TRAVEL DIARY

A weblog regularly updated by Jodi Rose.

Thursday, May 11, 2006

6:16 PM
Posted by jodi rose

Learning to decode the bridge terms - 6M2S = Pier 6, Main span, Cable 2, Southside. In case you were wondering ;)

That's where my first recording took place on Tuesday - May 9 Act of God day according to the Brisbane Courier Mail, with the miners rescue after their fortnight in the hellmouth, and the family lost at sea for 22 days off the Northern Territory.

In other news a qld film and video teacher was arrested for having explosives in his house.

A sobering glimpse into how it can go horribly wrong with the ongoing Critical Art Ensemble case.

Interesting juxtaposition with the exhibition I saw at city hall, musuem of brisbane yesterday in a few spare hours between tech treks - one of which was out near Sunnybank (oh Buffy where are you now!??!) reminding me of a newspaper story about QLD goths a few years ago (all that sunshine would turn me into a vampire too!)

Taking to the Streets

Fascinating range of material in the excellent 'Taking to the Streets' about political protest in Brisbane 1965 - 85. And there was a lot to protest about, starting with the referendum on Aboriginal rights (to be citizens of their own country with the vote in 1967) and moving through environmental concerns (nuclear testing in the pacific, logging, mining) to women's rights (for abortion, and reclaiming the streets at night), and including the Bjelke-Peterson governments repressive street protest laws, with an amazing range of posters, badges, banners, fliers and video stories. It felt trangely empowering to be reminded of all that subversive energy making an impact on the world, people fighting for their beliefs, for justice and peace, especially when public life today often seems so incredibly cynical and banal. Although we don't have to wait twenty years to see the counterculture or underground movements happening today, they're everywhere - if you know where to look. Some great stories from local Brisbane activists on current activities in the downstairs room too, along with an excellent doco on 4ZZZ radio, who, after years of being called 'ratbag rabble rousing lefty conspiracy theorists' were vindicated in the Fitzgerald Inquiry, which found QLD politics and police force really was steeped in corruption and self-interest.

4ZZZ
Fitzgerald Inquiry

The wheel turns, and criticising authority once again becomes a calculated risk. Or is it always?

Speaking of authority, I've had weeks now of dealing with 'experts' - from three universities and five specialist manufacturer/supplies; not one of whom could tell me a remotely practical way of getting sound from an accelerometer. The usual option of capturing the data, analysing and converting it to wav files just seemed rife with pitfalls. Then I went to see Terry at Davidsons Measurement specialists, and he said - try this - and gave me a simple bnc-rca cable which does the job. Simple, easy, cheap ($3.98 per adaptor at an electronics store) and effective. Although it's not entirely foolproof - some nasty electrical buzz or hum, but I think that's from the cheap radio shack cable, and with a professional sound cable hope it will have better signal to noise ratio. At least I can now conceptualise how to do it.
He obviously thought I had an honest face, handing over $1200 worth of equipment for testing with the barest of formalities.

The sounds from the accelerometer are way more nuanced and subtle, with greater clarity and frequency range than any of the contact mikes I've tried. So am on the right track, and in the process becoming the worlds leading expert on live bridge cable vibration sound art ;)
It amuses me to listen to some of the expert engineers who say to me, no that won't work - largely because they can't imagine it. But I try and I try, and often, it does work. A reminder not to listen to experts, or to let them stop you doing something - try it yourself and see.

I had this conversation with Bridget a while back, about failure of the imagination being the leading cause of getting stuck in a rut. Thankfully it's been a while since I climbed out of mine and started imagining a new challenging adventure filled life - now working on the next chapters. Keep dreaming, keep dancing, keep smiling. One of the workers serenaded me from the bridge deck with 'the hills are alive' and I offered to include the construction crew singing in the final work.
Not sure they're that keen to be singing bridge workers, but most are definitely intrigued by the singing bridge idea, although one guy told me he prefers blues during my first test the other day.

All this punctuated by back-to-back episodes of
Buffy, kick-ass vampire slayer and demon fighter, who still gets miserable over a boy. Love it. Smart, sassy, fun, frightening, the best oneliners. Season 4 which I somehow missed completely and explains a lot, from the chip in Spike's head to Anya and Xander:

Anya (to Xander): "I like you. You're funny and you're nicely shaped, and frankly it's ludicrous to have these interlocking bodies and not... interlock. Please remove your clothing now."