works in most of the public broadcasters around the world, we're taking the tools of production back into our hands and getting it out there. Noticing there's a really strong sense of DIY in the air these days - from chippendale to helsinki to berlin and beyond. Maybe a little adversity is needed to sharpen the wits and get people actually working together and involved in a common struggle as a community. We've got something to say, and people to say it to, and the means of distribution.. rock on. Talking to Lucas after the aware workshop, he and a loose artist collective had just bought an offset printer, and setting up for specialist art printing. Very timely - I really don't want to pay ccs media packagin $2.33 per unit for the next batch of CD's I produce, and that's what it costs if you want the funky cardboard sleeve with matt cello glaze finish. Lawrence english from Room 40 in brisbane was telling me they've been designing their own printing die (think that's the spelling) for covers without those fiddly glued bits - where the expensive manual labour comes in. It's a learning curve. and one which I'd like to share the benefits of with other artists. Talking with Solange last night on the way down oxford st about the kind of label ideas she has, think we can work on something really exciting and relevant. truly individual sound universe from a range of people, not necessarily all sound artists. Julaines' seismic remix project is next on my list - just need to cajole her to finish her own work on it.

Today finally got the cover into the factory, so the whole caper will be ready for the first launch event in melbourne on feb 9th at Loop.
It's starting to dawn on me the amount of work this has taken, and man am I ready to celebrate. melb syd london helsinki paris berlin. very very very happy to learn that the fabulous pixelache party on the island tradition will be continuing this year. disco in the laundry... five minutes!
http://www.phonebox.org/disco

Monday, January 24, 2005

11:30 PM
Posted by jodi rose

hello there, I'm back after some serious immersion in the media art and experimental music world. strangely enough, after previous rants, tonight I finally came to some kind of acceptance and made my peace with being part of this crazy scene. Yes, I have become one of 'them'. And you know, it's not so bad. I really like walking into a room filled with media artists and realising that actually, I know quite a lot of the people there, quite well. and they're fun and we have great raves about disappearing and appearing technologies, or talk nonsense and drink and eat. Finally it feels like I have a place in Sydney, without having to become anything or anyone other than who and what I am. (sounding like popeye now...)

Tonight was the meeting about ozco restructure and the dissolution of new media arts and community cultural development boards. Some very eloquent and impassioned speakers talked about the sense of betrayal and disenfranchisment, anger and despair over this impending erasing of our practice and art form(s) at the funding level. The sense of regressing, suspicion of innovation and imagination, lack of committment to work that can't be easily proven to have a successful outcome, and being able to respond to the continual flux and development of new technologies and new ways of dreaming and creating using and hacking those tools and ideas. And it has been done with such a lack of consultation with arts organisations and practitioners, who are now called 'clients' apparently, as we were told following extensive research into overseas models for funding. Fee from the-phone-book-ltd.com got up and said, well actually the arts council of england didn't erase the media arts category, and hasn't abolished peer review as stated - it's now regionally based, across all artforms and stronger than ever before. Despite assurances that this was in no way politically motivated and has nothing to do with the conservative climate and government, a few people expressed feeling very strongly that there are obvious links between the current situation and this decision, and talked about living in a very small culture which doesn't value or even understand the importance of creating art, and that is why it's a political strategy to keep on making it. Also we do it for hardly any money, with no superannuation, holiday or sick pay or stability whatsoever. It's a vocation that you're really only going to continue doing if there is that drive in you that means you can't NOT do it. Lord knows it's not a particularly easy life to choose. And there is incredible power in naming and erasing names, that isn't merely semantic, it's about identity and having a voice and a place within the culture and society you live in, and try to express through whatever means possible. Good to realise that all these ideas are shared by many people and 'we are not alone'.
For a more informed debate check out anat.org or dlux or realtime.

This is the culmination of a week-long festival of media art. Started with the Finns doing their aware mobile database thing, and recording interviews with their masterclass participants. Then continued with two nights of spontaneous music at NOWnow - yes, the woman who made love to her cello, made me smile in this very serious experimental music scene. Can be kind of intimidating and difficult to engage with, but the kids were there in force and there were enough different styles to keep most people interested, at least for a while. Altho someone at work was saying he wished that he'd brought a book.

For a complete change of pace, on Sunday went out to the Campbelltown city art centre and recorded interviews with the hip hop kids doing the phone book workshop there. Some very fine rap from the 17 yr olds - afrodisiac & his twin bro from zimbabwe, romez and the other samoan boys talked really openly about growing up and the emotions that go into their lyrics and music. Watched some local crews do their thing (panic pusher, 046) and really enjoyed being out of the inner city ghetto that so easily becomes all I see of life.

Back to the ghetto now. Had a great rave with Joyce about minimal sound performances - she's had a CD released by antiopic who do mainly field recording stuff, and doing some live gigs realised she had really made her peace with 'not much happening'. I think it's vlf receivers, which she tunes to different frequencies so they beat and pulse. Then telling me about one of her students who was really into 18hz, that's what he did in performance all year, kept melting speakers with these incredible subsonic sounds - but now, she said, I really know the experience of 18hz and can identify it in all kinds of aural environments. The way your ear can be trained to pick up certain patterns and noises - like I hear bridges in various trucks going past, or certain rhythmic elements of general city noise. She told me about her and David's work in the Sao Paolo Biennale last year, a cave with all these vhf receivers, collecting and messing with tv broadcasts from brasil and australia. apparently it's the last dying breath of vhf - on the way out with digital and satellite tv. Strange how you take things for granted as always just being that way, until they disappear.
Anyway, it was very inspiring, as I'm thinking through ideas for performance, and philosophical questions of how much to intervene or manipulate what are essential raw field recordings - when does it become something else, and how can you represent it or perform it in some way that is engaging or maybe not. deep deep minimalism - and at what point does that become something almost no-one else can relate to.....

All this and more will be answered (or not) in the next installment: the adventures of particle girl. Or as I was called tonight, after meeting mystery boy with dreads who is one of the bright young things of the sound art scene [and who Damian was quite amused to hear that I'd seen gracing the sunday paper social pages - at last, sound artists are hip!] : bridge girl. Yes, have also come to terms with the fact that it's always going to be... 'you're the bridge girl.' Not that I mind at all.

Monday, January 17, 2005

7:56 AM
Posted by jodi rose

well, you know the scary thing about that is finding out I actually DO know many of those media artists. hmmm/ still don't feel a part of that 'scene' though, but maybe no-one ever does. on the picnic at clovelly yesterday, friends of anns came along and knew most of them too. strange. had a really nice chat with kate richards on our walk along the cliffs, about the whole making art thing. it's quite odd, I haven't played the CD to anyone, but am releasing 500 copies in a few weeks. oh well, have had input and feedback along the way, and now I'm actually kind of confident (love all those qualifiers in that sentence) that I've got the material to where it needs to go and I can take it. also, it is what it is. a record of a journey, different experiments and interactions with bridges and people.

went along to record audio documentation at the aware masterclass for esther - had some really good conversations with the participants, and organisers for a future radio program. i like the way doing an informal interview with people lets you engage with their ideas and philosophy in ways that you don't necessarily get to in conversation.

this morning is first studio booking for musique concrete program. a little undercooked, but will sketch out a framework for the musical pieces and set up parameters, dates, definitions etc. am looking for people to interview, so if you or anyone you know has ideas about musique concrete in the 50's, or how it has influenced musical practice today - get in touch.

it's lovely and storm cloudy here. a few days at the beach - yes forced to take time off and hang out with my lovely finnish friends [ok I know they're scottish and welsh but context is helsinki] although my head is spinning at the amount of urgent work to do in the next few weeks. would like to clone myself x 5, and then supervise and oversee the clones. that or have an assistant. but it always relaxes me when the sun stops shining and you don't feel that imperative to get out there and enjoy the world.
dark, ominous, melancholic weather suits me much better.
so for anyone still asking WHY? does she want to go hang out in finland so much (mum...) that would be part of it.

trying to stay on track with creative part of your work is monumental at the moment. it's like being swirled in those washing machine waves at bronte, things just keep coming and knock you off course. good and bad.

quote from Peter Weir on that wall of photos in the Chauvel:
'It is so difficult to keep your intuition protected.
Success fouls it up.
All sorts of pressure groups can get in the way. Anything that says you should go this way, for logical reasons, when your intuition says you should go that way, even if it may seem crazy.
You should protect that curious inner beacon that knows no logic.
And [protect your] passion.
I think in a sense you have got to be on fire, to be unstoppable with the project. And it is very attractive. it attracts people to you.'

so, yes, taking time out to stoke that inner fire. think a few nights at bronte will help, especially if it's stormy.

had a marvellous conversation with norma disher, a friend of my grandparents who made documentary films with the trade union (or waterside workers federation, can't remember exactly) film unit in the 50's. talking about how they would sit down around a typewriter to plan what to do, and then had one 16mm bolex camera, a tripod and a light metre. Norma made the trim bins from calico, and they had a splicer and handheld viewer. In the years since, their work has been used by many people, documentary made about them, books written - she said their technique of creating archival footage themselves with dramatised doco style hadn't been done before (in aust at least, I don't know about the rest of the world) and people would ask, where did you get that archival footage? we shot it ourselves. very inspiring to hear about, and a reminder that you don't need all the fancy equipment and technical stuff, like the kids [and films] today with cameras that do everything, digital FX, and editing on the laptop, but maybe not enough development of concept, story, character - you need a good idea and a way to express it.
that's the rant for today. see ya.

Monday, January 10, 2005

11:03 PM
Posted by jodi rose

ahhh it's so lovely having a little bit of helsinki come to darlington.
yes, andrew and john the fabulous mobile phone poetry boys have arrived to lead a masterclass for www.mobilejourneys.com

you may remember them from (such media art extravaganzas as:) the rengo walk at isea in august, and locative media workshops in april.
took them for dinner of handmade noodles in chinatown, and then walked back to have cups of tea in my studio - gave me a reality check on how much space I have in my life - so many rooms to play in! and the warm weather. hmmm, guess I am very lucky - but I do appreciate it, really.

john was asking... and you want to leave all this and go to finland... why?
but then, they're currently the marrickville artists in residence - very cool sounding pad above the town hall, but with no phone and no internet access - very deprived after the ultra-connected finnish media art world. and no wifi access anywhere. I'm like, yes, that is exactly what i mean. to actually do the work I'm trying to achieve, I have to be over there. wireless access on a bridge.... yeah right. but in finland it's not only possible, it's taken for granted. anyway, am looking forward to crashing the very important people networking day and hearing what the boys have to say, maybe I'll finally get to meet some of the important media artists here in australia. 'cause I know so many of them in helsinki and stockholm and copenhagen and vilnius - but sydney, it's like a blank slate. don't really move in those circles here. too busy trying to stay afloat and get some work finished and have a life. the berlin spin, a friend used to call it. (but in sydney)

Had a massive confidence boost getting my album mastered. Adam [Hellboy] at Sonamax, who is a legend. Very subtle work finessing and polishing some of the remixes so they sound better [fatter, tighter, punchier.... it's a whole other language] - but not different to the originals. And others he literally just turned the volume down. Gave me some great tips on which frequencies to look out for in EQ, which always does my head in, and demystified the whole sprinkle of gold dust process that is mastering. Also, those bridges sound fantastic through $32,000 speakers. Everyone should hear them like that. Even the 'raw' field recording compositions.... amazing! Really gave me incredible confidence that it's not all completely ludicrous, there actually is something good there beyond the novelty of where the sounds originate. Well, that's my hope anyway.

Incredible relief to have that finally on the way to production - have been agonising over those compositions for... years now. and the remix tracks, making decisions, getting them in an order I'm happy with - context and juxtaposition are really important, they can make a track sound entirely different, and make much more sense than when you hear it alone. But hopefully there will be some radio friendly singles in there. really, for the weird experimental ambient electronica programs, anyway. No, actually it's called 'ambient industrial electronica', apparently. I have programs lined up on resonance fm in london, and german radio in cologne - thanks to Roger and Michael.

Nice to know I and the bridges have a genre. Aiming for mid-feb release date - talking to sarah in adelaide abc today, thought maybe Valentines day: 'I heart bridges' as the slogan. And 'Bridges you can dance too' for the launch. Really am ready to party and celebrate this achievement, finally.

Such a strange time, with all the relentless horror of tsunami catastrophe, over 150,000 people died, millions more who are homeless, or have lost entire family and livelihood. Makes you realise how incredibly lucky you are, and hopefully appreciate the people and opportunities and experiences in your life even more.

Saturday, January 1, 2005

11:50 AM
Posted by jodi rose

good morning, welcome to 2005.
let's hope the new year brings relief to all from whatever human drama and suffering is weighing on you.
hepzibah menuhdin says: freedom is choosing your burden.
indeed.
am very aware of the extraordinary level of privilege and choice I have in life - not financially right now, but in all other ways especially the freedom to follow my crazy dreams wherever they may lead.
general resolve to make the most of the choices I have, use that privilege wisely and with integrity, and not accept anyone else's values or ideals or view of life unthinkingly. To no longer walk in shoes that don't fit me. Physically or metaphorically. find my own way. (damn that sounds like a sportsgirl ad. oh well.)
You can't beat starting the new year with dancing.
I was determined to go to this free warehouse party www.freenye.com and it was fantastic. We only had instructions to meet at the Gladstone Hotel in Regent St, got there about 11 and people had just started streaming into the abandoned nightclub across the rd (ex blackmarket/hellfire and dayclub). It's totally burnt out and 'chat' as the boys say (disgusting) from the outside, but inside was a cornucopia of dance floors, dj's set up behind disused bars, minimal yet effective decorations, defunkt pokie machines (they became the smoking room) and people walking around with expressions of absolute glee. Everyone was really friendly, made way for each other to get past, stood aside, said please and thank you (unusual nightclub behaviour I find it's mostly all elbows) - Lisa said that's because they're hippies on drugs, but she's way too cynical - and it was a great cross section of people from those who did look hippyish, to funky twentysomethings, boys lookin' flash, lots of too cool for school 80's retro and asymmetrical hair, some freaky dudes with huge eyelash makeup and goth/punk style, even older people than us just having a good time, dancin. It was so much fun, like being the famous five (times a hundred) on an adventure in an old quarry or something. That thrill of the illicit, possible danger (the place was a firetrap and the floor felt a bit shaky) and camaraderie of sharing this crazy experience. The cops came early, but due to the organisers being very onto it and finding some charity loophole, agreed to let the party continue. they just had to keep people off the street - so herded anyone needing fresh air across the rd back into the pub, which was the chillout zone with beer - unlike the decrepit bar inside serving mangrove mountain organic spring water, coca cola and liquid herbal e (only $1)
It was like sydney in the old days, when people lived in squats in darlinghurst and crazy stuff was happening all over the city. When it was still a place where people lived, in the 80's, before it turned into the international cosmopolitan playground for the rich and beautiful. But that happens all over the world I guess, anyone been to Lithuania or Slovakia lately? The whole world is a playground for people with money and mobility, for everyone else it's the drama of survival and struggle.
Except for those few who can make it a nomadic pilgrimage or adventure story on their own terms, in their own way, creating subcultures and extended urban tribal families along the journey.
Things that excite me the most right now - getting the CD finished and out there. Creating networks and possibilities for new projects, ideas and collaborations with fantastic people all over the world, from Darlington to Hackney to Helsinki.