TRAVEL DIARY

A weblog regularly updated by Jodi Rose.

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.