| Building/sines (Carillon) |
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The
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5 min video work. The video work Building/sines captures the performance of the Kraftwerk song The Model played by Joan Chia on bells of the National Carillon in Canberra. The work examines new contexts for the performance of electronic music in public locations and the pastoral nature of contemporary music in manmade landscapes. ----------------------------------------- Artwork notes: Since the boundaries of music are constantly in flux it is important to look at buildings such as the carillon and access their visual and acoustic impact in light of the changing social contexts for music in both the public and private spheres. To conceive of, and build a National Carillon in the brave new world of 1960s social planning could be construed as an act of national altruism. Instead what appears to be the case is that the carillon now stands as a kind of acoustic folly presenting itself as neither monument nor instrument with significant value. Bells and bell towers have in the past played an important role in rallying communities. They are, it could be said the original public service broadcast medium. If the carillon was conceived to act as a philosophical point of congregation then it does not appear to provide this function because its music policy no longer reflects contemporary culture. |
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To describe the carillon as purely a monument would be to downplay its
role as a musical instrument, which is a distinction, that worth clarifying.
To stand in the bell tower cavity, which occupies the space of a 2-story
building, is to recognise a structure principally designed to project
sound, innocent of its exterior monumental motives. |
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Pop up pictures: |
Music
is an intrinsically politicised medium. The music policy at the carillon
is administered by the National Capital Authority and hints at an implied
non-political easy listening music strategy. The type of music normally
performed at the carillon tends towards classical or the occasional pop
song pre 1960 Kraftwerk by contrast make electronic music. They are pioneers
of modern electronic dance music culture. Their early home-made synthesisers
had little more tonal dexterity than the bells of the carillon but within
their music is implied the grand traditions of classical music and classic
chord structures. Too choice that song and that style of music emphasises the importance of those pioneers to the development of global music in the last 20 years and that musics potential to reinvigorate institutionalised structures such as the carillon. It was important to juxtapose the meter of sequenced music against that of the classically trained musician and explore the dynamic when bringing together the elements of architecture, sound, history and landscape, in such a way as to produce an adjunct other. |
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| The
Current Middle Ages (Heraldry and Hyper-reality) |
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The
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1min Video work and flag. A video work based upon the Australian branch of the Society for Creative Anachronism.The SCA are a Medieval re-enactment group "dedicated to the study and re-creation of all aspects of life in medieval society during the period 600 AD to 1600 AD." The final video work The Current Middle Ages was compiled from professional video footage of the Rowany Festival, near Sydney. The aim of the video was to present the activities of the group in the form of a short anthropological time based document emphasising notions of Heredity and Hyper-reality in a kind of socio narrative. ----------------------------------------- Artwork notes The Society was created in America and is largely a New World phenomena. The current King of the Australian branch of the SCA lives in California. The society events function on many different levels from informal dating agency to survivalist weekend retreat, complete with make your own chainmail and archery workshops. To spend a weekend at a festival in the gum trees or at a banquet means leaving the 20th century behind, or at least the mobile phone and digital watch..... I first had experience of this merry gang of men and women at the art school, when over lunchtime they would descend from their offices and take up arms in the central quadrangle. In a display of armoury skills and swordsmanship the courtyard would reverberate with the sound of rattan on padding and the chink chink of home-made chainmail. *I later found out that they members of the Barony of Politarchopolis. As I watched from the balcony of my flat I began to question my initial perceptions of this group and what their apparent role-playing and theatrical games signified at the start of the 21st century. One was reminded of films such as Westworld , The Holy Grail, Braveheart and the writing of Umberto Eco. |
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As
a Scot abroad one is instantly assumed to be the real McCoy, with a
blood heritage as long as your arm and an implied sense of national
identity. Too an extent one is defined by their place of upbringing,
but interest in the SCA was in their pretence at belonging to another
time and place - circa 1000AD. |
| Rubyvale |
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| The
artwork: |
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process led artwork in the community of Rubyvale, Central Queensland.
The project is based upon an exploration of gemstone mining and use
of sapphires in sound reproduction equipment. This project is linked
to the project Longplayer. ----------------------------------------- |
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