I’m driving down to Tacoma on Friday to take part in Flow: Flow explores ways to integrate, embody, and enact intersections between art and ecology through direct engagement with matter and materials such as dyes, pigments, and mycelium, multi-sensory guided walks, reflection on positionality and place, and critical examination of language and classification’s role in creating a sense of place and displacement. Guiding themes and questions include:
I’m leading a positionality workshop on Saturday morning. I was supposed to be co-leading it with the lovely and generous Natalie Baloy, but they are having a child on that day, so too busy… :) I do have their text and prompts and while I am honored to present in their stead, I am also having hesitation at the thought of performing their words without them. I woke up this morning imagining the workshop and I had sonic objects around me, I played samples of sounds, I was sitting on the moon couch blanket. I also thought I could use the blue tooth speakers I have for the radio station so I can sit on that silver circle untethered, except of course if I want to run a slide show, which of course I do. I could run a slide show with anything though, an I-pad or a usb stick. I just won’t be able to control it. It can give me cues.
Moon couch in process. Thank you Abigail for sewing my design for me!
Questions that the symposium poses….
What is the role of the artist as healer and maker in navigating this current moment?
How can approaches to reparative work and re-imagining be taught through creative practices?
How can place/land based knowledge teach us how to connect and build relationships?
How do we practice remediation and utilize loss?
While I love the collective weaving idea, it is something new… I do have some materials… But instead, we will weave something with sound. Where to start: Objects need to be collected. I have a few items. Maybe I can make all the platonic forms. I need more gold leaf! Then I will connect the objects to Resolume or Ableton. If I choose to use Resolume I’ll need a long HDMI cable.
Materials list:
moon blanket, pillows
Long HDMI, long ethernet
JBL speakers [charge them!]
Objects: 2 gold leafed, 2 silver and 2 graphite painted rocks, icosahedron, bark, pinecone, ring, plant plus hot glue gun and conductive paint for icosashedron
computer, charger, dongle, ex-drive
Zoom, tripod, chords for two mics (dynamic), plus my cordless headset mic, plus for zoom to computer. TEST THE BLUETOOTH TONIGHT!
headphones
triangle, chimes, drum
2 mics [I’m trying to decide if I want to use my headset mic for this one. Seems like a good idea so that I can touch objects and mix my sounds, so one regular mic and then my headset mic… I’ll run everything through my computer and out to my JBLs. Of course I’ll need to test this all out Wednesday night!]
Now in terms of the words, I need to look up WWNBS and merge it with Natalie’s text. I also want to strip it down and also lighten it up somehow. It gets so heavy, white people rolling around a room, seeking redemption, forgiveness, some kind of release from the world we find ourselves in, the world we created. I can’t let it get to new agey without adding some humor. So now that’s the plan. A sound-bath, positionality somasonic workshop.
Steps:
gather sounds for objects (11)[build icosahedron in the hotel room, test and practice Friday night]
gather objects, paint and prep and wire them up
wire up a TB [need 11 ring terminals!]
get blanket
Rewrite text [I’ll have the text on my computer. I want to know it but I also want to have it and be able to riff off the text depending how things are going. Also I can project the questions on the screen… if there is a screen!]
Make a slide show to give me visual cues
Practice tonight and Wednesday
what to wear???? something comfy yet casual and timeless. jeans and a black tee. Do my nails, fingers and toes.
bring coffee brewing kit, drinks