TRAVEL DIARY

A weblog regularly updated by Jodi Rose.

  

VIEWING ALL POSTS FOR: MARCH 2008

Thursday, March 27, 2008

4:16 PM
Posted by jodi rose

The French are fabulous, I'm collectively in love with them all!
OK, maybe some more than others...

Think it's some variant of Patty Hearst syndrome.

Sophie told me in the kitchen last week 'it's about having as much pleasure as possible'; and Bertrand said at dinner one night 'I want to always live in my dreams'. The lecture/performance tonight has been amended from the original plan, but it's all an improvisation. I love having all this energy around, and of course, yes the cute boys are nice eye candy. It's the closest I've been to an actually bohemian lifestyle in a long while. Behind it all, of course, is a philosophy of strong ideas, and strong art - looking forward to the discussion tonight. Balance of anarchy and mayhem, with an extremely hard work ethic and art/life philosophy which I totally admire and respect. We're gonna play and make crazy art on a bridge together one day, they seem keen for Lisbon, stay tuned...

Tonight is the french australian integrations plan, with various pavlova.

Here are a few samples of the gorgeous emails I've had lately.

"Remember, we met in Berlin some 6 or 7 years ago
... i was performing some fruit massacre with a friend.
I was at your presentation on February 8, but I had to
leave early... how long will you be in Berlin for?

Respect to your beautiful, focussed bridges work!"

Ohmigod those boys were fabulous, they totally rocked with the fruit. At 24 stunden neukolln, the very first time I was here. Is that 6 years?
We ended up in the bar at tacheles house that night, looking over the city through the bombed out hole in the wall.

and this one:

"I'll be playing in Berlin with my sound project "les molaires de l'iceberg" (http://www. myspace. com/lesmolairesdelest) at Wendel on the 2nd of april at Rinus's invitation. I'll be staying a few days afterwards and would like to seize the opportunity to record a couple of radio shows there with several artists. I would love if you'd be part of it... what do you think?"

Ace. Have set up 2 radio shows in Paris already, and working on a few low key artistic sound presentations (not calling them performance anymore after my laptop broke, I think at the first one above).

Bring on the French bridges!!!!

That's enough of this maelstrom for now. Writing myself into a new life.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

1:33 PM
Posted by jodi rose

"when you're lost in the rain in Juarez and it's easter time too
... when your gravity fails ...

it's either fortune or fame
you must pick up one or the other
though neither of them are to be what they claim"

theme song for today (tom thumb's blues, highway 61 revisited)

Happy Spring Equinox!!

Looking forward to this week's round of installations:

One of the French friends' gorgeous Canadian artist Catherine Bolduc at Kunstlerhaus Bethanien on Thursday: 'My life without gravity'

- perfect, that could be the slogan for our strange floating life -

The French finissage takes place on Saturday, and in between maybe some kind of performative lecture, a late Easter dinner for which Som has promised to make Macedonian cheese pie and I will whip up a Schwarzwalderpavlova (just needs a french influence to be truly multi-cultural), and possibly some kind of artist talk on Saturday.

It's snowing this morning, in tiny powdery crystals, Som dragged me out into the freezing air at 1am to say, 'Come and see, the snowflakes look exactly like they do in the picture books!'. So cool. We've started the unofficial 'parasite residency' series, taken from Alison's umbrella project, which fits perfectly with the French philosophy gallery take-over.

Spring blossoms from the Firecafe on veteranenstrasse, up the hill on my morning walk. This time of year feels good, you have a sense of surviving winter and things being about to change. There's still a chill in the air, but daffodils and crocuses are flowering, and blossoms in white and purple give my heart a little burst of joy every time I see them.

New projects in the wind, let's see where they will take us next... thinking Istanbul, Lisbon and back to the Danube (after Paris, Spain & Singapore with Syd/Melb thrown in somewhere between)

Talking about new beginnings, and how my one skill in life is learning very young the art of 'letting go and moving on.' I do it phenomenally well. Which is hardly surprising, given that we lived in 12 housed before I reached the age of 12, and I went to 5 different primary schools. That kind of thing gets hard-wired into you by that age. It's a very useful talent, and I'm incredibly grateful for the nomadic upbringing. Although that may be partly why I keep waking up and thinking with a sudden shock 'everything's gone, we're moving again'.

Now that I've learned to stay sometimes, and go back whenever I can to retrace the steps along the way, the world is amazingly small and filled with friends and oases. Think I'm going to build a bridge to the floating lands with the French, and move the bridge activities into a more deep local on-site practice, along with the virtual sound maps.

Time to arrange all that travel other people are paying for ;)
This life really is SO ridiculous, it doesn't bear thinking about.

Although I had a lovely email from someone writing a 'thematic high school curriculum' for their education studies, asking if they could include my work - and life - as part of their course on personal mythology and mythopoeia. Gorgeous, I wish I'd had something like that to study, but then we each find out our own way in time.

My Life as a Conceptual Artwork.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

10:25 PM
Posted by jodi rose

The French artists strapped themselves into a suspended rotating chair and spun in the air, playing elevator muzak last night. Hilarious. Definitely enjoying their working process and energy in the gallery, never quite know what will happen next. The river of blood seeping through into the replica space is quite interesting too...

Meanwhile, latest bridges update on my favourite new interface.

Green Bridge, Brisbane Cable 8

Mega Bridge, Bangkok lifting gantry

It's so beautiful. I had hours of fun trying to find the F60 coal mining bridge near Lausitz, and Mega Bridge in Bangkok, eventually tracked them down. Love exploring the relationship between sound and place this way. As a memory, a tracing, an audio story from the past, that seeps out from the names and lines on a map into something present.

Coming to terms with the irony of current profile, it's all part of the picture now. Found a fragment of the riverbank in Bangkok that had been repeated and grafted across the river in google maps satellite view. That's kind of how I feel. Almost exactly lined up to join the dots, and match the colours with numbers... but slightly displaced.

Spinning.... spinning..... spinning.... spinning

Friday, March 21, 2008

5:34 PM
Posted by jodi rose

....she lives on air from day to day

want to see something funny?

career pathways in media arts

I think they chose me because, apart from 'why bridges?'..
The one question everyone asks is: 'How on earth do you do it?'

Apparently, this is how you do it.

Got the fame, just need the fortune.... ahh the insanity.

Thanks to everyone for helping me scrape by.
Maybe I should take my own advice.
If you can do anything else, do it.

It's just that I can't. Really. This is it. The bridges are singing and I just want the world to hear them ;)

Any day now.
Any day.


NOW!!!

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

11:05 PM
Posted by jodi rose

'if all your dreams survive, destiny will arrive'

Somehow the angels have been listening, and after meeting Udo a few weeks ago at my last laptop gig in his experimental living room space - studio aporee - with Mari, now here we have this fabulous new toy:

Radio Aporee Golden Gate

Soon there will be a view of the world on this interface with all the bridge sounds (uploaded so far) that you can mix together to experience your own global symphony. and eventually, live streams.

I must have some really good karma from previous lives ;)

Here's to new friends, local community and shared inspiration.

A few weeks ago I had the impulse to walk down the road to the hauptbahnhof and play in the lifts. They're so beautiful, circular glass bubbles that glide smoothly between the train & s bahn, with intermediate levels of shops and people hurrying between places.

Watching the endless tramp of feet, reflecting on Michel Serres' writing on places of mass transit, where angels come to give us messages... in between this world and wherever else there is.

"The reason why angels are invisible is because they are disappearing to let the message go through them.. we are living in the volatile transmission. This word volatile is angelic form. The transmission of message, of code, of signal is volatile. We say now about money that it is volatile, it is turning into the transmission of codes, of messages. Dissolution is taking place. All points can be connected to all other points.

We have many many places.We have remembrances of our land, your land, I have too. We have two lands. One for work, one for melancholy, something like that. It is very interesting to have two levels of places, or three, because we remember that we did not originate in the place where we work. It is an angelic state of life too.

In the morning I write with my hands. I think the body is the subject of writing, really the body. My experience of writing is not an intellectual experience. It is a bodily experience. I feel myself as a manual worker. The origin of the word page is pagus the Latin name for the field where the peasant ploughs the earth. Peasant, pagus, page exactly the same thing. When you write you are ploughing a furrow. It is exactly the same labour.

I think that the human species is always travelling. We are wandering. We are nomads. This is not a new state of things. It is a very ancient state of things."

(From an interview by Hari Kunzru with Michel Serres)

This was my theme song during the radio conversation with Jean-Baptiste (in a side tribute to his 'billie jean' project). Sail on silver girl, (I always think that's the bridge) your time has come to shine, all your dreams are on their way.

Johnny

Monday, March 17, 2008

2:59 PM
Posted by jodi rose

I woke up this morning with words scrambling to get out of my head.
It must get crowded in there :)

Nice to finally get my focus back, after weeks of running on adrenalin and just patching it together. Now that transit lounge is over, the sound constructions event done, and various other side-projects finished, I have all of two weeks left in which to enjoy this rare luxury of a settled workspace in my residency.

Any remaining calm is about to be shattered by the ten or so French artists moving into the gallery today, as part of Sophie, Bertrand and Philip's installation and 'Floating Land' project. It will be creatively inspiring or complete distraction, either way should be fun, and I love their philosophy so am happy to encourage and provide hot water.

http://www.programonline.de/thirtytwofingers.html
http://www.floatingland.com/
http://www.espacekugler.ch/dejodeetlacombe.html

The visit from the French internet radio team was fabulous, we had a great time chatting and playing each other sounds, you can listen to the archive here on a week or so. Planned to visit Jan's studio last night and hear some of his vinyl field recordings, but never did find out the exact address. Have to try and track down Jean-Baptiste and Erik before they leave town, it's been a strangely fragmented few days.

http://www.myspace.com/radiowne
http://www.poptronics.fr/Radio-WNE-Show-fait-le-pont-4-7

This is one of my new favourite things, listening to the ocean here:
www.locusonus.org

Have finally managed to compile and synthesise my ideas enough to articulate them for the next batch of project proposals, and working on fancy diagrams with Mika this week. In exchange for fashion consultation on suit-buying trip (I insist on shopping with sekt to hand) and profile. Which is kind of ludicrous at the moment, this bridge thing is outta control!! In a very good way.

Articles out NOW in Velvet Mag, Athens/London and ALARM in USA.
More to follow soon.

So the really big news, according to February Vogue which I leafed through in the cafe last week, is this: 'Brunette is the new Blonde'.

I kid you not. Three pages devoted to this highly important hair fashion trend. Glad to be au naturelle, and Som is giving me a kitchen trim later today. Tidy up those loose ends, maybe some feathery wisps around the neck, although the straight fringe is never going to work without a lot of product and blow-drying. Oh dear, and it's 5 to 3 and I'm still in my pyjamas. That's what you get for rolling straight out of bed and starting to write. At least I finally finished the Staubgold Profile/article for Loop Magazine in Australia, am getting practical details sorted for Paris/Singapore and submitted the proposal for an extremely cool festival in Spain, which might just slot into the program before flying out into the wild blue yonder again.

Bon Voyage for today
xj

Thursday, March 13, 2008

11:17 PM
Posted by jodi rose

the french radio crew are just packing up
crawling back to kreuzberg
no friedrichshain
they arrived with 5 bottles of wine
and ended with billie jean in 15 different versions
in between we had fun

Sunday, March 9, 2008

2:54 PM
Posted by jodi rose

In-between sounds.

Is that silence
or noise?

A few more minutes before today's setting up begins. The presentations and discussion yesterday were lovely, really fascinating mesh of ideas, mix of people, and different approaches to sound. Hopefully we have hooked into some existing conversations, started new ones and it will all continue to evolve in interesting ways.

Went for a beautiful walk this morning, spent some time in the park enjoying the sunshine, listening to the bells ringing from Zionskirsche and other churches. Walking down the hill, all the ideas swirling in my head for installation and performance suddenly clicked into place. I love that moment, just as it happened, ran into Tim Tetzner walking up the hill, and said to him 'Aren't the bells amazing?' He smiled, and told me they were even better just a little bit further back.

Moments of conversation, ideas from past projects, spatial audio and the diffusion of sound into the environment, mysterious, ephemeral and personal qualities and experiencing the work as a journey through space. All making sense to me now. Sorry if it remains a little obscure in this articulation. There will be clarity and diagrams, I promise!

Talking yesterday about the bridge project was a great opportunity to trace through the ideas from the beginning, and out into the future.

Vibration, Breath, Voice, Transmission, Playing & Diffusion.
All to be expanded on in the current writing and project proposals.

Wonderful to have all those great people in the room, and on the audiotheque, and performing today - such generous energy, enthusiasm, rigorous critical engagement and personal warmth.

Friday, March 7, 2008

9:24 PM
Posted by jodi rose

"Be who you are and be that well." Saint Francis de Sales.

Well, at least I know I'm doing something right.
It's been a tricky few days, negotiating, massaging and reflecting on egos, personal connections, humility, and where exactly do you draw the line.

Thinking about the kind of community I have here, and how incredibly valuable those warm personal connections and ongoing friendships are. They make it possible to survive. Meeting up with Jas for sunshine, writing lyrics, making soup, hanging out talking art music and love; Joni taking me out for brunch and since Bondi was closed for storms, spending the afternoon into evening at Schwarzwalderstuben drinking sekt, as it was too dangerous to go outside because of the hurricane. We looked at the gale force winds blowing flowerpots off balconies and making street signs wobble, and ordered another glass. The staff played Bob Dylan's 'Hurricane' at the zenith of the storm, and we made plans for her new fabulous creative works. Som came through with emergency laptop when my hard drive decided it was no longer for this world - eeeeeek fingers crossed all the data will come back - and came into the gallery to help with speaker placement and recording the talks tomorrow. I think it will be a lovely event, hope to get some interesting conversations happening, and hear some crazy sounds.

That's all for now, back to my notes on vibration, voice, transmission and diffusion. The people who arrive in my life through various random connections never fail to amaze me. I am completely humbled by their interest and engagement and curiosity, it makes everything worthwhile.

Friday, March 7, 2008

9:09 PM
Posted by jodi rose

Radio Conversation continued


http://www.radiowne.org/Radio-WNE-Show-2

Du 10 au 16 mars 2008 à partir de 20h CET (Paris Time, Europe) à Berlin

Le Radio WNE Show est un périple webradiophonique en studio@home. L'open mic se déplace durant 7 jours consécutifs chez 7 artistes oeuvrant dans différentes sphères sonores. Ligne éditoriale nomade, le Radio WNE Show investit des lieux intimement liés à la création, appartements ou ateliers en vue d'une connivence éthylique improvisée, accompagné d'amis ou animaux domestiques pour une durée indéfinie.

* From 10th to 16th march 2008 at 20:00pm CET (Paris Time, Europe) in Berlin

Radio WNE Show is an @homestudio webradio. The open mic shifts during 7 consecutive days at 7 artist's spaces, warming up different sonic spheres. A nomadic editorial line, the WNE Radio Show invests places that are deeply linked to creation whether it be apartments or studios, in sight of an improvised ethyl -tacit consent/connivance-, accompanied by domestic animals or friends for an undefinite duration.

- monday 10th march - 20:00pm
mabuseki c/o namosh + Electronicat + The Vanishing

- tuesday 11th march - 20:00pm
philippe simon c/o raionbashi

- wednesday 12th march - 20:00pm
joachim montessuis c/o marcelo aguirre

- thursday 13th march - 20:00pm
jean-baptiste bayle c/o jodi rose

- friday 14th mars - 20:00pm
carl.y c/o lifeloop

- saturday 15th march - 20:00pm
ali_fib c/o marcel türkowsky

- sunday 16th march - 20:00pm
erik minkkinnen c/o vinylizer

- monday 17th march - 20:00pm
LBB c/o Patric Catani

Archives of the Radio WNE Show #1 - Paris

Friday, March 7, 2008

9:04 PM
Posted by jodi rose

SOUND CONSTRUCTIONS

What are the intersections of sonic resonance and physical structures, how are artists exploring and interpreting this constantly shifting field, and where is it all going?

a 2-day event exploring the convergence of sound, place and architecture, present and future

+ Saturday, March 8

17:00 artist talks and discussion
Rob Curgenven, Derek Holzer, Anne Kockelkorn, Carsten Stabenow (Tuned City), Henry Stag (Sound of Cities), Jodi Rose (Singing Bridges), Jacob Kirkegaard

20:00 screening and performances
live performance by Rob Curgenven
invitation to play 'Sound of Cities' installation
screening Singing Bizovik Bridge: Live in Ljubljana', Luka Prinčič, Jodi Rose & Luka Dekleva

+ Sunday, March 9

17:00 Das kleine Field Recording Festival, curated by Rinus van Alebeek
Momus, Udo Noll, Kim Cascone & Leif E. Boman, Seiji Morimoto
(please note there is a 5 euro entrance to the event on Sunday)

+ audiotheque open both days at noon


participating artists: Hans Appelqvist, Leif E. Boman, Kim Cascone, Rob Curgenven, Peter Cusack, Derek Holzer, Ernst Karel, Jacob Kirkegaard, Anne Kockelkorn, Brandon LaBelle, Eric La Casa, Momus, Seiji Morimoto, Udo Noll, Jodi Rose, Rowena Easton & Mike Blow, Carsten Stabenow, Henry Stag, Aaron Ximm, Michael Bates, Luka Prinčič & Luka Dekleva.

PROGRAM: initiative for art+architectural collaborations
Invalidenstrasse 115, 10115 Berlin-Mitte
t. +49 (0)30 39 509318
www.programonline.de
info@programonline.de

visit www.programonline.de/soundconstructions.html for more information

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

7:20 PM
Posted by jodi rose

I've been talking informally with a few people about vibration and diffusion fields... now time to massage all those words into some kind of coherent shape.

Walking around the streets of Mitte early one morning, I found myself drawn to ones I had never taken before, stumbling across the New Life Shop (I'll take six), and some vibrantly painted collective housing that is hanging in there grimly amidst the almost complete gentrification. Punk really isn't dead in Berlin.

It's an exercise I like sometimes, to flaneur with no particular direction in mind, and literally take whatever path takes my fancy. Something nice about realigning your intuition, and having a break from the constant mad dash from one urgent thing to the next.

Speaking of which, gotta run now, writers group beckons and then an evening to-do list longer than my arm. Uploading bridges for Udo's sound maps is high on the list, also transcribing the interview with Markus for Loop article, and getting my head around diagrams for Singapore. You know how it goes. Nothing nothing nothing EVERYTHING

Very excited on the weekend to wash up at Madame Claude's - another - new bar in Kreuzberg, on the site of old Monster Karaoke. Which I went to once in that strangely hazey first three weeks back in town last September, and have never been able to find again. The first time I had the excellent luck of witnessing a friend who runs an ultra-cool electronica record label, making his karaoke debut with 'Love is in the Air'. He was totally enthusiastic, we all sang along, the crowd went wild. Berlin goes POP!

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

7:08 PM
Posted by jodi rose

So, this is where most of my energy is going the past week:

http://www.programonline.de/soundconstructions.html

Collecting tracks, collating artist bios and project info, confirming speakers - both human and technical - and generally supporting the wonderful Fotini, who it has to be said is doing most of the work. I'm looking forward to it, bringing together people working in a similar field from very different perspectives, and seeing what happens when they start talking. Rinus has curated a fantastic program for DKRF Festival on Sunday, I can't wait to hear how that's going to turn out.

We'll try and record it all and podcast somewhere for you people outside Berlin.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

7:05 PM
Posted by jodi rose

There are definitely highlights to this insane artists life.

Palast der Republik last Tuesday, walking around the demolition site with the chief foreman, he took Sophie Erlund and I to all the beams with good vibrations, and let us listen to any part of the building we wanted. Sophie's idea is beautiful, a kind of swansong as it is demolished, I was just along for the ride, and placing the contact mikes. One particular section where the worker closest to us is carving up the concrete into squares, ready to be lifted out, and as his machine stopped, all the other de-construction taking place around the site came into sonic relief, in this gorgeous un-building symphonic moment.

The workers packed up for lunch in stages, we recorded some of the asbestos removing machine as it vibrated the toxic matter away - they promised it wasn't dangerous mum, really - and then the foreman asks, pointing up to one of the cranes: 'Do you want a gondola ride?'

YEAH! Sophie enthusiastically agreed, while I shrieked in terror and tried to run away, but she hauled me back and made me get into the tiny metal box that was soon swinging 50 metres above the site. Most of the time I spent convinced I was about to die, but when I could actually open my eyes and breath again it was totally amazing. Incredible view of the city, and they spun us around in a 360 degree panorama. Now that's an experience you don't get everyday!

The recordings are in the vault, where Sophie will weave her magic and turn them into a stunning poetic reverie installation in the near future.