Disorientation is on again next week. The last one for the year. Maybe forever? Do come along if you can…
I played at the previous one last month
and figured I might as well share with you the recording of my performance:
Shannon O’Neill – Live at Disorientation 2005-10-26 (2005, 192kbps, 0:18:52, 25.9MB)
I was teaching that night, so arrived after the event had started – no time for a soundcheck. The artists on before me turned out to be much noisier than I’d expected, so I reconsidered what I might do and ended up playing an improvised glitch piece that got pretty noisy at times.
Strangely I had a lot of compliments afterwards – strange cos I thought the performance was only so-so. But the compliments came from ppl whose opinions I respect, so I don’t know what to make of that. I do worry about a lack of critical rigour in the current local experimental music scene (it does exist, but more in private than public). I mean, it’s nice to be part of a supportive community, but it can lead to some pretty ordinary work (we discussed this a while ago in the Vital Signs thread…).
Maybe it wasn’t so bad – I do like sections, and I suspect it sounded better on a PA with sub-woofer, than through headphones or hi fi…
But the audio is flawed – there are annoying unintended glitches (as distinct from annoying intended glitches) approx every three seconds. It is particularly noticable in the second half (in the first half it’s almost a bonus) which kinda ruins it for me. I think the problem is caused by a modified Hangman preset in Tobybear’s Deconstructor Pro plugin causing dropouts when I use it within AudioMulch (which I do often, so it’s a serious problem). I’ve contacted Tobybear about this, but dunno if/when the problem will be fixed.
So, if I ever do anything with this recording, some surgery will be required… nevertheless I present it here as documentation.
I think this disorientation pretty much puts the nail in the coffin-
I spent months lobbying Ben to sway over to thinking that the bloody cunts were a good idea, though that does mean that you are pretty much banned for life from the abercrombie!
I get the feeling that Ben wasn’t sure that he wanted to be blacklisted…. but I for one am very proud of him for going for it. Although I’m a little worried.
hmm… i don’t know the bloody cunts, so i guess i’ll have to wait and see, but i have been concerned recently with the idea of ‘limit case’ performance, particularly after being upset by lucas abela’s recent performances.
maybe i’m getting old but the idea of ‘transgressive’ performance doesn’t excite me in the way it sometimes did when i was younger. when it has been done once, then what? there is nowhere to go, and to repeat the gesture becomes futile, pathetic.
it’s also a question of context. maybe getting banned from the abercrombie is good – i’m not convinced. the same performance would perhaps barely raise an eyebrow at a more underground venue…
what do you think?
this is interesting… i agree with the view that transgressive performance is a bit old/tired, but i guess each wave/generation needs to try it for themselves… i don’t think gg allin can be surpassed, but i guess people can have a go.
the transgressive stuff might be more interesting if there was a point to it other than being ‘naughty’, ie some particular context which was set up beyond the freakshow. Fuckhead pointed to that kind of territory although i’m not sure if the imagery i was reading was intentional (the austrian nazi thing…)
i find it very difficult to watch justice yeldham period lucas for the same reasons… i feel like he should let it go.. and i worry that people egg him on. Its a shame that this act seems to have rocketed his career internationally, when a lot of his other more interesting things (which are less ‘transgressive’) didn’t. I guess there will always be an audience for a freak show (that film… that film…)
in case you don’t know this guy
http://www.ggallin.com/
blah….
interesting that you mention austria, cos imho it’s the vienna actionists who deserve credit for doing this stuff in the 1960s. it really isn’t anything new.
i think yr freakshow metaphor is appropriate. other imagery that comes to mind is public execution, public suicide, and the roman arena/colloseum. it makes me feel uneasy about public spectacle and social relations more generally. maybe that’s a worthwhile outcome, but it doesn’t seem to be the point (although i’m not sure what the point is). the way the audience cheered at electrofringe as lucas was rubbing broken glass into his head upset me so much that i had to yell my disapproval (of both lucas and the audience) – which is a very rare thing for me.
is it worthwhile to wallow in or even celebrate futility? that has long been an important question for me, and it seems particularly applicable to a current wave of local performance – particularly dual plover and its roster/activities… is there insight to be gained, or are we just passing the time til we die?
i guess there are all sorts of possible readings about how it’s a commentary on mainstream commercial culture and the repression of alternative forms of expression, etc. but to my mind it feels almost like an inevitability rather than something that suggests exciting possibilities. is plover idol really so different from australian idol?
we live in a time when news coverage of war is presented as entertainment, like video games or films. it’s pretty hard to be transgressive in that context, or at least violent gesture as transgression seems rather impotent. after all, people seem to regard lucas’ performances as entertainment. what are they thinking? really – what is going through their heads?
“I do worry about a lack of critical rigour in the current local experimental music scene (it does exist, but more in private than public). I mean, it’s nice to be part of a supportive community, but it can lead to some pretty ordinary work…. is plover idol really so different from australian idol?”
I’ve noticed that the warehouse scene and the unfunded/low-budget festivals have promoted the idea of the work as entertainment over ’serious’ artistic practice. I suppose this is an inevitable outcome to a certain extent, when the venues are inherently lo-fi, the gigs frequent and the pressure is on artists to play a new set every time they get on stage.
The gigs are also enmeshed in a social scene, so that little attempt is made to separate out a night at the pub with mates from a ‘presentation of work’. I make this observation without a value judgement – it is merely an observation. Given the inherently social nature of the gigs, it follows that there isn’t much encouragement to develop a critical culture around the performances. People are just having a good time, want to have a few beers and a yack, and more often than not, a laugh. I don’t think there’s too much serious art going down here…or at least I missed it if it has!! This is not a problem per se; the problem is more that there is no adequate forum for developing a more critical culture around performance. There are few avenues to present work where attention can be paid to detail. For me, LA was a very rare opportunity to do that (although it must be said that LA was not devoid of ‘entertainment’). To my mind, we needa layer of opportunities which will allow a more serious thing to re-ignite itself. You know… where people go to something which is presented with real commitment, and then wait til it finishes before going to the pub, and perhaps you can read a probing review of it in the next RT or some other prominent forum. You might even be able to access interviews with the artist, or read some text about the piece etc….. whatever… I guess this is just not around right now.
Its funny how Ben looked at Vice magazine and decided to show me Waterman’s website… Although the shock value of waterman was far beyond what vice delivers- the same rules apply.
I agree that every generation has to explore this side. Its a little like teenage rebellion- just for 20 somethings. Hehe- maybe you guys are just getting too old to dig this vein! But hell, I’m kinda over it myself.
Apparently the Bloody Cunts were banned from the Lansdown because John Wah decided to take a piss off the stage. I’d take this as a caution for the audience members to stay back.
watermann’s stuff is so far beyond cause you can sense the the intelligence and insight, the knowledge and references in the work, not to mention the formal brilliance. and yet it feels unlike anything else.
someone taking a piss on stage is pretty much the opposite, isn’t it?
i think julian’s observation that what is going on around sydney atm is ‘entertainment’ rather than ‘art’ is useful, but needs further analysis. (it’s probably worthy of a book or thesis, or at least a long essay, but i’ll just note a few points for now and hopefully the discussion will continue.)
after all, many (most?) of the people involved in this scene have pretentions of making art (perhaps even moreso than music). many of the participants and organisers have studied or taught in art/arts institutions.
what is actually going on in sydney covers a broad spectrum of activity from formal to informal, serious to fun, sometimes within the one event.
i tend to think of all of this activity as being an intense period of r&d for those involved. but r&d towards what? ‘major artworks’? that doesn’t seem to be happening much – although i disagree with the assertion that what is happening isn’t art. maybe we need to rethink our assumptions…
(things are definitely evolving though, such as the influence that electronic and acoustic performers are having on each other, particularly in the improv scene.)
which brings up the question of what constitutes art anyway, let alone major works. i was talking w/ joyce hinterding recently and she said that she considers her work ’sound art’ rather than music, because it is conceptually, rather than formally based.
i find that problematic, because to my mind all music and sound art is a combination of the conceptual and the formal, however it does seem to me that in the current (especially the younger/emerging) scene it is the formal that is dominating, although ironically often calling itself ’sound’ (or ‘audio’) and being somewhat detached from the history of the form(s).
i think that some of the frustrations of all of the above are why liquid architecture was such a success. i have a problem with the stuffy ‘high art’ presentation of works, and i think that l.a. successfully negotiated that line of taking the work seriously (including the curatorial dimension, with artist talks and fora) while having the celebratory atmosphere of a festival. i think that’s a good model, but to some extent i regard it as complementary to (and emergent from) rather than superior to all the other stuff that is going on.
anyway, they’re some thoughts. there does need to be a lot more critical writing around this. rt is only one venue. i think blogs have an important role to play, and i hope to see more such discussion in the blogosphere in future.
The unneccessary backslapping has been going on in in Sydney for ages; when we were doing stuff with Clan there was plenty of totally ordinary gigs talked up beyond belief (and actually many sublime ones basically uncomplimented). I don’t know where this tendency comes from; it’s just been evident for quite a while. I have been at gigs where people are quite shocked that I might express a negative reaction to some music (how someone could ever be shocked at a negative reaction from me actually shocks me). I think there is a real lack of critical infrastructure in Australia generally (at least outside Melbourne) – maybe blogs like this one and Thermostat can fill the gap. More critical reviews please Shannon.
The other thing I want to comment on is the entertainment/art dichotomy. I have been known to rile a certain sound and graphic artist, for the sake of this argument we’ll call him Mr. T, by suggesting that art is nothing but a form of entertainment anyway. He gets very indignant about this. I take it as type of high art snobbery. Personally it’s just the presentation context; in a pub, it’s a pub, therefore the music can be ignored and a good chat with your mates and a beer is paramount. That’s the limitation of that presentation environment – people’s expectations. Stick the same gig in an art gallery, with chairs arranged in neat rows facing the pertinent directiona and the entire context is different. Move it to the Opera House and new set of expectations are created. Artists have to work with their audience’s context.
regs
scot
“(things are definitely evolving though, such as the influence that electronic and acoustic performers are having on each other, particularly in the improv scene.)”
I’d have to say the impro scene is thriving. But it is work which lends itself very readily to informal contexts.
“which brings up the question of what constitutes art anyway, let alone major works. i was talking w/ joyce hinterding recently and she said that she considers her work ’sound art’ rather than music, because it is conceptually, rather than formally based.”
blah…. i hate this.. it’s not a distinction which works on any level. Is she saying that music is not conceptual? (i won’t bother listing the zillion conceptual composers here!) and that it is always ‘formal’? (again, i won’t bother listing the zillion composers who eschew formalism…). It just doesn’t work to say this.. its like putting a visual work in an art gallery and saying, ‘but it isn’t visual art.. so don’t judge it as such…’. There needs to be some urgent attention given here to both history and context. If you are standing on a stage playing a real time durational work which consists entirely of sound, it’s futile to argue that it is not music. In any case, its not up to the artist to dictate the form to the audience.. You can attempt to call it whatever you like, but the audience will impose a musical frame on what you are doing and there is no escaping that. You just need to get over this idea that to be a musician you have to read dots – that’s a crusty prehistoric academic view of the artform.
“i find that problematic, because to my mind all music and sound art is a combination of the conceptual and the formal”
100% agreed.. although i can never see what people mean by the term ’sound art’… (see above!!)
“however it does seem to me that in the current (especially the younger/emerging) scene it is the formal that is dominating”
hmmm… not sure about this.. I hear/see a lot of work that is rather formless – ie on a sonic level it points to things like minimalism, but is more often than not devoid of strictly applied process.. (read ‘formalism’).
“although ironically often calling itself ’sound’ (or ‘audio’) and being somewhat detached from the history of the form(s)”
Have you noticed that many of the artists performing on this scene did not study music? Not that this is the only way you can learn about the ‘history of the form’, but perhaps this goes some way to providing a perspective of this. Can you imagine a visual art scene where most of the participants didn’t go to art school?
“anyway, they’re some thoughts. there does need to be a lot more critical writing around this. rt is only one venue. i think blogs have an important role to play, and i hope to see more such discussion in the blogosphere in future.”
Yes, but one thing which is hard is that many of the people who might write critically about it are actually part of the scene (they’re practitioners within it). On the one hand, this is good, on the other, they lack a personal and professional distance which allows more incisive criticism to take place.
I find the point about backslapping fairly interesting. Where you want to give encouragement to promising works but you know that they may not yet be fully challenging themselves/the medium/whatever; if you tell someone their work is genius, do they get complacent?
Worse still is when you know that you haven’t really pushed yourself for a set and you get too much good feedback- its like this guilty secret that you just want to tell them that you really just winged it but you aren’t really allowed to.
I too would like to see more critical discussion- the blog seems to be the only ‘publication’ which fits the order to deal with such small fish – though wouldn’t it be great to get regular reviews into streetpress such as brag or 3dworld?
And yes, I appreciate criticism from people who are not practicing artists- though I fear people might dismiss their views more readily when they don’t like what they are hearing.
Side point: Daniel Green is an interesting act in lieu of this discussion: he’s using using exaggerated ‘entertainment’ and stamping it with ‘fine art’- performing at galleries etc. Ahh the way an art gallery legitimises work to be ‘high art’ never ceases to amaze me… Though that is a discussion I’ll leave for another day.
And finally: When is Julian going to get himself a Blog? C’mon we’re all waiting for it – You could call it ‘incisive criticism’
“And finally: When is Julian going to get himself a Blog? C’mon we’re all waiting for it – You could call it ‘incisive criticism”
ahh man.. you know then i would spend even more time at the puter than i do now (its just wrong..). I wish i could cut back on this p2p habit!!!
speaking of p2p – Some listening recommendations!! Owen ‘I Do Perceive’ and Elliott Smith’s studio out-take bootleg from the Basement on the Hill sessions..
scott – i agree that context is key and art is what you want it to be – duchamp taught us all about that. but i disagree that it’s all just entertainment. or even if we accept that it’s all entertainment [it's like distinguishing between 'sound art' and 'music' - to some extent i don't care] there are different kinds – on the one hand pure product which is all about making money and maintaining dominant systems of economic/power relations. but on the other hand is work that provides new perspectives, and implicitly or explicitly asks questions of itself, of us, of our relationship with it and more broadly… both kinds (and perhaps there are others in between, such as certain genres and traditions) can be stimulating in different ways, and are worthy of analysis, but it’s the second kind that i tend to find more rewarding.
more critical reviews? i’ll try, although as julian says it can be problematic as an ‘insider’, given how incestuous these scenes are. and more generally i have a constant tension between wanting to pull things apart, and not wanting to hurt people’s feelings (especially but not only ppl i know – after all, i want to encourage creative activity). and in some cases i think that mystery (or perhaps just experience) transcends or escapes written analysis…
that said i tend to prefer the work of reviewers (and curators) who are also practitioners, as their insights tend to resonate with me more. whether a non-practitioner would feel similarly, i don’t know. but i do appreciate feedback about my work from anyone, practitioner or otherwise.
julian – re: new gen’s focus on form, i’m suggesting it’s a superficial aesthetic i.e. fashion, which i guess one could call a concept (again this is problematic, as there are some ppl, eg peter blamey, who have a very good idea of the history of what they’re doing).
and i agree with jasper, get a blog julian!