Time-based Poetic Faith

There seems to be different speeds of time, moving concurrently. Things seem to happen at different periods and yet simultaneously.
Ryk: "Goodness! Is that the time?"
Mike: "Time is an abstract concept, that's a wristwatch"
There is something Important to be said...

So when things are happening to you, for you, by you and with you, that are positive in some way, the speed in which you perceive them to be happening can be quite fast. A blink of an eye. If life has bought with it unfortunate or negative circumstances, 2 months in a funk may feel like 2 years. Yet these coexist in a real duration. We feel them differently. Sometimes the sense of an impending deadline will feel like an increasing portent minute to minute.

I began my current degree in February 2006. Just prior to that I spent a slow sometimes difficult month on a residency. Whilst on that residency I began work on a daily ritual of 'blind drawing' a self portrait. At the end of 2006 I ended up with 365 drawings. Yet when I animated them frame by frame the duration was about 14 seconds. During the past three years many good and bad things have happened, sometimes at the same time. So that in itself confuses your own sense, your own perception of when things have happened, or rather, how long they took to happen.

Through the whole three years I was undertaking research for my degree. Of course it's hard to ascertain when research ends and life begins, it's too intertwined with what I do. But certainly out of the portents of the last month, the main one that's been like an ever brightening beacon has been the conclusion of the PhD. I start setting up the works and hand in the paper on February 10 for about a week and then there is the examination period. Then it's open to the public for 2 and half days.







Suspension of Disbelief – the representation of poetic faith through time-based media
A PhD submission by Matt Warren

"In this idea originated the plan of the 'Lyrical Ballads'; in which it was agreed, that my endeavours should be directed to persons and characters supernatural, or at least romantic, yet so as to transfer from our inward nature a human interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith."
Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Biographia Literaria. Vol 2. Chapter XIV. 1847.

The outcome of this research project is a submission made up of a body of work and supporting exegesis in which I have investigated how one may best represent the concept of “poetic faith” using time-based media. Open to the public from: 5:30pm - Friday Feb 20, 2009 Open - 12:00-5:00pm Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 February, 2009 Plimsoll Gallery, Centre for the Arts. Hunter Street, Hobart. Tasmania.

Works:










'Cantus 35' - surround sound installation (re-interpretation of work from 'Port Arthur Project' 2007)















'In Haunted Attics' - surround and video installation (2007/2008)













'Portal Lux Aeterna (after Ligeti)' - surround and video installation (2007/2008)








'Run Out Groove (communiqué)' - sound and text on perspex (2006) (Images by Colin Langridge)









'Until We Sleep' - video and sound installation (2007/2008)















'Whitepinkblack Noise' - video and surround sound installation (2007/2008)











'Stimmung Ton' - collection of 9 sound works (2006-2008) - listening stations.


Even though this has been my main area of concentration, a couple of other things are due to happen just prior to this:
Limbic (see previous blog) in Sydney opens on February 5th at MOP Projects, Sydney.

In Stereo (where available) a solo exhibition by Sally Rees, opens on February 6 at the Burnie Regional Gallery, Burnie Tasmania. Why am I mentioning it here? Well in case you don't know, I'm lucky enough to be Ms Rees' partner and think y'all should see it.




















So it's now official and has been for a while; Damo Suzuki is returning to Tasmania for a show at Hobart's Brisbane Hotel on Thursday February 26, with the kick off around 8:00pm.

His sound carriers will be Scot Cotterell (electronics), Leigh Hobba (sax), Tim Panaretos (bouzouki), Lisa Rime (bass), Julian Teakle (guitar) and myself; Matt Warren (drums).

Special guests will be

Brian Ritchie-Shakuhachi
Paint Your Golden Face.

$15.00.
Come one, come all, should be great evening of instant composition.
















The TRIAD tour is coming along. As more spots get confirmed I will post them here or on the myspace space (see links). Thus far we are doing the follow (with some TBCs included):

TRIAD- Australian Tour 2009.
April 23 - Devonport Regional Gallery, Devonport TAS www.devonportgallery.com
April 24 - Inflight ARI, Hobart TAS www.inflightart.com.au
April 28 - Make It Up Club, Bar Open, Fitzroy, Melbourne, VIC www.makeitupclub.com.au
April 29 - Stutter, Horse Bazaar, Melbourne, VIC www.myspace.com/stuttermelb
May 1 - Sedition, Darlinghurst, Sydney, NSW Phone: (02) 93318832 Address: 275 Victoria St, Darlinghurst NSW 2010

May 2 - Don't Look Gallery, Sydney, NSW www.myspace.com/dontlookgallery
May 4 - TURA New Music Festival, Perth, WA - TBC www.tura.com.au
May 7 - Ric's Bar, Brisbane, QLD - TBC www.ricsbar.com.au
May 9 - Overambition #4, Brisbane, QLD - TBC
May 10 - Sonic Boom #3, New Farm, Brisbane, QLD www.tomhall.com.au

This project is supported by Sound Travellers, an initiative from the Australia Council, the Australian Government's arts funding and advisory body.









. Okay that's it for now. Look after each other.

Refresh

Here's hoping this new year is an improvement over the last.
As good as some parts were, other parts were supremely bad, not just for me, but for some near and dear and some folks I don't even know.
Unfortunate things, some things a crying shame. However, this a new time.
Miring in what has gone brings no joy or relief. Nor does these greeting card-like sentiments.
Getting on with it and trying to make things that are good, that is what keeps one going.
There is something important to be said.

My new years resolutions are my own, you don't need to hear them. And besides I seemingly make and break them daily! The list would be too long.
Upcoming this year;

Jan 9 - Feb 1
Not my work, but my mate and musical collaborator Scot Cotterell is creating an installation piece called 'The Fall' at Kelly's Garden at Salamanca Arts Centre for the MONA FOMA festival. I mention this because the video component is a live performance, shot for the work of my duo (with fellow former Bodies Drawn Backwards guitarist Aaron Metcalf) called M.O.I.O performing a song called 'The Hunt'. This will mark the public debut of this project that has been bubbling along behind closed doors for about a year now. Live debuts planned for later in the year. Should be an interesting work!

February 5-22
I'm in a group exhibition called "Limbic" (artists responses to the painting 'The Origin of the World' by Gustave Courbet -1866) at MOP Projects in Sydney. The show is curated by Victor Medrano and is part of an exchange program by Inflight ARI.

February 6.
My other half has a solo show at Burnie Regional Gallery in the state's North West that opens on February 6. The show is called "In Stereo"

Feb 20 - 22.
I'm soon to wrap up (if I can stop procrastinating with blogging) my PhD degree project titled:
Suspension of Disbelief – the representation of poetic faith through time-based media.
I'm currently in the process of rewriting the accompanying paper into the second draft, then the third etc. The artworks (5 installation works and an audio collection listening station) I plan to show will be open to the public from the evening (not sure of time yet) on Friday February 20 until 5:00pm Sunday 22nd of February. Yep just 3 days to show 3 years work and research...
Opening night I hope to show a collection of support works as well, which is to include the participatory performance/ritual work "Ritual 5: Watch The Skies". Stay tuned for more details.

Late February;
I'm working on a live gig, but nothing is set in stone yet so I won't say anything other than it's potentially the return of a performer who quite a few folks enjoyed in February 2008. Again stay tuned.

April 23 - May 10:
My electronic/improvisational trio TRIAD will be touring throughout the country.

Full itinerary posted soon.

More soon. That's it for now, may this new year be a good one for you and me.


Listening: JESU 'Heartache' EP (2004)
Watching: 'Lord of the Flies' Directed by Peter Brook (1963)
Reading: 'Tearing Down the Wall of Sound - The Rise and Fall of Phil Spector' by Mick Brown (2007)

Life's what happens...

...when you're busy making other plans.
Faces and places from another time.
I am not pretending to be someone else, I am a different person.
But every so often I see a faint thread from where I came.
I am not afraid, but I seem to view it from a distance
and the voices cluster and reverberate
like they are spoken in a large room.
There is something important to be said.


Tidal '08 opened on Friday night (Dec 5) at Devonport Regional Gallery. I am one of 21 finalists in this art prize competition. I am in pretty good company (which includes the ever-lovely Ms Rees) and is a nice collection of works. Strangely there are 3 video works in the show and had I been aware that video was allowed I may well have contributed a video work, being that its what I do. Still, this gave me the opportunity to produce something that is a little unusual for me. So despite my initial surprise at seeing video works, I'm pretty happy that I was afforded the opportunity to go 2D. As it happens I contributed a digital print on canvas, based on video stills, a kind of 'capturing a point in time' piece called "Whitepinkblack Noise (moment)". Oh by the way for those curious, the work relates to the theme of tides, by the fact that my imagery includes that of the moon...okay K.H?













Photo by Sally Rees

It was an interesting opening as I chatted to a number of people from my past, being that I was back up in that general neck of the woods. One does tend to change over time, but you don't always realise it because you live and breath in your own mind and body. Seeing folks and talking to them, allows you to see faint threads of your past, somehow feeling connected to a previous time and place and yet viewing it from a distance like an onlooker. People change for the good, bad and indifferent, I'm not sure where I sit with those three options. As I've been dealing with conclusions of late (finishing the first draft of a thesis outlining three years of research) I have been thinking of personal change and evolution. There is a realisation that people I once knew and were close to, I no longer know, or perhaps never really knew. It's a little sad I suppose, but not entirely unexpected when one is objective about it.

2008 has been an odd kind of year, full of highs and lows and now it's coming to a close I'm trying to draw conclusions and some of them just won't come. "Life's what happens when you're busy making other plans" is a quote from John Lennon, (but embarrassingly I first heard it via Gene Simmons!) and it rings true when compressing three years of life (research and everyday life are not often mutually exclusive) into a paper. This is not an end, it's a moment, so it's difficult to conclude, especially considering that I hope that everything I do, someone will draw there own meaning from. It's not up to me, I put a little piece out there. There is something important to be said, but I'm not going to say it.

Witnessing the local Mike Parr performance/exhibition "The Tilted Stage", reinforced my already held opinion, that we should sometimes look at things that are difficult and sometimes things of great beauty can be seen or profound thoughts or ideas can be felt. I was profoundly moved by seeing Parr's live performance and very glad I did. But I'm fully aware that his work is not for everyone, but I have always been an advocate of free speech. "I may not like or agree with what you say, but I'll defend your right to say it". (Not John Lennon or Gene Simmons!)

The reason I bring this up is because of this ongoing 'clean feed' idea that the Australian Federal Government via Stephen Conroy keeps pushing. I have been an anti-censorship advocate for a long time. And without being preachy have tried to do my own small part in fighting it, going back to getting hold of PMRC literature back in the late 1980s to keep track of what that nasty Tipper Gore was up to in the US or getting an anonymous argumentative phonecall from someone after I wrote an anti-film censorship letter that was published in the local paper prompted by John Howard deciding he wanted to put a blanket ban on ALL 'R' rated films following the Port Arthur Massacre. Admittedly, there are things shown or spoken in the arts, in film, music and the media in general that are difficult to defend, however hiding heads in the sand eliminates informed debate. So let's hope Mr Rudd doesn't follow in Howard's footsteps and like a good little dictator, ignores public condemnation of a deeply flawed plan (don't mention the war[s]!) There are two bodies looking at fighting this by online petitions and other information is available. If you disagree with a mandatory clean feed for the net into Australia, let the Government know by signing up and/or attending a protest.

My experimental, improvised electronic trio TRIAD have just received some funding from Sound Travellers











TRIAD Tour announcement! (Nov 28, 2008) We are now able to happily announce that TRIAD will be undertaking a short tour in April/May 2009, thanks to the support of SOUND TRAVELLERS. The plan thus far is to play in Devonport, Launceston, Hobart, Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney, Perth and Brisbane. When dates and venues are firmly set, we will post all details.
TRIAD
Sound Travellers

In closing; people are saying we are currently in troubled times. That may well be the case. It would be difficult to point to a time and place when we weren't in troubled times. So what I'm suggesting now is not just escapism, but may be a form of divinity! I'm sure he wasn't the first to suggest it, but Brian Wilson said that when you are laughing all your guards are dropped and at that moment you may have a chance to be closer to God. Well he was going through a rough time, a period of oddness shall we say, but it sounds kinda sane to me. There are not many periods of time in my life when the lord of sublime silliness Kenny Everett is not in my consciousness and in moments of great stress or despair, the messiah brings relief. There are free downloadable podcasts of his ridiculous radio space drama Captain Kremmen available






Go have a chuckle at something and feel better.
Take care of each other.

Pay attention

Through the Portal - October 17, 2008

Retracing my steps of the last few years,
Hearing voices scattered amongst the coloured noise,
Green is particularly potent,
So is the sound of the rivulet.
Time to make decisions, time for full stops and to tell my truth.
There is something important to be said...















The group exhibition "Parallel" mentioned a little while back is touring until mid 2010, which is great. Unless I travelled with it and installed it each time, resizing the video etc, the installation I created Portal Lux Aeterna (after Ligeti) was nigh on impossible to tour, which is not great. I couldn't think of a way to instruct gallery attendants to install the work, so had to re-think the work. Portal Lux Aeterna (after Ligeti) v.2 is a miniaturised version, more literally a 'portal' to look into a box that houses the light and sound.

Looking into the hole in the box (designed and built by myself and Ms Rees) and putting on the headphones, one will see and hear this (and more).

I'm glad I was able to come up with a solution and very grateful to Sally for her tremendous help in realizing this solution. I hope the 'piggy box' survives the journey. The final showing in the tour which is likely to be in Victoria, I will hopefully install v.1, but in the meantime, this is a nice variation.













I performed the final Ritual 5 : Watch the Skies 'ritual' on 08/08/08 and have since completed a single channel version of the work. Since the closure of my original website, I won't be posting the full videos of the other participants online due to protection of privacy and ownership issues. It will however form part of my support work for my degree. Thanks to all who contributed. See above a still of the configuration. Below is an excerpt from the 'Last Time' ritual.




I've mainly been beavering away with my degree, trying to complete works that are in various states of being and writing things, so other than the touring show there are no major shows coming up as I've tried to not over commit myself. Music has been produced here are there though:




















As for mumble(speak), there are a few in-progress excerpts up at:
http://www.myspace.com/mumblespeak
























Also my sometimes active beat/bass driven project Broken Tiny has a couple of noisy things up at:
http://www.myspace.com/brokentiny

















They've been up for a while, but there's some excerpts from live recordings and some video of the last two TRIAD shows in August. We are likely to be playing at the Tom Hall show opening at Inflight ARI in November. Hopefully more shows elsewhere in the near future.


That's it for now, be good to one and other.
Peace.



Listening: Lull & BetaCloud - " Circadian Rhythm Disturbance" 3 " CD (2008),
King Tubby's meets "Scientist at Dub Station" (1996)
Watching: "Lynch (one)" documentary directed by blackAndwhite (2007)
Reading: "White Noise" catalogue essays by Ernest Edmonds, Patricia Railing, Cindy Keefer, Lev Manovich and Mike Stubbs. (2005)

Voices From...Sept 11, 2008

A vow of silence, I will not speak of it. I wrote a bunch of other stuff, but threw it away as it sounded like a bunch of bad teenage angst poetry. I've been there before, troubled, who need to hear it? If some angst falls in the woods...etc. I sometimes think my greatest contribution to the world would be silence as there's already too much noise. I'd like to repeat the mantra into oblivion, but I've forgotten the words. Oh wait...
There's something important to be said
(there, that's better)












Speaking of noise, I recently completed a sound project called Voices From. Here's an excerpt with images of the recording process - field recordings of pre-recorded content, in the Queen's Domain, Hobart. Images by Sally Rees.



Take care of one and other.

Listening: "Logghi Barogghi" - Scorn (1996)
Watching: "Not Quite Hollywood" Directed by Mark Hartley (2008)
Reading: "Profondo Argento" - Alan Jones (2005) and "Manfesto of Surrealism" - Andre Breton (1924)

Scelsi's signature.

Today (in the Southern Hemisphere) 08/08/08 marks the 20th anniversay of the death of Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi. I'm reasonably new to his work, but upon hearing it and learning about him, I was instantly attracted to his sound world, his process and his approach to life.
I dedicate tonight's "Last Time" performance of 'Ritual 5: Watch the Skies' to him.
Scelsi Foundation Site.

BTW: The 'Parallel' exhibition is now open to the public with an official opening on Tuesday, August 12, 2008 at 6:00pm. It's a great show that I'm very proud to be in.
So too is 'iPaws', in great company and in a cool spot at Lucky's Comics in Vancouver, Canada. Only wish I could get over and see it.
Note: The second TRIAD gig due on Aug 23 at The Alley Cat Bar is cancelled due to issues beyond our control. We are looking at moving to another venue, but nothing confirmable yet.