Cycle 3 (Amy)
Posted: December 14, 2023 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »Cycle 3: Ready for interaction – Title: ‘Undoing’
Artist Statement:
The roots of this project stem from a very personal experience. In October, unexpectedly, I was faced with the break down of an 8 year relationship. This caused a shattering of self which spun things out of control and messily permeated all areas of my life. It was a hard reset. I stopped eating. The ground disappeared beneath my feet and I could not summon any semblance of rationality. It also erased the need to cling to complex processes and technique which I had previously used to hide behind. It demanded a stripping down to raw honesty in myself and my work that felt both unfamiliar and deeply uncomfortable. I did not want to forget.
Grounded in Pauline Oliveros’s philosophy on deep listening, I explore the dissolving of self as an experience in the form of an interactive audio-visual installation. I believe productivity stems from the human desire for proof of existence which causes us to do, undo, and redo over and over again. To challenge this notion, I invite viewers to let go of the need to do and simply ‘be’ as they are relieved of their burden of self in the tangle of others. Simultaneously overwhelming and gentle, the outcome of the work is indeterminate and depends on the willingness of the viewer to engage and shape their own experience.
As a demonstration of the interdependence and power of interconnectedness, this project exists both also as a large-scale collective experience for 10+ participants, where the actions of each person impacts the overall outcome, as well as a solitary experience for one participant alone with headphones. Further development in Cycle 4 and beyond will include exploration into different spaces both inside and outside, framing the piece in ritual by using tactile materials such as sand, and ornamentation on lightbulbs as well as other sources of light reactivity. As a performance piece, I would like to explore methods of generative improvisation through the use of DAWs, as well as a purely acoustic version where people sing in a room together.
Reflection:
In this iteration, I was mainly interested in the responses of the participant. I devised several versions of this piece for various groups with the intention of creating a different experience for each situation. As the maker, instead of my usual eagerness for validation, I took a step back and observed. I was curious to see how people interacted with the piece out of context. Did they approach with apprehension? Were they able to be playful? How long did they stay for? Did they grasp for control? Did they allow for a collaborative experience? Were they able to take it in?
The more people engaged, the more I realized that the feedback of each participant told me was more about what kind of person they were than the actual piece. This was such a gift! I learned so much about what it means to have an experience and how to cultivate a sense of freedom and agency in a work.
In terms of the piece itself, for Cycle 3 I mainly worked on refining the layering of voices and how they would fit into the shape of a mandala (for the rug!). For the final presentation in the motion lab, the sound formed a 5 layer mandala. I asked a vocalist friend (a true bass!) to record some very low tones for me. I placed these tones in the very center of the mandala and then gradually expanded outward from high vocal intensity to gentle sustaining tones to breathing on the outmost circle. During our final DEMS critique, I was thrilled to see how spontaneous and playful everyone was in their approach to the piece. Pure JOY!
Untangle – loosen – untie – undo is the mantra I have adopted through the creation of this work. In contrast to my previous need to finish a work and then determine it good or bad, I hope to continue developing iterations of this project embraced by the idea that we too exist in cycles.